District 9, god damn it!

Oh you loveliest, loveliest of readers, I owe you the gravest of apologies...

It has been almost a whole month since I have put my greasy hand on the rickety wheel of the car that is blogsville, and I have missed it so, I truly have. I have been busy completing a small academic course but now that I have my sanity back, my pen in my hand and my unlimited cinema pass polished and at the ready, I have returned, with aplomb, to earth, and the movie-going world.

But all is not well it appears. No, not well at all. In fact according to Neill Blomkamp, a new director bringing us the highly-fetted 'DISTRICT 9', our planet, and more specifically the city of Johannesburg in South Africa (Blomkamp's home country), has inadvertantly become a site of refuge for a breed of alien whose mothership has accidentally and inexplicably arrived and is unable to leave. With the aliens proving less of a threat and more of a destructive nuisance, they have quickly been herded into slums, where they have become addicted to cat food as if it were Pringles, trade weapons with wheelchair-bound Nigerian warlords and chew on tires because they 'feel like marshmallow'.

With Blomkamp's film taking on a very natural, almost mockumentary style, with fake interviews and home video footage used to give the images an effective air of authenticity, it would be easy, were it not for the impossible nature of the situation, to believe that this film were based in fact and not fiction, so impresive are its use of reportative devices like news broadcasts and Blair Witch (or even Cloverfield) style handycam claustrophobia. Blomkamp's intelligent use of his actors and the camera, along with some expert production design and pitch-perfect visual effects, means that this film, instead of waging war on the senses like so many other films of this scale and genre, makes a beeline for the mind and the heart from an early point. In fact, the first face we see is that of never-before-seen actor Sharlto Copley, who plays government agent Wikus Van De Merwe, and whose performance is one of brilliant humanity and energy that drives the film forward at a brisk and exciting pace.

The story follows Wikus as he and his organisation, MNU (Multi-National United), are trusted with the responsibility of forcibly evicting the 'Prawns', as they have been named, from their homes in the slums (called District 9) and relocate them in a refugee camp. 'It's more like a concentration camp' says Wikus at one stage, and his words highlight the fascinating political and social questions that drive the first half an hour or so of this film and separate it in quality from the more superficial fugitive story that follows.

Clearly there are reflections on South Africa's own political history, that of the appartheid and racial persecution, but what interested me, the film being of the science fiction genre after all, was the insight into how we, as humans, might respond if an alien species were to come to earth and be vulnerable as opposed to aggressive. Unlike in 'Independance Day' or 'War Of The Worlds', the human race in District 9 is not challenged with a fight for survival. Instead they are given the chance to offer help and support to a race in need. But in reality, our fear of the other is too strong, and Blomkamp's society is quick to persecute the seemingly lesser race, seeing them as leeching from the economy and resources that should be being spent on those who live outside District 9.

When Wikus is infected with a strange alien substance whilst inspecting one of District 9's shacks, he begins to change, and soon realises the reality of what it is like to be a Prawn in Johannesburg. Hunted and victimised by the public and by the powerful organisations that he has worked for, Wikus has to escape to District 9, the only place that will accept him and, as he slowly realises, the place that holds the key to his savour.

As the film changes from taught political science fiction drama to hi-concept fugitive romp, some of the substance is lost amongst the squelching, Thing-like horror of Wikus' transformation (clearly influenced by Peter Jackson, who produces this film and began his career with gross-out schlock-horror movies Bad Taste and Braindead) and the sparkly explosions inflicted by the Prawns hi-tec weaponry. This is inevitable, but Blomkamp does well, helped especially by Copley's wonderfully varied and multi-dimensional performance, to make the transition into action extravaganza a gentle one, and by the end of the film I was gripped to the screen, and truly impressed.

District 9's ending is left wide open, leaving the door very much ajar for any sequels or prequels that a Hollywood studio might want to produce, and though I think that movie works perfectly well in its singularity, I for one would not begrudge Blomkamp or any other of the people involved in this film the funds and the support to go and make more films like it in the future. It is a wonderfully engrossing and original film, and one that is a breath of fresh air after a depressingly low quality summer.