Review: District 9

Balance is restored to the galaxy of cinema with District 9

Sneaking in before close, (District) 9 in '09 will be remembered as one of the best movies of the decade. Peter Jackson may have just handed the keys to a new James Cameron, changing not just the science fiction genre, but probably all of cinema, and forever. Whatever conventions (or minds) Cameron's upcoming Avatar may break, Neil Blomkamp's District 9 has broken the barrier, and paved the way for a new wave to come.

If you put together the blackest of black humor, combined with hollowing, weighty brutality, combined with ultraviolent action, combined with a multifaceted political agenda, combined with a semi-serious mockumentary style, and you might have District 9, but even then, it still defies convention. This is not just such-and-such meets such-and-such, rather, it is an ingenious assemblage of cinema's greatest elements seamlessly fused with an invigorating sense of innovation not experieced in however many years. The story follows Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley, in a workhorse performance), recently instated as the project leader for MNU (Multi-National United), managing a population of shipwrecked aliens in a slum of South Africa. The "prawns'" mothership rests above the city—wholly omnious yet completely harmless—a clear reminder that the their technology is easily superior. After twenty years, prawn-human relations disintegrate even further after they are asked to move into what is basically a concentration camp.

The opening documentary stretches are kept snappy, up-tempo, not so much aiming for realism, but for something different. Later, the uber-intense, Aliensx2 action sequences feature an alarming body count and a bloody one at that (another reminder that the prawn technology, again, is superior). The gruesome moments are grotesque. The sentimental moments are sappy. And the alien moments, well, are positively human. Everything about District 9 is pushed to the limit—every moment, is pushes the envelope, but never too far. Blomkamp and co. present the often-complicated material with such grace that one can't help but be impressed. I was impressed.

Such an ambitious project couldn't be without its flaws, and District 9 houses its share: from falling back on conventions (dialogue in particular), to the 'evil suits' being a little ridiculously/unbelievably so, to a few moments of visually indecipherable action. The ship is a little too Death Star-over-San Francisco-ish, but ultimately passable. There is also a brief lazy-filmmaking instance in the third act, where someplace is a little conveinently close to another place, but the film soon recovers. The film always recovers, and these minute flaws are nothing more than water under the bridge.

In the end, there is way to much to mention here; District 9 needs to be seen again and again to fully appreciate its secret-underground-base of layers. It's as if Blomkamp and Jackson said, "What if we try this? What if we do that?" and they took those risks, and they pulled them off. Packed to the max with great ideas, the film is so alive, so timely and timeless, and, above all, simultaneously both alien and human to an audience that has had too much of the latter.


**** out of ****

~ Patrick Fryberger