Wow, I must admit, I am blown away. Let me say right here that this is a movie to see, not pirate or to watch bootleg, but to actually go see, in theaters. And then to buy 4 copies on DVD. There will be minor spoilers within this review, so if you wish to know only my final thoughts, skip to the bottom.
Now I may be over reacting a tad, but considering the homogeneous gray paste that Hollywood has cranked out lately in the "sci-fi" category I would guess I'm not the only one. You see, we live in a time where directors don't write a story for the sake of a message or of a story, but to entertain the masses in a safe, if somewhat gorey fashion. There is always a hero, always a villain and the aliens are, at best, a plot device; They are the slavoring mutants coming to kill us for no reason or helpless bunnies needing a good rescue. Now, District 9 can be considered much more drama then sci-fi. Yes, there are sci-fi elements like the aliens, but its not really focused on that. District 9 focuses on the interacting between the humans and the aliens, the tension between them, and it evokes feelings of both tribe warfare and concentration camps. This movie is not your normal alien film. There is no gallows humor, no invincible space marines with testosterone oozing from their eyes,no bright and shining hero. This is more like a realistic simulation as to how earth would handle alien refugees. And it does not handle them well.
Yes, the story here is that aliens descend to earth and simply hover for several months before humans cut into the ship and find them starving and half dead within. Rescue and relief effors are mounted and the aliens are relocated to a tent city below the craft. The story starts off 20 years after these events, with the aliens still confined in District 9. The story follows an agent of the MNU in his duty of evicting the aliens from district 9 and moving them to District 10, a new housing facility. The story itself is told in documentary form, cutting to several interviews and several angles in order to show all sides of the narrative.
Now, here's what makes this stand apart from all other sci-fi works in recent years : The characters. The story is pretty standard and predictable. Humans are being the completely racist bastards we are and treating the "Prawns" as they call them as little more then animals. The military wants to learn how alien weapons work, since they don't work for humans, and are experimenting on alien corpses. Main character gets infected with alien "fluid" and begins to become an alien. Government kidnaps him and is going to kill him, but he escapes. He then helps the aliens (only 2) return to their ship and escape the prison on earth.Its a fairly standard fare, the twist of humans being inhuman. But what makes it truly amazing is the way it's portrayed.
The Main character is NOT a hero, in fact, in the beginning he kills dozens of alien eggs while laughing about it. He happily goes about his business of evicting and threatening aliens, even children. He's not displayed as evil either, showing great love and care for his wife and friends. He is show to be very, very human; a human with prejudices, fears, loyalties and self preservation instincts. His transformation from uncaring toward the aliens to willing to but his life on the line is an unsure, stubborn and brutal one. At one point he hits his supposed alien friend over the head with a shovel because he didn't get what he wanted. Now, this is rather far into the story, past the point you would expect something like that to happen. But that is the sheer reality of the situation; he is angry, scared and wants nothing more then to rid himself of the infection he has. Through most of the film you might not like him, in fact you might NEVER like him. But you feel that he's not there for you to like, he's not the hero, he's a real person we just happen to be following. He's doing things for himself, not for the camera.
The other main characters are two aliens, a father and son, trying to escape from district 9 and return to their ship. The father is very very human as well, if calling him that makes sense. He's much closer to the hero type, much more noble and caring, but he is only a single alien. The aliens around him, even if we don't know them, all act in the ways you would expect a group within a concentration camp to act. Crime becomes common, addiction to drugs (cat food actually) has driven them to trade weapons with gangsters and they act out violently against their controllers. The aliens are not slavoring mutants nor fuzzy bunnies, they're broken group of people forced to live in terrible conditions and their morals a shed in order to survive. Once again, they seem real, not just characters, but actual living people with ambiguous morals and ethics, just trying to stay alive.
Ok here comes the non-spoiler end section, so for those of you who want to hear nothing of the story, this is your stop. Simply put, the story is predictable but still great, However it is the acting and the characters that make everything work. The settings are believable, the characters are fleshed out and three dimensional and the pacing is perfect. If you're on the fence you should see it. If you don't want to see it you should anyway. If you don't have any money you should mug someone for change and go see it anyway. It will be the best Sci-fi you'll see in what I would guess is the next 20 years.
Now I may be over reacting a tad, but considering the homogeneous gray paste that Hollywood has cranked out lately in the "sci-fi" category I would guess I'm not the only one. You see, we live in a time where directors don't write a story for the sake of a message or of a story, but to entertain the masses in a safe, if somewhat gorey fashion. There is always a hero, always a villain and the aliens are, at best, a plot device; They are the slavoring mutants coming to kill us for no reason or helpless bunnies needing a good rescue. Now, District 9 can be considered much more drama then sci-fi. Yes, there are sci-fi elements like the aliens, but its not really focused on that. District 9 focuses on the interacting between the humans and the aliens, the tension between them, and it evokes feelings of both tribe warfare and concentration camps. This movie is not your normal alien film. There is no gallows humor, no invincible space marines with testosterone oozing from their eyes,no bright and shining hero. This is more like a realistic simulation as to how earth would handle alien refugees. And it does not handle them well.
Yes, the story here is that aliens descend to earth and simply hover for several months before humans cut into the ship and find them starving and half dead within. Rescue and relief effors are mounted and the aliens are relocated to a tent city below the craft. The story starts off 20 years after these events, with the aliens still confined in District 9. The story follows an agent of the MNU in his duty of evicting the aliens from district 9 and moving them to District 10, a new housing facility. The story itself is told in documentary form, cutting to several interviews and several angles in order to show all sides of the narrative.
Now, here's what makes this stand apart from all other sci-fi works in recent years : The characters. The story is pretty standard and predictable. Humans are being the completely racist bastards we are and treating the "Prawns" as they call them as little more then animals. The military wants to learn how alien weapons work, since they don't work for humans, and are experimenting on alien corpses. Main character gets infected with alien "fluid" and begins to become an alien. Government kidnaps him and is going to kill him, but he escapes. He then helps the aliens (only 2) return to their ship and escape the prison on earth.Its a fairly standard fare, the twist of humans being inhuman. But what makes it truly amazing is the way it's portrayed.
The Main character is NOT a hero, in fact, in the beginning he kills dozens of alien eggs while laughing about it. He happily goes about his business of evicting and threatening aliens, even children. He's not displayed as evil either, showing great love and care for his wife and friends. He is show to be very, very human; a human with prejudices, fears, loyalties and self preservation instincts. His transformation from uncaring toward the aliens to willing to but his life on the line is an unsure, stubborn and brutal one. At one point he hits his supposed alien friend over the head with a shovel because he didn't get what he wanted. Now, this is rather far into the story, past the point you would expect something like that to happen. But that is the sheer reality of the situation; he is angry, scared and wants nothing more then to rid himself of the infection he has. Through most of the film you might not like him, in fact you might NEVER like him. But you feel that he's not there for you to like, he's not the hero, he's a real person we just happen to be following. He's doing things for himself, not for the camera.
The other main characters are two aliens, a father and son, trying to escape from district 9 and return to their ship. The father is very very human as well, if calling him that makes sense. He's much closer to the hero type, much more noble and caring, but he is only a single alien. The aliens around him, even if we don't know them, all act in the ways you would expect a group within a concentration camp to act. Crime becomes common, addiction to drugs (cat food actually) has driven them to trade weapons with gangsters and they act out violently against their controllers. The aliens are not slavoring mutants nor fuzzy bunnies, they're broken group of people forced to live in terrible conditions and their morals a shed in order to survive. Once again, they seem real, not just characters, but actual living people with ambiguous morals and ethics, just trying to stay alive.
Ok here comes the non-spoiler end section, so for those of you who want to hear nothing of the story, this is your stop. Simply put, the story is predictable but still great, However it is the acting and the characters that make everything work. The settings are believable, the characters are fleshed out and three dimensional and the pacing is perfect. If you're on the fence you should see it. If you don't want to see it you should anyway. If you don't have any money you should mug someone for change and go see it anyway. It will be the best Sci-fi you'll see in what I would guess is the next 20 years.
