The basic storyline is that twenty years ago, an alien mothership suddenly stopped above Johannesburg, South Africa, and the aliens come to the surface to live. Since many of the aliens engage in violent and destructive activities, they are confined to a ghetto that is called District 9. With things growing worse the area, Multinational United (MNU) is now put in charge of moving the aliens to a new location, District 10. The story focuses largely on MNU employee Wikus Van De Merwe. The movie is partly a mockumentary, so from the "interviews" we know that something bad is about to happen to Wikus.
While going through an alien's "home," Wikus discovers a container with a liquid, which sprays all over his face. It bothers him but he seems to recover, and seals the container up in a bag to be sent in to MNU for investigation. (MILD SPOILER) What he does not realize is that somehow, this liquid has given him alien DNA, and he will slowly turn into one of them.
First, I'll go over the good of this movie. I felt that from a sociological standpoint, and as a study of the human condition, it was very well-done. The story is poignant in this fashion and while it shows the fear we humans have for the unknown and the different, I saw a glimmer of hope for us, which I'll touch on later. The movie was also well-done, especially considering its budget. The film-making style is different from most movies, with a mix of documentary interviews, security camera footage, documentary footage, and regular movie footage. I like having these different elements and thought it sort of added to the story, though I think it could have been a little more polished. But perhaps it being unpolished was the point.
Now for the bad, starting with the language. I know pervasive language is part of the R rating, but it seems the only exclamation the MNU guys know is the "F" word. (Oh, and an occasionally sh*t, though they aren't many of them.) What the H-E double hockey sticks, crap, anything else, just so I wasn't on f-word overload would have been thoughtful and more realistic. Also, there is definitely blood. It was actually not the people blowing up and their blood splattering everywhere that bothered me as much (though it bothered me some) as seeing very real looking wounds to Wikus that undoubtedly make the squeamish, like me, uncomfortable. This is not a movie for those with a weak stomach.
Early in the movie, Mikus, like the rest of MNU, does not seem to have a problem mistreating the aliens, just as several people groups have been mistreated by others throughout history. Throughout the movie and throughout his transformation, however, Mikus begins to relate to one of the aliens (oddly given the very human name of Christopher) and really seem to befriend him. They work together, fight together, and do what they can to take care of one another. This is the glimmer of hope in this movie that us humans can learn from our mistakes.
This is a movie that now that I have seen it once, and I am more than satisfied with that. I do believe I would have liked a PG-13 version of this movie better, but even with all the gore and language, I would have appreciated a bigger glimmer of hope. There are a lot of bad things that just get worse in the movie and very little good, so it's disheartening to watch. The ending was neither happy nor unhappy, so I hope there's a happier wrap-up for the sequel, District 10.
5 comments:
it's fun reading reviews of movies i've read, too, and figuring out what you think about them! i think i agree with about everything you said, especially the historical/sociological significance.
one thing i liked about this movie was that wikus' shift from mistreating the aliens to fighting for them doesn't happen in the usual manner, as you touched upon briefly. in say, avatar or any number of other films, the main character only begins to relate to the "other" when he falls in love with one of them--kinda cliche at this point. wikus slowly realizes the error of his, and humanity's, way in a more natural, rational manner.
also, is there really going to be a district 10?
*movies i've seen, not movies i've read. though i suppose there was some reading involved in distict 9 with the subtitles for the alien language.
I agree about Wikus' transformation - good observation.
And that's what I was told, so long as said source was not misinformed there should be one.
thats what my parents did. and we started using the other set because one of the sets was in the lake house.
District 9 was an interesting movie. I saw it when it was in theaters.
i had to walk out of this movie because of the shaky camera action! i went and saw the time traveler's wife instead ... which was NOT a good book-to-movie adaptation!
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