I do not think anyone really knew what District 9 was about when it came out, unless they had read spoilers or got spoiled from loud mouthed friends. Luckily I saw it opening night so I really had NO idea what the movie was about, I just knew it had great reviews and was supposed to be the best sci fi of the decade. With such high acclaim I have to admit I was a bit skeptical, I thought it was going to be good…but not THAT good.
The film starts in a documentary style where interviewees explain that 20 years ago an alien space ship was seen coming to Earth, stopped and hovered over Johannesburg for three Months. After the three months the government decides to do a search and rescue of the ship where they find millions of malnourished aliens. The government then sets up refugee camps for the aliens and with overcrowding and militarization eventually turn the area into a slum known as District 9. The aliens are not aloud to leave D9 or interact with humans outside the area, and the people Johannesburg want the aliens moved away. Patience over the alien situation has run out and control over them has been contracted to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company that shows little regard for the aliens' welfare. MNU real interest is the alien weapons and biology. MNU has set up a new camp 200 kilometers out of Johannesburg “District 10” to move all the aliens and our lead character Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley). Wikus is a dorky yet loveable white guy, and he has been promoted by his boss (also his wifes father) to run an eviction of 1.8 million aliens from District 9 to District 10. Along the way he hits a lot of road blocks some of which are very comical, but when he enters a shack with a “chemistry set” things get very interesting. Wikus picks up a silver cylinder and he has no idea what it is, but he knows its alien because of the markings…while toying with this cylinder it opens and sprays him with a foreign black liquid. After being sprayed he starts feeling really sick, he vomits regularly, and his finger nails even start to fall off….I will go no further with they synopsis! I feel this is one of those movies where the less you know the better it is.
After seeing the movie two times I have secured it atop my favorite movie of the year position (for the time being). I also think that other than Star Trek that District 9 is the only other major film worth seeing this year (still have not seen Basterds). When I saw Star Trek I had never seen any of the shows or previous movies so I did not know the characters, or really care about them. But District 9 grabbed me emotionally there are even certain scenes in the movie, that are very strong tear jerker.Because we has humans treat the aliens so poorly in the movie but sadly thats how it would happen in real life. It is also visually brilliant, made on 30 million dollars it looks better than the James Cameron Avatar trailer. The last leg of the film has been displeasing to some because its a kind of generic chase shoot out scene, but the action in this chase/shoot out is better than anything else I have seen all year. Some of the alien weapons used are straight out of Half-Life which was SOOOO AWESOME for me and I would like to know if they were influenced by the game in anyway for those weapons.
Overall: District 9 is the must see movie of the summer in my opinion, its original, epic, visually stunning, serious, and all around fun. I can now see why its being hailed as “best sci-fi” of the decade because the genre is pretty dead and District 9 has gave it a huge jolt of life. There are no longer a lot of secrets in District 9 and hopefully Hollywood can learn from them!
The film starts in a documentary style where interviewees explain that 20 years ago an alien space ship was seen coming to Earth, stopped and hovered over Johannesburg for three Months. After the three months the government decides to do a search and rescue of the ship where they find millions of malnourished aliens. The government then sets up refugee camps for the aliens and with overcrowding and militarization eventually turn the area into a slum known as District 9. The aliens are not aloud to leave D9 or interact with humans outside the area, and the people Johannesburg want the aliens moved away. Patience over the alien situation has run out and control over them has been contracted to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company that shows little regard for the aliens' welfare. MNU real interest is the alien weapons and biology. MNU has set up a new camp 200 kilometers out of Johannesburg “District 10” to move all the aliens and our lead character Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley). Wikus is a dorky yet loveable white guy, and he has been promoted by his boss (also his wifes father) to run an eviction of 1.8 million aliens from District 9 to District 10. Along the way he hits a lot of road blocks some of which are very comical, but when he enters a shack with a “chemistry set” things get very interesting. Wikus picks up a silver cylinder and he has no idea what it is, but he knows its alien because of the markings…while toying with this cylinder it opens and sprays him with a foreign black liquid. After being sprayed he starts feeling really sick, he vomits regularly, and his finger nails even start to fall off….I will go no further with they synopsis! I feel this is one of those movies where the less you know the better it is.
After seeing the movie two times I have secured it atop my favorite movie of the year position (for the time being). I also think that other than Star Trek that District 9 is the only other major film worth seeing this year (still have not seen Basterds). When I saw Star Trek I had never seen any of the shows or previous movies so I did not know the characters, or really care about them. But District 9 grabbed me emotionally there are even certain scenes in the movie, that are very strong tear jerker.Because we has humans treat the aliens so poorly in the movie but sadly thats how it would happen in real life. It is also visually brilliant, made on 30 million dollars it looks better than the James Cameron Avatar trailer. The last leg of the film has been displeasing to some because its a kind of generic chase shoot out scene, but the action in this chase/shoot out is better than anything else I have seen all year. Some of the alien weapons used are straight out of Half-Life which was SOOOO AWESOME for me and I would like to know if they were influenced by the game in anyway for those weapons.
Overall: District 9 is the must see movie of the summer in my opinion, its original, epic, visually stunning, serious, and all around fun. I can now see why its being hailed as “best sci-fi” of the decade because the genre is pretty dead and District 9 has gave it a huge jolt of life. There are no longer a lot of secrets in District 9 and hopefully Hollywood can learn from them!
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