A giant space craft is floating over Johannesburg, South Africa.
Aliens are here, but they aren’t the aliens you’re used to seeing in movies. The aliens in District 9 are more realistic. They aren’t impervious entities with impenetrable force fields like the aliens in Independence Day. As a matter of fact the aliens in District 9 can be killed quite easily with human technology.
Instead the aliens have been relegated to live in a slum in South Africa. It’s nicknamed District 9. When the humans found the aliens they were huddled in masses in their mothership. The mothership has somehow lost power and can now only hover above the city of Johannesburg. The aliens, nicknamed “prawns,” look like giant, scarier versions of Dr. Zoidberg from Futurama.
District 9 starts out documentary-style, interviewing experts, witnesses, ordinary citizens, and one Wikus Van De Merwe. Wikus is a the hapless bureaucrat who has been assigned the task of leading a team of militaristic commandos armed with clipboards and eviction notices and heading into the heart of District 9. They are planning on moving all the aliens to a higher security, concentration camp-like place.
Wikus and the other humans act stupidly toward the aliens, who are obviously much stronger than they are. They feel that they are better than the aliens, who they take as unintelligent beings, with the glaring irony being the giant floating spaceship above the city capable of interstellar travel.
The government is only focused on one thing — trying to find out how to use alien weaponry. The aliens have a plethora of weapons, but they are biologically engineered so only prawns can use them. The downfall of the aliens is that they are too trusting, and the humans take advantage of that trust as much as possible.
While searching one of the prawns’ shacks for contraband and alien weapons, Wikus comes in contact with black alien liquid that immediately makes him ill. He begins transformation. He’s now becoming a prawn. He’s the most sought after target of the government because he is able, with his transformation, to use alien weaponry.
District 9 attempts to draw similarities to apartheid in South Africa via the segregation of different races, but here instead of colors it is an entirely different species. It’s interesting that instead of working together with these aliens that don’t seem all that willing to try and take over the earth like most Hollywood aliens want to, the humans instead take advantage of them. They try to foolishly exert their authority over something they know so little about.
Article comments
1 - Nick
Nice review. Looking forward to seeing District 9 this weekend.
Hope you get the chance to read my preview of ABC's Modern Family.
2 - Jesse G. Barnes
I appreciate that you pointed out the questions that District 9 demands out of you. But I find that this review is more of a summary than a critique and destroys some sense of mystery that the director intended to keep.
I understand it wasn't on purpose, but films like District 9 are better kept as deep undercover as possible in order for its impact to be rightly felt.
3 - Aaron peck
I have to disagree with you Jesse. Pointing out these elements in the film I felt was vital seeing that many people going to this film wanting a "cool" alien movie probably haven't heard of apartheid and the parallels the movie draws to it.
It's not only cool sci-fi, it's a great social commentary on human nature. I felt it needed to be pointed out so people who are going to see this film can look at the film in the deeper way it is meant to be seen.
4 - Jesse G. Barnes
Specifically, I was mentioning Wikus' transformation. That's certainly a spoiler. If I knew that before seeing it, I would feel a little robbed. If Wikus' transformation wasn't intended as one of the many small surprises, Blomkamp would have cut the trailers differently.
Your mention of apartheid and its parallels, on the other hand, I think are excellent points and certainly something interesting to delve into and make your review a unique read.
5 - Rick
I was 15 and I still remember the day they made as watch cry freedom in English class at my high school, I thought it would be a waste of time and I realized at that time that Steve Biko did so much more then Nelson Mandela ever did for apartheid, but going back to the subject, this film is about the prejudice
Bias: a tendency to pick a side for no reason than for personal like or dislike.
Judgement: judging from ones own personal life experience, eduction or up bringing.
Prejudice: A prejudice is an implicitly held belief, often about a group of people. Race, economic class, gender or sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, and religion are other common subjects of prejudice. It can be used to characterize beliefs about other things as well, including "any unreasonable attitude that is unusually resistant to rational influence.(this is from wikipedia,I know what prejudice means but this explains it perfectly and much better than I could in my own words)
Stereotyping: generalizing,labeling people or things.
Discrimination: ostracizing certain people
Racism: worst type of assumption
it just shows as how critical and judgemental we are regarding religion, race, color, difference of opinion and the unknown. This movie for me was fantastic,
something different from the rubbish we have had lately. Before you answer, Don't we all want to know what planet they chose is, why Christopher left all his race behind and what will happen with Wikus.
6 - Annie
I wanted to walk out from the gore, but the story kept me in my seat. All I can say about is O.M.G. and wicked!
7 - Delavegas
Great movie.
Haven't seen the likes before. The storyline perfect
8 - juscallmeJ
this reads more like a good book report than a review
you outline way too much in the plot for anyone to go in and enjoy the movie like you or me did
hope you dont take that as a personal attack
9 - retard457
Yeah, well ur stupid.
10 - retard457
Nah, jk...lol... coolio report thingy...