DISTRICT 9 by Neill Blomkamp
In 1982, an alien spaceship has stranded over Johannesburg. The aliens, pejoratively referred to as ‘prawns’, were brought into a slum-like camp called District 9. There are 1.8 million of them now, and the government authorizes private military contractor MNU (Multinational United) to relocate the aliens into District 10, 240 kilometers outside of Johannesburg. Head of the operation is Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a bureaucrat who looks harmless but chuckles like an evil child when he witnesses the burning of alien larvae. But then he comes in contact with some alien goo and starts to metamorphose into one of them. Wikus has to run for his live as MNU wants to vivisect him because the alien DNA in his body enables him to operate alien weapons.
The themes – racial segregation, discrimination, prejudices (aliens are unmotivated, lazy, violent and dangerous, and they are junkies addicated to cat food) – are obvious but never in-your-face. They just provide the background for the stories of one man going all Brundle and evolving from arsehole to reluctant hero, and of two special aliens, ‘Christopher Johnson’ and his son ‘Little CJ’ (adorable), who are different from the others and have a plan. All that is packed into a Science Fiction-thriller told in a mix of interviews, (fake) news-footage and conventional movie narrative, and with enough action to keep the audience entertained.
A sequel is quite possible – and i’m looking forward to seeing it!
District 9 movie trailer