District 9: Humans Are Bastards

Humans are bastards, enthey?

If you’ve seen the trailer for District 9, then you probably already know what the movie’s about. Or at least that’s what Neill Blomkamp and Peter Jackson want you to think.

Yes, it’s about aliens living in slum conditions. Yes, there’s going to be friction. Yes, it already happened. (In how the movie’s told.) The storytelling devices, namely: the fake documentary, the tv reports, the surveillance cam videos and the “amateur” handycam effect tell a cautionary tale: what happend to MNU worker Wilkus van de Mewre. (ably played by Sharlto Copley) What exactly happened, I won’t tell you, as you will soon find out for yourself once you see it.

The film’s theme is a strange hybrid of clashing cultural differences, alien ass-kicking, bad-ass mech film … with pig. Will tolerance win over prejudice and discrimination? What sets off the friction? Were the aliens really that daft, as to not get ideas of taking over more than District 9 with their weapons and technology? Also, hearing “Nigerian” and “scam” in one sentence was really, really funny.

I was thoroughly impressed with the film’s take on discrimination. It goes like this: if, say, alien plant-life suddenly appeared in your garden, will you remove it before it affects the other plants, or will you let it flourish? It accurately mirrors real-world events, to a certain degree — the aliens, being the oppressed minority in this tale — so, are humans bastards for forcing the aliens out?

The action seen in the trailers doesn’t happen ’til later on in the film, (and that interrogation scene from the trailer doesn’t quite make it, :p ) but when you see the machine-gun-loaded,-missile-armed,-built-in-lightning-gun mech, you will think of Mechwarrior quite fondly and will wish to have a chance to suit-up in one.

The movie’s pacing is wrong for people who lack sleep — as I was when I saw it. I was starting to zone out during the documentary parts — with its sense of “it already happened, and they’re still there, so prolly nothing that big’s at stake.” What jolted me awake was the lightning gun. While it seamlessly transitions from documentary, surveillance, handycam view — we often wonder who’s taking the video, even if he’s ran off. (Spoiler? Not really)

The big surprise for me was finding out that Neill Blomkamp was a YouTube sensation (I wasn’t reading up on District 9) and that his short, Alive in Joburg was actually the basis for District 9. (I would suggest you see District 9 before watching the short.) Also, the photo-realistic effects, the aliens, the movie? It was done with a Peter-Jackson-financed $30 million. Just $30 million!

See it! If only for the surprising depth of oppression/parallelisms. And the great effects. And the mech, with a pig.

4/5

P.S.

Let’s see: a movie with relatively unknown stars, a slum setting, involvement from a big-name director and warm recognition from people who’ve seen it. It’s starting to look like this year’s surprise Slumdog-sleeper hit.

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