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District 9 Review: A-
Pros: Tense and energetic; an interesting take on the “alien invasion” cliché.
Cons: Some reviews have complained that the movie regresses into a black cop/white cop-style buddy flick… with aliens!
Filmed in a faux-documentary style, District 9 is one part South Africa apartheid history lesson and one part X-Files. Throw explosions, gore, and tense humor into the mix and you’ve got a crowd-pleaser and a potential Oscar winner. For example, the aggregate reviews for District 9 are pushing a 98/100 on RottenTomatoes.com – ranking it up there with The Godfather: Part II.
The District 9 movie is a sci-fi mystery: aliens (the “prawns”) landed on earth 28 years ago. There wasn’t a war, and they didn’t become our benevolent dictators. Instead, the prawns begged the world’s governments for asylum. South Africa granted them a slum to park their spaceship: the eponymous District 9.
People dislike the prawns, but they are quickly put to work doing menial (read: slave) labor, and corporations work on reverse-engineering their alien weapons. When a government agent watching over the prawns mutates, becoming a “key” to unlocking the lucrative technology, he becomes the most wanted man on the Earth. He runs, and a prawn becomes his unlikely partner against the evil forces pursuing him.
The story is told in flashbacks and interviews – it’s sort of reminiscent of M. Night Shyamalan’s “Signs,” but much better. The prawn/human relations in District 9 are obviously analogous to the black/white tension still felt in South Africa and around the world.
The District 9 trailer is a great lead-in to the movie. If you haven’t watched it yet, please do. The director isn’t notable, but you can see the epic influence from producer Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings).
The best label for District 9 is “smart sci-fi” – it makes you think, while keeping you on edge and tense. The realism is what really makes the movie fun – what WOULD happen if aliens landed tomorrow?
This District 9 review has one goal: to push you to the theater this weekend. Please, vote with your dollars and show Hollywood that we don’t want any more plot-less “Transformers” clones.