District 9 Is Better Than Halo...

"Yes We Have Discovered That Your Celluar Coverage Could Be Better!"The header could be confusing to some of you who may not be in the know.  At the very least you should know that District 9 is one of the more realistic science fiction films to come out since Children of Men.  A movie made for *30 million dollars, directed by virtual unknown Neill Blomkamp, has a more realistic look than a 300 million dollar Transformer movie.  And to think, if it were not for production of a certain Halo movie falling through, we would have never gotten District 9.

District 9's setting is paramount to how well the movie conveys its message of how we treat the poor and our disenfranchised foreigners. Johannesburg, South Africa holds the best backdrop for the gritty, slum-filled homes of the aliens known as "Prawns" [meant to be a derogatory term for what they resemble]. The Prawns co-inhabitants are the Nigerian poor community. Both have established a well thriving black market which the Prawns trade alien weaponry for cat food. Yeah...I know.  As you may have guessed, this movie will show you the ABC's on how to stage a revolt...with cat food.

 

Our leading male has to drive the Prawns out of the slums and if the smarmy yet charming Wikus Van Der Merwe [Sharlto Copely] can't do it, well then who can? Wikus is Johannesburg's newly promoted head of the MNU [Multi-Nation United] and thanks to his mysterious promotion by his step dad he can now show the world [because the film is shot documentary style initially] his mettle.

Playing opposite Wikus is the soon-to-be evicted alien, Christopher Johnson.  It is still hard for me to believe that this alien, Mr. Johnson was completely the product of a computer.  Seeing the trailer, the viewer knows they are in for a CG heavy feature.  How is it possible that District 9 does not feel overly plastic and fake? Neill Blomkamp is more well known for his special effects work. District 9 will be the showpiece that grants him bigger and possibly better projects in the future. True, the settings are drab and completely utilitarian, but it totally works. Where ever there was not CG there was excellent wardrobe and make up making the environment that much more believable.

Issues I had with District 9 were nitpicky at best. The film is shot documentary-style during the first act, so there is a great deal of zoom-in zoom-out shakey cam to endure. The drama and action hybrid of a storyline run hand-in-hand, it is great to see Wikus and Christopher play out this very well plotted adventure [both together and apart from each other]. An element I'd like to say I enjoyed when I played through the Halo series, but the negatives that District 9 and the video game Halo share would be this "Boom Head Shot" veneer.  Thankfully, District 9 saves the 'head explodery' nearing the zenith of the movie. Unfortunately, a few less angles cleverly positioned behind the heads of soon to be decapitated soldiers would have been appreciated. When you are watching heads and bodies explode with some of the realest CGI seen in recent memory it makes an already heavy movie much more difficult to digest.

Doing pretty well dancing around this very layered story, but it really is something you have to see and interpret on your own [no spoilers!].  There are some that say that District 9 is a comment on South African immigration. Personally, District 9 is a film that shows the flaws of mankind. District 9 shows how humans react when confronted with something vast and new. The movie also shows how resilient and resourceful we all can be even under the harshest of conditions. Sure the movie gets slightly video game-like nearing the end, when action is at its highest point, but rather than falling into the genre the movie was originally intended to cater to, District 9 has a comparable story of a Half-Life or Mass Effect as opposed to a Halo or Gears of War; layered and applicable to modern times.

Never before have I put that many video game references in one review...

I grant District 9

Delicious Cat Food

*Sidenote: It's awesome this movie was shot for 30mil and was made on location in Africa. I'm guessing the remaining money went into production cost and post production, but what does this say for big budget movies with above average CG? Are studios and producers just squandering money?