Boom! That's about how fast the buzz on new movie District 9 blew up. What started out as a six-minute science fiction short film, Alive in Joburg, has turned into a full length feature film produced by Peter Jackson. The internet buzz and 'For Humans Only' ad campaigns didn't hurt either. In District 9, writer/director Neill Blomkamp creates a world where an alien spaceship has been hovering over Johannesburg, South Africa for the past 28 years. When the ship first arrived, it did nothing but hover for three months with no contact or movement from within the ship. Authorities then decided to cut their way in and see what was going on. Turns out the ship was filled with aliens living in the equivalent of a shipping container. The aliens are then transported to the surface and housed in District 9, an area outside of the city that quickly becomes a shantytown that makes the living conditions in Slumdog Millionaire look like cabanas on St. Lucia. Fast forward 20 years and not only has District 9 turned into a somewhat autonomous area being run by Nigerian gangsters, but the people of Jo'burg are getting sick of the visitors that just won't leave. Problem is, the aliens want to leave too, they just can't. So what does any responsible government do when they can't handle a problem? Farm it out to a corporation of course.
In steps Multi-National United, a company that on the surface is concerned about the welfare of the aliens, but really wants to harvest the alien technology for weapons. Humans have learned a lot about the aliens since their arrival, including how to understand their clicky and growly language. The aliens can also understand English, although they can't speak it. Another thing discovered is that these aliens are the equivalent of the lowest social class and are basically uneducated worker drones, explaining why they can't operate the ship to head home, they don't know how. The main plot of the movie follows Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a MNU field operative that is 'promoted' to team leader. van der Merwe's mission is to convince the 'prawns' (a derogatory term many humans use for the aliens) to move from District 9 to the new settlement of District 10. While evicting residents as well as searching for weapons and other illegal activities, he encounters something that changes him, and I don't mean his feelings toward the Prawns.
District 9 isn't your usual 'so awesome, you gotta go see it' summer movie explosion flick, but I highly recommend it as must see. It's less documentary style that you are led to believe, but still has that art film feel despite the CG needed to make a viable sci-fi flick. The movie also has an obvious correlation to apartheid and racism leaves you with the message that, hey, aliens are people too.
