Sci-fi based on the short film 'Alive in Jo'berg' (2005), about the tense relationship that exisits between a group of aliens who have been living on earth for 30 years and the humans who have been trying to keep them segregated and under their control. The aliens live in a place called District 9 in South Africa in squalid conditions and are now under the supervision of Multi-National United (MNU), a company who are solely interested in exploiting the aliens' superior technology to make money. However, the only way of getting the extra-terrestrial technology to work is by using alien DNA, so when MNU worker Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) becomes infected with a DNA altering disease, giving him alien DNA, he becomes a very desirable commodity. Realising he is alone and in serious danger, and as relations between the aliens and humans intensify, van der Merwe must enter District 9 to escape.
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A good film tainted by too much swearing and no clear moral message
Mark Banks (United Kingdom)
Opinion: Limited Recommendation
Overall, I have to admit that I was quite impressed with 'District 9' and managed to sit through the film with relative ease - which is quite something for me when it comes to Science-fiction. The themes tackled in the film are not too original, but are still commendable issues to address: segregation, selfishness through fear, suspicion of those different to us, greed of multi-nationals, the pride of academia etc. What is different though is that this time it's the aliens that are the ones under attack, and not us humans; as in the likes of 'Alien', 'Predator' or Will Smith's more humorous offering 'Independence Day'.
However, whilst the film often came close to making a serious moral point, it always seemed to swerve off at a tangent into a barrage of swearing or over-the-top violence, before anything of any worth could ever really be said. Therefore a potential classic has turned into a film that will mainly appeal to adolescent males amused by the sight a bumbling man in a knitted sleeveless sweater. And this is a shame because there was good potential to make subtle points regarding: the sanctity of life (at one point the men from MNU casually torch a shack full of alien babies without a care in the world - more could have been made of this I felt); about the use of violence to solve problems (this was lost due to the incredibly powerful weapons the aliens had created themselves, meaning the audience could not be sure if these were peaceful creatures or not); and the tendency of humans to be mistrustful and arrogant to anyone (or anything) that doesn't look exactly like we look (again I felt more could have been made of this whilst maintaining the subtlety and humour of the film).
The news is not all bad though - there is something of a redemptive ending, however I can't help but feel this was more of an audience-pleasing after-thought rather than the natural progression of the story. Overall, it's a relatively original film that has more to say than your standard alien thriller flick, but viewers should be aware of the swearing and gore.
