District 9 comes from first time feature director Neil Blomkamp, given the greenlight and backing of Peter Jackson after the pair's tauted Halo project collapsed.
It's the tale of aliens who arrive over Johannesburg in a powerless ship who then find themselves ghettoised in the eponymous district of the city. We follow hapless bureaucrat Wikus as big time corporation MNU begins to transfer the alien population to a new holding centre. Of course things don't go to plan and Wikus finds himself thrown into the middle of events as comes across one of the aliens who is working to get back home.
The key feature of the film is the style, as it begins we are presented with a faux documentary style. Chopping from talking heads, vuax pops and CCTV footage. It's an idea that brings something new to the film and is expertly used to drip information on a very well realised alternate reality.
However the film then reverts back to a more traditional film making approach, as we are rather clumsily presented with a trio of aliens scouring a scrap yard for technology complete with subtitles. As the film continues the two styles are inter-mixed although there is less and less of the more imaginative documentary style until going into the final third of the film it becomes pretty much a standard sci-fi action film, with the other style only returning right at the end to provide a unsatisfying code to the film.
With a bit more thought and bravery the whole film could have been produced with the faux style which would have been much more interesting and truly set the film apart in the crowded sci-fi market.
Elsewhere much has been made of the location the film is set in, but nothing is made of it. Accents apart the film could easily be set in any major city in the world, there is no real sense of any kind of cultural aspects that set the place apart from New York or London.
We only ever really see the slum district and even then beside the aliens the only group we see that show any kind of cultural identity if from the Nigerian gangs that have moved into the ghetto to take advantage of the situation. Which moves onto another aspect
The film clearly sets to say something about racism (much like Alien Nation) but fails to really say much. Admittedly Wikus starts out as casually racist towards those he is charged with marshaling and does in the end form a partnership with Christopher (the amusingly named main alien of the piece). However by the films end Wikus is still using derogatory terms of reference and is all to ready to turn on Christopher without a pause when he puts his condition ahead of Christopher's entire people.
Also the representation of the aliens is so undeveloped and neutered that it's hard to really feel for them. We see the nasty racist types calling the dumb and animal like but it's hard to look down on this when (Christopher apart) all we see is the aliens actually being mindlessly destructive, addicted to cat food (an idea lifted from Alien Nation with it's milk) and displaying no drive or many smarts.
Combined with the fact the in-ghetto gangs appear to be exclusively black and the company executives (albeit evil as they are) somewhat confuses and dilutes the message here.
Plot wise many interesting questions are raised and then never addressed and as many of these stories are the tale revolved around a McGuffin that is never clearly defined and serves whichever purpose its called to when the plot dictates it. Likewise the relationship between Wikus and his wife is underdeveloped where it could have served to form a emotional core of the film.
The production design is strong though (impressive stuff given the budget), from the 'Prawns' themselves through to the imposing mothership, the incredibly realistic slum setting and the alien mechsuit is a particular highlight.
But I have to say apart form the design the film is fairly forgettable, neither sure of what it wants to say or how it wants to say it, as such it soon becomes something no different from the loud and flashily likes of any other sci-fi actioner
On a side note we have what Blomkamp's Halo would have looked like
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