District 9

I wish I could think of a snappy opening for this, but all I got is that District 9 is the best film of 2009 so far. That got you hooked?

In modern day Johannesburg, South Africa all is normal...I mean, if you can exclude the huge-ass alien mothership hovering idly above the metropolis. With a large race of aliens a.k.a "prawns" (think of some other 6-letter words..start with the letter "N") calling JHB home, humans have put them in their own shitastic ghetto known as...hmm...District 9.

Enter Wikus Van De Merwe (an tour-de-force Sharlto Copley). Wikus, a mission leader of a private contracting group (sound familiar) who want to evict the entire race from District 9 and place them in an "alternative living space" outside the city. After, what I'll call a "change of circumstances" for our purposes, a military witch hunt descends on District 9, sparking a war between humans, drug lords, arms dealers, and of course, aliens. Within the crisis, Wikus and Christopher Johnson (seriously), a friendly alien papa who just wants to get his young extraterrestrial son home, become entrapped in a struggle for freedom.

In his first American release, director Niel Blomkamp masterfully guides the audience through a poetic metaphor of society's xenophobia and inability to adapt to new cultures. Placing an unbelievable entity (our fishy aliens) in substitute of past and current victims of persecution and genocide, (see Darfur, the Holocaust, and even South Africa's past, only 15 years removed from apartheid) these other-worldly creatures don't seem so different from us.

Stylistically, I've always enjoyed faux-documentaries when done right (see [REC]) and this is definitely no exception. The pacing for such a complex plot is also top notch, as the movie is full steam ahead from the opening scene. The film never loses its feverishly intense feel, even when explaining background (gasp!).

Despite all these subtleties, District 9 is a summer blockbuster through and through. Excellent use of CGI breathes life into our alien brethren and allows for breath-taking shots of their massive mothership. And no worries, there are plenty of rad alien weapons giving way to numerous shootouts with delightfully gory results. And humor? Of course! Check out a smear campaign of a man doin' it doggy style with an alien (no lie). And those wacky South African accents...damn!

This is the part where you stop reading and head to your nearest movie theater. Yeah it's like that...



District 9 Official Site