....
DISTRICT 9 Review by Dean Haglund ....
THIS IS A FUCKING AWESOME MOVIE... but I knew that before i
saw it.
I have said, since my junior year in some screenwriting
classes,
that Sci-fi is perfect way of dealing with present day
issues. For
instance, Battlestar Galactica had human suicide
bombers blowing up
Cylons and bingo, critics hailed it as greatest TV series
ever! So it
looks like someone here took their old "socially
relevant" Anti
Apartheid screenplay set in Soweto and turned it into a cool
movie
that is action packed and full of ideas.
....
Here is fresh idea #1: First contact with the Alien race is
not a
glorious white lighted, 3rd close encounter where all the
abducted
children come home again. Instead the aliens are a starving
race of
bug-like things that eat tires, are addicted to cat food and
are
generally
considered a pain in the ass.
....
Fresh idea #2: The aliens don't do their research when they
decide to
hover over Johannesburg, South Africa, a town with a
spectacular
history of dealing with those who are 'different' than
themselves. For
you kids who never went to college in the glorious late 80's,
we drank
AND made a difference with a boycott of that country to stop
it's
oppression of black people or something like that. I just
remember
that I would not buy my beer from a Shell Gas Station, and
because of
that Nelson Mandela was elected.
....
So 20 years after they arrive, racism and bigotry against
these aliens
abound and they are relocated to a Shanty town called
District 9. All of
this you learn in the first THREE minutes of the movie. From
there
things take off. And for once, I am not going to be Mr.
Spoiler!
You just have to see it.
....
Peter Jackson, is the only name on the credits that anyone
recognizes.
Other involved were working on the HALO movie with Mr.
Jackson that
thankfully died on the vine and so he brought this to the
table as a
make-work project. I am sure that everyone wanted to
stay close to
Jackson in case something else ramped up, so director Neil
Blomkamp
and all the pre production staff took a pay cut, and
deliverer way
above their pay scale. Neil's only other real credit before
this was
as lead 3D animator for "3000 miles to Graceland"
where I can only
assume it was his job to paint some talent onto Kevin
Costner.
....
Neil's shoots the movie in a documentary style that blends
into a
narrative fairly seamlessly, adding security camera footage
to move
the story forward at a healthy clip. Being from South Africa
himself,
he captures the mundane systemic racism that these Aliens
experience,
which, as I recall, was the main argument for why it couldn't
change,
the entrenchment of the entire culture. Thus, the 80's
boycott of the
entire culture, including rock stars that weren't going to
"play Sun
City"
....
....
District 9 is a movie where you can finally use your useless
degree in
international studies, poli sci or even worse, liberal arts,
that you
wasted 4 years of getting in college instead of getting an
MBA, (and
then
bankrupting America and still collecting a bailout bonus on
the
backend... suckers) Now you can feel free, at every party
from now till
the oscars, to go on and on about how “all political will is
a mix of moral
ambiguity and fascism” or “that it is inherently myopic to
distribute
relief aid to third world countries unilaterally instead of
multi
linearly.” Please use at least two examples from this movie
to back up
your thesis so people will know
what the hell you are talking about.
And remember to footnote your sources.....