District 9

I've been eagerly anticipating , and I'm extremely happy to say that it doesn't disappoint. The film by director Neill Blomkamp is a triumph, one of the most refreshing and unique experiences I've had in the cinema for a long time. Perhaps it's that on the meager budget of $30 million, with no big name stars attached, District 9 was a more exciting, more engrossing, and by far more relevant than any big budget Hollywood Science Fiction in the last 20 years.

Blomkamp's film directly references apartheid in South Africa, with the animosity towards aliens an allegory for how black South Africans were treated. That's a large part of what makes this such a unique and stirringly real science fiction tale, a sense that if aliens did come to earth, this is how humanity could react and how they would be treated, interned and exploited. The setting of Johannesburg is certainly a part of what makes District 9 such a refreshing experience, apart from the usual America-centric Sci-Fi films.

Another thing that sets it apart is protagonist Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley) because as the film starts out, he's almost unlikable. He's someone who's got his job because of who he knows, not because he was suited to the job, and he is in fact a bit incompetent. Wikus is a prat, but an extremely unique and interesting character. There's a scene near the start of the film where he's describing to the camera with a kind of giddy apathy what happens when they're aborting alien babies with a flamethrower, a callous act of policy by the MNU corporation who are facilitating the internment of the aliens.

When Wikus is exposed to an alien substance that begins to alter his DNA, he's treated by his employers in the very same cold and clinical way as his jobsworth approach to dealing with the aliens (whom he and others refer to as 'prawns'), as he now becomes the key for adapting alien technology and weaponry for human use. When he goes on the run, he's put in an undignified position of having to steal clothing and food, and we gain a lot of sympathy for a character who feels authentically real. Wikus is not a hero, he's not the clean, wise cracking Will Smith type, and that's what makes him so compelling as a protagonist, he's a bit of an asshole and he swears a lot.

And on the subject of swearing, that's another thing that I loved about District 9. I find that a lot of Science Fiction films these days are often very watered down kid-friendly affairs, rarely do you hear someone swear, and any violence is quite tame. Characters in District 9 actually talk like real people, and they curse and swear when it's appropriate, which really adds to the realism of the film. The violence is also suitably bloody. This is a mature film, with mature themes and content, and it's extremely good to see a film like this that is aimed at a mature audience, rather than the usual notion that Sci-Fi = kids film.

Another thing I found that really grounded the film for me was the idea of the aliens adopting human names, the main alien character is named Christopher Johnson. Something I've experienced myself here in Ireland was that people from other countries living here would often take western European names like John or Jim, and seeing this mirrored in District 9 was something that definitely added to the feel of realism.

Of course, the main reason the film works so well is Sharlto Copley. His performance as Wikus van de Merwe is absolutely astonishing, especially when you consider that this is someone who's never acted before. It takes an extremely good actor to play a character who is first presented as a prick, then make that character sympathetic to audiences. But as the character goes through his ordeal, I don't think I've seen someone who looks as genuinely frightened and distraught as Copley does, it's quite amazing.

The action is really terrific as well, but what director Neill Blomkamp does is perfectly immerse us in the setting and the characters before introducing any action scenes. When the pace is upped and more action is introduced, it's never really presented in a way that they make a spectacle of it. When we see the gloriously designed mech introduced, there's never any typical Hollywood style lingering shots of it that say "Phwoar! Look at the mech, look at the awesome CGI!" and the action that takes place is never over stylized. It really is, just some of the best action I've seen in a Sci-Fi film, and there's even a reference to Half Life 2 that absolutely make me laugh with glee.

I would say that District 9 is probably film of the year for me so far, and definitely one of the best Science Fiction films I've seen in a very long time. It's not exactly perfect, and there's a few too many plot conveniences for my liking, but on the whole it is just a magnificent work. Every other aspect of it works so very well, that I can easily forget any of the minor contrivances because of what an absolutely immersing and thrilling experience District 9 has been. It's just fokken brilliant.