ztiworoh
08-14-2009, 05:22 AM
Just got back from seeing a preview screening of District 9. Awesome movie. My review below. Go see it, can't wait to hear the TRS reviews of it. I feel like Dan is going to love this movie - it really was very "City of God" with aliens....
Set amongst the slums of Johannesburg, South Africa, Neil Blomkamp's "District 9" is a story of racism, segregation, post-colonial injustice and lots and lots of exploding heads and alien weapons.
Told in a pseudo-documentary style, the 29 year old director's first film is easily among the most original science fiction movies of the past decade. Shot on an extremely limited budget and utilizing unknown actors, the film still manages to blow away most summer blockbusters on a technical level. It is a genre-bending film which takes sci-fi conventions and turns them on their head: these aliens are not frightening, they are vulnerable and abused, shoved into slum-like conditions and treated as second class citizens; the leading man is not a space marine, he's a pencil pushing bureaucrat who gets in over his head.
The film forgoes exposition for experience - we aren't directly told much other than that the aliens showed up in 1982 and can not return home, that they have settled into a slum called "District 9" and that they are treated with hostility by those around them. We then see the culture that has built up around this altered reality - a weapons black market serviced by Nigerian thugs, corporate interest in alien weaponry, and the alien's unexplainable love for cat food.
What begins as an exploration of slum life quickly becomes an all out action film when Wickus Van De Merwe, a bureaucrat tasked with "relocating" the alien population, referred to as "Prawns" by the humans, finds himself affected by a piece of extraterrestrial technology. The film is not for the faint of heart - it includes some very graphic imagery and incredibly dark subject matter. Alien weapons cause people to explode in showers of blood and some gruesome medical scenes leave a lasting impression - strikingly though, and possibly intentional, almost no violence is perpetrated by the aliens. This is a film about man's dark side.
Van De Merwe (played by first time actor Sharlto Copley) is a great every-man character, verging on anti-hero at times, he is boorish, impatient, not particularly bright but generally well-meaning. While the basic premise of the film shouldn't allow for a lot of character development, Copley becomes a strong emotional center. There are times, especially in the tense final act where you can't help but root for this average man who has gotten in way over his head. Throughout the film Ven De Merve is joined by a "prawn" named Christopher (we can assume the aliens were forced to adopt human names for purposes of convenience), an alien who speaks in nothing but grunts and clicks but who quickly becomes a compelling and tragic companion. Throughout the movie, I think I was most affected by the incredible work on these aliens.
Maybe it was affected by knowing that the film had a very low budget, but my god, this film looks amazing. On a technical level, I was completely blown away. Peter Jackson's WETA Workshop took care of the visual effects and managed to make some of the most convincing creatures ever on screne. The aliens are almost entirely CGI but for most of the film I was unable to tell if they were sometimes animatronics or completely created inside of a computer. I've heard the hype about James Cameron's "Avatar", how audiences will be unable to tell what is or isn't CGI and how computer generated characters will blend seamlessly with live action - maybe I'll eat my words come December, but Neil Blomkamp might just have beat James Cameron to the punch.
I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more of this new and exciting young director.
Set amongst the slums of Johannesburg, South Africa, Neil Blomkamp's "District 9" is a story of racism, segregation, post-colonial injustice and lots and lots of exploding heads and alien weapons.
Told in a pseudo-documentary style, the 29 year old director's first film is easily among the most original science fiction movies of the past decade. Shot on an extremely limited budget and utilizing unknown actors, the film still manages to blow away most summer blockbusters on a technical level. It is a genre-bending film which takes sci-fi conventions and turns them on their head: these aliens are not frightening, they are vulnerable and abused, shoved into slum-like conditions and treated as second class citizens; the leading man is not a space marine, he's a pencil pushing bureaucrat who gets in over his head.
The film forgoes exposition for experience - we aren't directly told much other than that the aliens showed up in 1982 and can not return home, that they have settled into a slum called "District 9" and that they are treated with hostility by those around them. We then see the culture that has built up around this altered reality - a weapons black market serviced by Nigerian thugs, corporate interest in alien weaponry, and the alien's unexplainable love for cat food.
What begins as an exploration of slum life quickly becomes an all out action film when Wickus Van De Merwe, a bureaucrat tasked with "relocating" the alien population, referred to as "Prawns" by the humans, finds himself affected by a piece of extraterrestrial technology. The film is not for the faint of heart - it includes some very graphic imagery and incredibly dark subject matter. Alien weapons cause people to explode in showers of blood and some gruesome medical scenes leave a lasting impression - strikingly though, and possibly intentional, almost no violence is perpetrated by the aliens. This is a film about man's dark side.
Van De Merwe (played by first time actor Sharlto Copley) is a great every-man character, verging on anti-hero at times, he is boorish, impatient, not particularly bright but generally well-meaning. While the basic premise of the film shouldn't allow for a lot of character development, Copley becomes a strong emotional center. There are times, especially in the tense final act where you can't help but root for this average man who has gotten in way over his head. Throughout the film Ven De Merve is joined by a "prawn" named Christopher (we can assume the aliens were forced to adopt human names for purposes of convenience), an alien who speaks in nothing but grunts and clicks but who quickly becomes a compelling and tragic companion. Throughout the movie, I think I was most affected by the incredible work on these aliens.
Maybe it was affected by knowing that the film had a very low budget, but my god, this film looks amazing. On a technical level, I was completely blown away. Peter Jackson's WETA Workshop took care of the visual effects and managed to make some of the most convincing creatures ever on screne. The aliens are almost entirely CGI but for most of the film I was unable to tell if they were sometimes animatronics or completely created inside of a computer. I've heard the hype about James Cameron's "Avatar", how audiences will be unable to tell what is or isn't CGI and how computer generated characters will blend seamlessly with live action - maybe I'll eat my words come December, but Neil Blomkamp might just have beat James Cameron to the punch.
I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more of this new and exciting young director.