District 9

Directed by: Neill Blomkamp

Starring: Sharlto Copley

Genre: Science Fiction

Run Time: 112 min.

Release Date: August 2009

On The Web: Official Site

Teaser: Movie Trailer

Reviewed by Byron Merritt

No name director. No name actors and actresses. A measly $30 million budget. A producer (Peter Jackson, THE LORD OF THE RINGS) who’s most recent film disaster – KING KONG (remake) – didn’t instill much confidence. All of these strikes were lined up, ready to kick DISTRICT 9 to the curb. But did they?

The easy and obvious answer is "no." In fact, I dare say that this is probably one of the best science fiction films to emerge from Hollywood in the last decade. Yes, even better than the new STAR TREK redux. Although comparing this film to STAR TREK is like comparing apples and apple peels.

Filmed with the ever-popular hand-held cameras, DISTRICT 9 starts out slow, feeling very much like another "aliens stranded on Earth film," ALIEN NATION (1988). But DISTRICT 9 takes a few more twists and turns. Where ALIEN NATION had the tough-cop grudgingly becoming friends with the alien, DISTRICT 9 doesn’t really seem to have a protagonist. Everyone and everything is out for themselves.

And the film starts off showing us Wikus Van De Merwe (complete unknown Sharlto Copley) as he gets assigned as the lead agent in Johannesburg, South Africa to move a group of one-million-plus insectoid-like aliens from a slum to "a nicer" slum (district 10). Wikus is a very bubbly guy but as soon as he moves into District 9 with his security force, things get ugly. Prostitution, murder, weapons, and every crime known to man or alien takes place here, and Wikus is smack in the middle of it. But when he gets exposed to an alien liquid, strange things start to happen.

Wikus is soon the center of attention for all the factions warring inside and outside the district. His own agency wants to dissect him. A slum-lord wants to cut him up and eat him. And the Prawns (as the aliens are called because they look like prawns), could care less about him as long as he doesn’t bother them. But bother them he must as Wikus takes to the road, hoping to find something resembling a friend.

I’m not going to give much away here, simply because I don’t want to spoil any of this amazing film. And it is amazing. The film starts out pretty slowly, and I was beginning to worry that this was going to be another fanfare and fizzle sci-fi show. But the film gradually engages the audience by getting us in tight with Wikus, and an alien and his son. There are some shoot ‘em up spectacles that will make the action junkies out there drool. And for those who want a really, really great story with believable characters, well, there’s that too. You often hear that a great movie MUST start with a great script, and DISTRICT 9 was blessed with that. But it wasn’t blessed with any star power or a large budget. Which, apparently, was also a blessing.

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Image from District 9

DVD cost: $32.98

Purchase: Tower.com (Blu-Ray)

Film Review Stew Favorite? Yes.

Stew Poo-Poo? No.

Newsworthy: Star Sharlto Copley had not acted before and had no intention of pursuing an acting career. He stumbled into the leading role as 'Neill Blomkamp' placed him on-camera during the short film.

Movie Quote: "I want his arm."

Other Actors/Actresses from District 9

Images from District 9