District 9

Well, it wasn't horrible, i can safely say that. District 9 is one of those movies that i walked out of and didn't know what to think. I wasn't disappointed, but i wouldn't say i was entertained either. I think the problem is the film was too scattered for me to form an easily defined opinion on it.

The premise is that aliens have come to earth but, instead of raging war, are simply some kind of pathetic group of refugees, found starving to death in their own mothership by humans (the ship had been left floating for months in earths atmosphere). The humans take pity on these aliens and promptly do what humans do best: quarantine them in a massive concentration camp. From here on out the aliens are essentially treated like any minority, complete with all the biases that go along with that.

It's a different kind of premise that just screams all kinds of questions at you. Like: how is it that aliens that are capable of space travel end up starving to death on their own mothership? Why did they come here to begin with? How does the mothership defy gravity? Why are the aliens so ill-prepared for space travel - a journey they surely must have undergone hundreds of times before? Why didn't the aliens attempt contact first?

The film tries to give some hand-waved answer to some (but certainly not all) of these questions, but the attempt is more trouble than it attempts to satisfy. I guess we're just not supposed to think about these kinds of things... i mean, the writers obviously didn't.

Neil Blomkamp (director) utilizes "mockumentary style" for the entirety of the film - complete with sections of fake "interviews" with the characters. No doubt this was meant to be "different" but it just comes off as kind of distracting. Particularly since halfway through the movie the film drops all pretense of a documentary and turns to full-out action sequences. The shakey camera, inexplicably, remains. It does return to it's mockumentary roots, but not until after a good hour or so.

The story itself is kind of about racism and discrimination. It's an allegory for apartheid south africa (the forced removal of the residents of District 6, specifically) - but with aliens instead of black people. Actually, there are black people in the movie. Nigerians to be specific - they're the unambiguously evil ones. Actually, i don't think they were attempting to stereotype in that role, it's just sort of unfortunate that it happened.

One of the things that kind of bugged me in the movie is Blomkamp's choice of main character: Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a whiny, stuttering, bumbling government employee who only got where he is through pure nepotism. Gee, how often have we seen that stereotype? Way to fucking much! Sure, he grows throughout the movie (mostly in realizing how utterly foolish he was), but i couldn't help but think that the characterization was so unnecessary. Either Wikus is a not-so-subtle jab at government employees in general or a pathetic character only the equally pathetic audience could relate to.

On the whole, the movie's not bad. Sometimes it's hard to determine what Blomkamp was going for: an action movie with heads exploding or a story about discrimination. Having both isn't bad, though, since an action movie without a point is moronic and a movie with a moral but no action feels like a lecture. It still feels weird when it switches gears though.

As i said, this movie isn't bad... but it's not good either. Either my sense of tase has been systematically eroded thanks to the crap coming out of hollywood or this truly is an average film deserving of everything that title bestows. At any rate, i give this movie 4 unanswered questions out of 7 - that's a C.

By the way, sorry for the lame picture. Sometimes a movie is so unremarkable in its mediocrity you can't say anything clever about it. Don't worry, one of these reviews i'll come up with a good picture again!