20 years ago in South Africa, a massive alien spaceship appeared and stopped above Johannesburg. After floating there for a while, the decision was made to cut into it. Inside were found hundreds of thousands of aliens, malnourished and dying. They were brought to the surface and before long were established in a slum called District 9, policed by a private corporation called Multinational United (MNU).
As the aliens reproduce and cause more and more problems (both real and imagined) for Joburg's indigenous population, the government decides to move them out of District 9 to a purpose built camp 200km away from the city.
Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is an MNU agent put in charge of the unit tasked with serving eviction notices on the inhabitants of District 9. As we watch him go about his business, we see that he, like the majority of the city, revels in bullying the aliens (referred to throughout by the derogatory term 'prawn'). During the evictions, Wikus is inadvertantly exposed to an alien substance that starts to alter his DNA. As he turns from being the hunter to the hunted, we start to see life from the aliens point of view and Wikus's attitude begins to change.
Extremely well acted, especially considering this is Sharlto Copley first time on screen and he allegedly ad-libbed all of his lines; well written and directed by Neill Blomkamp, again, his first feature; and featuring some brilliant CGI, not all of it is perfect, but it's never less than very good and never pulls you out of the film.
I look forward to seeing what the South African director does next - although I wouldn't be surprised to see a District 10 at some point in the future, considering how wide open for a sequel D9 is left.
My rating: 8.3 / 10
IMDB rating: 8.6 / 10
Running time: 112 mins
IMDB link
No comments:
Post a Comment