District 9 opens 20 years in the past, when a huge alien spaceship hovers crippled above Johannesburg, South Africa, carrying millions of emaciated aliens. The stranded aliens resemble a hybrid of grasshoppers and crustaceans and speak in creepy gutturals (translated by subtitles).
Derogatorily referred to as “prawns”, the government is unsure what to do wth them and sequesters them in a shantytown dubbed District 9. As with any slum, crime escalates, public opinion shifts, and prejudice grows.
The references to apartheid-era South Africa are obvious and underlined by the movie’s title, borrowed from the notorious real-life District 6 from Cape Town’s segregated past.
To show the prevailing attitudes, director Neill Blomkamp effectively blends shots of real demonstrations and interviews with real people speaking about the influx of human immigrants in their country – as if the comments are all related to the alien presence.
Reacting to the unrest, Multi-National United (MNU) – a private company placed in charge of the aliens – decides to move them to a concentration camp 200 miles outside town. Covertly, the company wants access to their advanced weaponry, which can only be operated by alien DNA.
Enter Wikus van de Merwe (the director’s longtime friend and collaborator Sharlto Copley), an upbeat but clueless mid-level corporate drone put in charge of the relocation by his father-in-law, the company boss.
Wikus must work with stereotypical gung-ho soldiers to get alien signatures on eviction notices and have things move peacefully. Yeah, right.
The aliens are a hot-tempered, ill-controlled brood, made meaner by a shortage of the cat food they have become addicted to. They are also extremely reluctant to relocate.
Things quickly escalate from the civility of corporate interviews to the bloody brutality of alien-soldier clashes.
Wikus reveals his prejudice, the first of many surprising turnabouts by the innocuous-seeming man. The only character with anything approaching complexity, he comes in contact with some kind of alien spew while serving evacuation notices to the prawns, which sparks the film’s most dramatic plotline.
The balance is a mishmash of mindless video-game-like violence and gore, punctuated by exploding heads and bodies. Shards of RoboCoppop up throughout.
All of the aliens in the film are CGI except the ones on operating tables in the medical lab. All of the speaking aliens were performed by Jason Cope, who also played correspondent Grey Bradnam.
Cope ad-libbed the dialogue for the speaking aliens, which was dubbed over in post-production.
The film is most compelling when it stays focused on Wikus’ plight and his shift in attitude toward an alien father and son, the only other-worlders with separate identities.
District 9 contains flaws, such as the long spate of nothing-but-violence and the illogic of the aliens not using the mega-powerful weapons they’ve amassed.
But Blomkamp keeps the action at a high pitch, never gets pedantic with his themes and dresses everything in an appropriately post-apocalyptic look endemic to Johannesburg’s shanty-town area and surrounds.
Although it’s all shot on a minuscule budget, District 9 looks better than most multimillion-dollar big-name blockbusters – and it’s much more exciting.
Wikus van de Merwe
Sharlto Copley Tania van de Merwe
Vanessa Haywood Sandra van de Merwe
Marian Hooman Nicolas van de Merwe
Johan van Schoor Grey Bradnam/Christopher Johnson
Jason Cope Koobus Venter
David James Fundiswa Mhlanga
Mandla Gaduka Thomas
Kenneth Nkosi Obesandjo
Eugene Khumbanyiwa Obesandjo’s Lieutenant
Siyabonga Radebe Piet Smit
Louis Minnaar Dirk Michaels
William Allen Young Sarah Livingstone
Nathalie Boltt Dr Katrina McKenzie
Sylvaine Strike Les Feldman
John Sumner Francois Moraneu
Nick Blake James Hope
Jed Brophy Michael Bloemstein
Vittorio Leonardi Phyllis Sinderson
Stella Steenkamp Clive Henderson
Tim Gordon MNU Executive
Anthony Fridjhon Sangoma
Hlengiwe Lushaba Anton Grobler
Melt Sieberhagen Mike Van Kerland
Andre Odendaal Craig Weldon
Nick Boraine Ross Pienaar
Robert Hobbs
Director
Neill Blomkamp
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To show the prevailing attitudes, director Neill Blomkamp effectively blends shots of real demonstrations and interviews with real people speaking about the influx of human immigrants in their country – as if the comments are all related to the alien presence.
