Review: District 9 - the best movie I've seen all year

I had heard District 9 was good, but I was not expecting it to be so enjoyable. It is a smart low-budget science fiction/action movie set in South Africa.  It has a cast of wonderful unknowns, a moving story-line roller-coaster action and superb special effects. All this and aliens too!

Set in Johannesburg, South Africa, through a mockumentary we learn that 20 years earlier an alien ship hovered over the city. Eventually the South African authorities board the ship, ferrying the malnourished aliens (nicknamed the Prawns) they find there to the city. Then we are back in the present time, where 1.8 million Prawns live in a slum. The action starts with a private company, MNU, evicting the aliens to a camp 200 kilometers out of the city, and far from humans.

The main character, Wikus van der Merwe, played by the unknown Sharlto Copley, is the MNU bureaucrat in charge of the eviction that goes terribly wrong. Too many aliens are killed and Wikus becomes infected, starts to change into an alien himself - much to the delight of his employers, who are thinking biotechnological advances. Wikus goes on the run, hiding out with the aliens.

It is directed by first-time director Neill Blomkamp and produced by Lord of the Rings director, Peter Jackson - you can see allusions to some of Jackson's earlier 'splatter' works which keeps the movie away from being too serious. The special effects are done by Jackson's long-time partner Weta Workshop, and you quickly forget that the Prawns aren't real.

But the effects are not what make this movie great, it is more about the characters, including the Prawns. It is difficult to identify with them as they are devoted carnivores (cat food or goat head anyone?), you can understand how the difficulties with the near-by human population happened. Copley's Wikus starts the movie almost as a naive (or stupid?) bureaucrat, but his character deepens through the challenges he faces and the relationships he forms. 

It has a wonderful sense of subversive humor underneath all the chaos, as well as pointed comment about human nature and still manages to pull at your heartstrings.  It's a movie that has stayed with me after watching and will be one to watch again.