District 9: What if those we made first contact with were refugees?

 

 

District 9 presents an interesting premise - what if the first aliens to contact us were refugees? How the world reacts and segregates them is fascinating. Neill Blomkamp presents the location of District 9 as a rundown South African slum, where these refugees experience violence daily and oppression from MNU, a local government that oversees them. Blomkamp puts a lot of effort into the culture and visual look of the Prawns, and even though the CGI for them hasn't aged perfectly, they fit perfectly into each shot. The visual effects are pretty good, and there's some awesome prosthetics as well.

The story mostly follows a man obsessed with the Prawns who starts to transform into one after coming into contact with some of their chemicals. He's on the run from the MNU and gets to see firsthand how Prawns are actually treated under this government system. Plenty of ideas are presented here, but I think a whole 20 minutes or so could have been cut out of this. Multiple times the same idea is shown again, and some scenes run just a little far too long. At least four times a character is under threat of immediate death but gets saved at the last second.

A detriment to the watch experience is the documentary-esque style used to tell this story. It's a little sloppy, and doesn't always commit to the documentary format. Early on and towards the end, we view the story through the lens of news channels and a documentary crew filming the Prawns' relocation to District 10. Once Wilkus is on the run, the cinematography still matches the documentary look despite Wilkus being alone. It's not a deal breaker, but the lack of commitment to a style is certainly noticeable.

District 9 is still a fascinating watch and for 2009 it's impressive! I really wish we could have gotten a District 10 sequel though, it feels like the story is just getting good when it ends.