District 9
District 9 Starts in the 1980s, giving exposition on a Space Ship that comes to a halt over Johannesburg, South Africa. Apparently stalled, or broken, the local powers take the alien race (Called the Prawn in a derogatory sense due to their appearance) down to the city and place them in a camp, called District 9. 20 years pass and District 9 is very much a slum, crime and corruption have plagued the Prawn, who are treated as lower class. Humans demand that they be removed from their city... The city hires MNU to relocated the Prawn to Dictrict 10, who place Wikus van de Merwe in charge of the relocation.
While handing out Eviction Notices Wilkus is infected, and begins transforming into a Prawn, this leads him in a three way battle while he tries to stay away from MNU who wish to use him to discover the secrets of Prawn Weaponry, change himself back to normal so he can return to his life, and possibly help the Prawn escape from their current fate.
A very long Synopsis for a very complex movie. Now this may be touted as a Sci-Fi action, but more than that, it's a MESSAGE movie. Several messages in fact from Xenophobia, to Corporate Corruption, to of course the most obvious the morality of Concentration Camps. This is the movie that's interested in making you think... While the action is great, it certainly is not a Popcorn Flick.
The movie itself is a sort of convergence of the Handycam and Traditional Cinema styles. Parts of the movie, mostly the beginning and end are shot in Documentary Style, giving the back story and setting up the plot. It explores the world the movie creates and sets the mood before beginning the actual story.
This I feel makes the messages the movie pushes seem less forced and in your face, making it more natural to the movie. This film takes the time to build a setting before throwing the audience to the protagonist to progress the actual film.
One of the other intriguing things I find with this film is that the protagonist, Wilkus, is not a good man. He's not a bad man, but he does not make one heroic act until an hour and a half into the film, and until about halfway into the second act he treats the Prawn with no more respect than anyone else, treating them like dim witted beasts. Until the explosive finale, Wilkus simply stumbles through the film, interested in filling his own needs, and keeping himself alive. Following a man like this is almost refreshing compared to the righteous freedom fighter proxies for Jesus that litter the Action Sci-Fi genre's main characters.
The movie really takes it's time to show you how a people can be brought down not by their own fault, as it is clear that the Prawn were once incredibly intelligent, but in District 9 seem to portray every slumish ghetto stereotype. They're dim, ill mannered, and seem quick to violent acts when confused. Truly a failing from the generation before them as they have no access to education, or economic opportunity. Those that govern them either want nothing to do with them, hoping to keep them away from the general population...
The movie hammers these many points in without getting on a soap box about it. You should know this before thinking of picking it up, because if you're simply looking for an action movie with aliens, you'll be quite disappointed. While the action is very well done, there are only a handful of them, and most come late in the second act, before coming to an explosive finale in the third.
District 9, though, may have been misclassified, as this is a prime example of modern Science Fiction. A story that takes fantastical and often alien plot elements to make a statement about some moral aspect of the world today. And this movie does a great job with it.
I do highly recommend this to anyone looking for an 'Action' movie with some actual depth to the plot.
While handing out Eviction Notices Wilkus is infected, and begins transforming into a Prawn, this leads him in a three way battle while he tries to stay away from MNU who wish to use him to discover the secrets of Prawn Weaponry, change himself back to normal so he can return to his life, and possibly help the Prawn escape from their current fate.
A very long Synopsis for a very complex movie. Now this may be touted as a Sci-Fi action, but more than that, it's a MESSAGE movie. Several messages in fact from Xenophobia, to Corporate Corruption, to of course the most obvious the morality of Concentration Camps. This is the movie that's interested in making you think... While the action is great, it certainly is not a Popcorn Flick.
The movie itself is a sort of convergence of the Handycam and Traditional Cinema styles. Parts of the movie, mostly the beginning and end are shot in Documentary Style, giving the back story and setting up the plot. It explores the world the movie creates and sets the mood before beginning the actual story.
This I feel makes the messages the movie pushes seem less forced and in your face, making it more natural to the movie. This film takes the time to build a setting before throwing the audience to the protagonist to progress the actual film.
One of the other intriguing things I find with this film is that the protagonist, Wilkus, is not a good man. He's not a bad man, but he does not make one heroic act until an hour and a half into the film, and until about halfway into the second act he treats the Prawn with no more respect than anyone else, treating them like dim witted beasts. Until the explosive finale, Wilkus simply stumbles through the film, interested in filling his own needs, and keeping himself alive. Following a man like this is almost refreshing compared to the righteous freedom fighter proxies for Jesus that litter the Action Sci-Fi genre's main characters.
The movie really takes it's time to show you how a people can be brought down not by their own fault, as it is clear that the Prawn were once incredibly intelligent, but in District 9 seem to portray every slumish ghetto stereotype. They're dim, ill mannered, and seem quick to violent acts when confused. Truly a failing from the generation before them as they have no access to education, or economic opportunity. Those that govern them either want nothing to do with them, hoping to keep them away from the general population...
The movie hammers these many points in without getting on a soap box about it. You should know this before thinking of picking it up, because if you're simply looking for an action movie with aliens, you'll be quite disappointed. While the action is very well done, there are only a handful of them, and most come late in the second act, before coming to an explosive finale in the third.
District 9, though, may have been misclassified, as this is a prime example of modern Science Fiction. A story that takes fantastical and often alien plot elements to make a statement about some moral aspect of the world today. And this movie does a great job with it.
I do highly recommend this to anyone looking for an 'Action' movie with some actual depth to the plot.
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