District 9

Directed by Neill Blomkamp

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. The premise is simple (and reminds me a lot of the old Alien Nation TV show): an alien ship parked itself above Johannesburg, and the South African government found itself responsible for some 1-2 million alien refugees, referred to as Prawns. The MNU, the non-Governmental contractor responsible for overseeing the ghetto the Prawns live in have a plan to relocate them away from the city, but things go bad when the man in charge of the relocation, Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) becomes somehow infected by a canister of fuel, and begins to take on alien characteristics.

What follows is an adventure movie in which Wikus, with the help of a Prawn, has to avoid Nigerian gun runners, break into MNU headquarters to retrieve the canister of fuel, and help the Prawn to fly up to his mothership.

The film moves very quickly, aided by the handheld cameras. This leads to one of the problems I have with the film; it begins with a documentary set-up, and Wikus interacts with the camera man, but later on, the film dispenses with that conceit, yet the filming remains handheld and jerky, as if a camera man is running around with Wikus at all times.

Copley's Wikus is incredible. He plays the man as a fool, who is wrapped up in events he can barely comprehend. He reacts with shock when he sees what is being done to the Prawns, and what his company (headed by his father-in-law, of course) plans to do to him as he develops tentacles, but what works best is the way he reacts to a phone call from his wife, with such unbridled enthusiasm.

The film's CGI looks fantastic, and I love the shots of the gigantic ship just hovering over a slum. I do have to wonder though, how the world's governments would have left the ship intact for twenty years, without cannibalising it for parts or attempting to learn everything about how it works. There are a number of inconsistencies like this that cause the film to crumble under scrutiny, but as a summer action film, it's smarter and more engaging that most of what's out there.