District 9 takes the issue of South African apartheid and recasts it in the context of science fiction. The idea is clever, the direction balletic, and the production design striking in its grit and gloom. But something is missing at the movie’s core, and no amount of technical achievement compensates.
A prologue explains how a million infirmed aliens were abandoned on our planet after their “mother ship” stalled over Johannesburg. Liberated from the ailing craft they were sequestered in a hellish ghetto, “District 9,” along with criminals and other undesirables. Some two decades later, with their numbers doubled and their environment deteriorated, the authorities appoint a clueless bureaucrat to resettle them outside the city. When the plan goes awry all hell breaks loose.
The first half of the movie plays like documentary; a series of talking heads, supplemented by fake “newsreel” footage, sets the stage. The filmmakers give these early passages a biting, satiric spin that takes some off the edge off their blatant intentions. We’re not really sure where this is going, but our expectations are high. The visuals, like a huge vessel hanging in the haze over a troubled city, speak volumes. The aliens, off putting in their look and manner, challenge our empathic instincts. Will we grow to love them or hate them?
The stories unlikely protagonist, Wikus Van Der Merwe, is introduced through a series of interviews that scream blithe insensitivity to the alien’s dignity. He believes he’s doing the right thing, much like the designers of the original South African apartheid. TV news teams then follow him into the district as he attempts to get the alien’s compliance with the government ordered displacement.
As he tramps through their homes Wikus becomes infected by an otherworldly virus that mutates his arm into a claw. In a somewhat altered condition his fate becomes tied to the despised “prawns,” the country’s whites and many blacks would like to be done with. As things in the district deteriorate he’s forced to make a desperate alliance with one of the despised “others.” So far, so good.
The movie’s second half, unfortunately, is an endless fusillade of bullets, bombs and splatter. Director/co-writer Nick Blomkamp spends too much of his energy on exploding flesh. The satire of the first reel or two is completely displaced by the conventions of an action thriller. That wouldn’t be such a bad thing had the self satisfied irony that attends the opening not suggested so much more. White storm troopers and aliens are wasted in droves. A vicious band of Nigerian criminals appear mainly to up the body count. A Robocop style machine arises to take out a convoy of armed vehicles.
You get the sense that the creative team had one basic idea, and after playing it out, went on to do what they relished more than anything else; making a kick ass action thriller.
Wikus’ development follows the simple conventions of anti heroes we’ve seen countless times before. The aliens remain distant as characters; with the exception of a father and son we never get a sense of who they are as a race. The narrative becomes inconsistent in the last episodes. In the final episodes the narrative becomes inconsistent.
The problem is one of balance. The first part of “District 9” whetted our appetite for something unexpected, which never materializes. The technical wizardry mixes high tech and urban decay with a wicked sense of humor, but fails to follow it with the sort of complexity that could have transformed it into a classic. It isn’t “Blade Runner.”
Blomkamp and his gifted team juiced this movie with the maximum adrenaline, but like the exit of the few characters who make it through this nightmarish city, they left something important behind.
