{"id":1089,"date":"2009-08-19T10:47:34","date_gmt":"2009-08-19T00:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=1089"},"modified":"2009-10-17T18:30:17","modified_gmt":"2009-10-17T08:30:17","slug":"district-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=1089","title":{"rendered":"District 9"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neil Blonkcamp’s District 9<\/em> is quite the film debut.\u00a0 Part mockumentary, part run-and-gun action film, Blonkamp has created a distinctive and refreshing sci-fi genre mashup that feels both exhilerating and unique.\u00a0 Although thats partly due to its uncommon setting.\u00a0 Is this South Africa’s first science fiction film?\u00a0 Even one of the interviewees at the start of the film expresses a level of surprise when he states that ‘when the aliens arrived, they didn’t come to Manhattan.\u00a0 They came to Johannesburg.’<\/p>\n

The opening half hour of the film sets the tone with a mockumentary explaining how twenty years ago, an apparently derilect space craft arrived in South Africa containing alien lifeforms inside.\u00a0 Although they showed signs of intelligence, had superior weaponry and numbered in the millions, the aliens are similar to worker ants and are completely devoid of direction or purpose without a leader.<\/p>\n

The aliens are brought down to Earth and eventually segregated into a slum called District 9.\u00a0 There, the aliens, given the derogatory nickname ‘prawn’ by the South Africans, live a wretched existence for twenty years.\u00a0 As District 9 breeds crime, inter-species prostitution and attracts Nigerian militants, they become unwanted by the local residents so a plan is drawn up to forcibly evict them to a far-away District 10, which is not so much a slum as it is a concentration camp.\u00a0 This gigantic task is given to a private corporation, MNU, which has its own vested interest in trying to understand how to use the alien weaponry which is bio-engineered so humans are unable to fire them.<\/p>\n

The story then takes focus on a single individual:\u00a0 middle-management schlub Wikus Van De Merwe, who in the fine old tradition of nepotism, becomes promoted because he is married to the bosses’ daughter.\u00a0 For a character who so strongly dominates the screentime in this film, Wikus is a brave choice.\u00a0 On initial impressions, he is deeply unlikable.\u00a0 He is gormless and smarmy.\u00a0 His prejudice towards the aliens clearly has racial parallels and we see the extent to which he devalues their lives in his treatment of the alien young and ultimately, their unborn.<\/p>\n

Yet part of what makes District 9<\/em> so appealing is how so much of the film is the anti-thesis of a Hollywood production.\u00a0 It takes nothing away from the excellent Star Trek<\/em> film earlier this year to say that a large part of District 9<\/em>‘s charm comes from its rougher edges.\u00a0 Although Wikus is quite a dark character, the aliens themselves are also rather unappealing.\u00a0 They seem mostly lazy and stupid.\u00a0 Their appearance is gaunt and awkward.\u00a0 Yet by the end of the film, District 9<\/em> will leave you cheering for Wikus and invested in the plight of the aliens.\u00a0 This film is a terrific blend of genres and is a wonderful character piece.\u00a0 As Wikus develops as a character, your expectation and opinion of him also shifts.<\/p>\n

District 9<\/em> is the result of a failed project between Peter Jackson and Neil Blomkamp who were attempting to make a feature film of the video game franchise Halo<\/em>.\u00a0 Once that deal fell through, District 9<\/em> became the end result.\u00a0 In many ways, District 9<\/em> is evocative of the Halo<\/em> franchise still.\u00a0 The film contains alien weaponry comparable to those in the game, has a reasonably facsimile of the Halo<\/em>‘s trademark Warthog vehicles and the game title also gets a mention, albeit out of context, in one of the closing lines.<\/p>\n

I’m not clear on whether the Halo<\/em> film will ever get off the ground and if it does, whether Blomkamp and Jackson will be involved.\u00a0 Whoever owns the rights is crazy if they don’t try to get them on board though.\u00a0 District 9<\/em> is one of the best science fiction action films I’ve seen in years and marks Blomkamp as a director to watch out for in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Its Aliens meets Die Hard meets Percy Montgomery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[381,376,377,378,379,380],"class_list":["post-1089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","tag-aliens","tag-district-9","tag-neil-blomkamp","tag-peter-jackson","tag-prawns","tag-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1089"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1359,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089\/revisions\/1359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}