Defy genre classification. That’s something hollywood movies usually never achieve. No matter how downright amazing the movie is, it’s safely classifiable- horror, drama, war, action etc. Bollywood’s pretty great when it comes to that. A barbaric villain, a bold hero, an imprudent heroine, a goofy sidekick, a few song-dance breaks and perfect khichdi of a script. Was it comedy? No wait, action I guess.
Drama, perhaps. Whatever. District 9 is part action, part drama, part political sattire and part sci-fi thriller. And despite a somewhat stunted climax, its wholly engrossing.
An alien mothership arrives over the South African city of Johannesurg, carrying roughly 2 million aliens hatefully called ’prawns’. The malnourished, diseased aliens are researched upon by scientists and they are settled right in the city on a vast plot of land called ’district 9’. But, two years on, the xenophobiac citizens have had enough.
They want their city back as it was, free of the filthy alien kind. An arms and weapons company, MNU (Multi National United) promises to evict all of them to the outskirts of the city on a new land. One of their sinister motives is procuring the awesome weapon technology these prawns have- guns and bombs that can kill several persons in one go. On the day when the people would finally redeem their city, the chief eviction officer gets exposed to an alien fuel cell and slowly gets converted into one of them. And this one man will decide what happens of MNU, the aliens and the city. And himself.
District 9 is technically brilliant. Perfect politically cheeky dialogues go down well with the initial settings of several civil sociology and weapon experts drawing a quirky picture of the evictions for the audiences in interviews. Debutant director Neill Blomkamp intended the movie to be shot and seen like a documentary- interviews, narrations, rugged backgrounds, hand held shooting etc. all make the movie look like a documentary, but a fiction documentary.
Sharltro Copely who plays Wikus Van De Merwe, the chief eviction officer, gives a rivetting performance in his debut movie. Its amazing how unheard unseen actors arrive and give compaq, classy performances. Copely also co-produced the film alongside Peter Jackson.
David James plays the sadistic-barbaric Colonel Koobus Venter faced with the task of capturing Merwe. Has little to do besides scowl, shoot, run, scowl a little more and shoot a little more.
Visual Effects stand out. Not because they’re glossy, but because they’re realistic. Reminds you of rare films like Black Hawk Down. The idea was to present a crisis-torn Johannesburg and the idea works. A significant portion of the film goes in television news clips shown to connect the hanging plotlines. The aliens are by-far the most lively and convincing hollywood extra terrestrials. Wrapped by grimy exoskeletons, they roughly resemble hybrids of the lobster and prawn. Filthy, bony, effective. The action sequences are bound to satisfy the belligerent nerves of any action buff.
Music composed by Clinton Shorter is raw and heavy. Although unable to use African drums in any frame, Shorter used taikos and artificial drums for the desired dark and haunting score.
The script is tight and the thrill factor is maintained throughout but Blomkamp seems to goof up the climax a bit, not able to elevate the build-up to the culmination the plot deserves. Still, a neat job by the entire crew and cast.
Some memorable quotes from the fim:
Wikus Van De Merwe: (points to an alien graffiti) This is basically a guy, and there’s 3 humans here, basically trying to make a warning, you know, saying "I kill 3 humans, watch out for me."
Wikus Van De Merwe: Could you go a little slower with the clicks? It sounded like you said ’3 years’.
7.5/10