2009 (USA / New Zealand)
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Viewed: August 27, 2009
Format: Theatrical Print
The lusciously realized science fiction setting of District 9 almost compensates for the film’s slack qualities. Eschewing deep space wonders, director Neill Blomkamp brings his extraterrestrials into the dusty, militarized locale of modern South Africa. The first twenty minutes of District 9 constitute its most lively and gratifying stretch, as Blomkamp lithely blends faux footage from news programs, documentaries, security cameras, and other sources to set up his tale. However, what starts out as a gripping, blackly comic work evolves into a wearying slog, with the film reverting to the obnoxious chase-escape-chase rhythm of countless action films. (It’s telling that a COPS-style ride-along early in the film is its best sequence.) The film’s visual flourishes are arresting and often witty, from the swirl of flickering symbols within an alien cockpit, to the sight of giant insects in castoff human clothing. Such pleasures, however, aren’t worth the surrounding ballast. The attempts to analogize the alien “prawns†with real-world refugees are clumsy and illogical. The story depends on a protagonist who acts head-slappingly stupid with irksome consistency, and doesn’t evoke the sympathy that Blomkamp imagines he does. Most disappointingly, District 9 eventually succumbs unfortunately typical scifi tedium.
Ah, au contraire Andrew! You have your Tarantino and I have this film, which for me ranks as one of the year’s best. I realize the jerky visual style will be a turn off for some, and it sometimes as you note does segued into traditional action movie pyrotechnics, but in the end it’s a shattering film both in a humanistic and thematic sense, as it’s a compelling study of man’s inhumanity to man. I saw this film late at night at the small theatre in Hershey, Pennsylvania during a recent family weekend trip, and I walked out devastated.
In a bad sense, it recalled in some ways the terrible CLOVERFIELD, but there was valid emotional resonance which is still hard to shake. It’s stylistic excesses hence don’t mean all that much for me. As always your capsule here is informed by great reasoning and writing.
District 9 had such amazing potential, but fell disappointingly short. The high-concept was great, the setting was brilliant, and the special effects were fantastic. But the utter lack of sympathetic human characters really killed it for me. Every human was either a sociopath, an idiot, or both. The “man’s inhumanity to man” thing works much better when the characters feel like people, and not one-dimensional caricatures of simpleminded inhumanity.
For example, the evil corporation torturing Wikus as profit-motivated weapons research is a compelling idea that resonates well in our world of waterboardings and blood diamonds. But Blomkamp couldn’t let that cruelty stand on its own; his researchers went out of their way to torment Wikus. (Is it necessary for the researcher to scream “fuck your wife” in his face?) Had the viewer been tempted to identify with the researchers, even for a second, this would have been a much more effective scene.
Chris: I completely disagree with you on what you said here about the characters, and subsequently the overwhelmingly emotional power of the film, which reached it supreme expression in the final scenes. We looked at the same film and came away with completely different reactions. Fair enough.