Original Post
In the days leading up to the release of Neill Blomkamp's directorial debut, I became aware of a recurring piece of lazy analysis. Blomkamp, you see, is South African, and District 9 is set in Johannesburg and features an alien race segregated from the general populace. Preview after preview dubbed the film an "apartheid allegory," which I found questionable under both the legal and social contexts. While District 9 is clearly a reference to District Six, that's not what the film is about. It was like I could see the review arithmetic at work: South Africa + discrimination = apartheid. That's unfortunate, because it applies a bias that precludes the larger questions that District 9 raises - though, ultimately, they are neither that interesting nor that novel. Obligatory spoiler warning, so if knowing anything about the story or characters of a film before watching it ruins it for you, you should probably stop reading now. Ordinarily, I am the sort of guy who can enjoy visceral but "empty" entertainment on its own merits. This summer, however, Transformers 2, Terminator: Salvation and G.I. JOE have sorely tested my resolve. Perhaps I approached District 9 with a more critical eye than usual, or perhaps the pre-release hype proclaiming it as "very, very good" raised my expectations. I wasn't exactly disappointed, but I wasn't blown away, either. I saw the film on Saturday, and at first I felt certain that I would write a review. When I began to marshal my thoughts to essay, however, I realized that the film didn't say anything. It doesn't deliver enough of an interesting adventure with classic "good" and "evil" arcs, it doesn't revolve around any one ethical issue, it doesn't introduce any scientific thinking that is central to its plot. It's just a very competent interstitial, which perhaps speaks to Mr. Blomkamp's long history in advertising. The film inverts the common alien invasion by having the "invaders" easily overpowered and subjugated, despite their superior technology and likely superior physical strength and durability. The aliens are (eventually) placed in a designated area and prohibited from venturing into the rest of the city, which is the origin of the apartheid refrain, I suppose, but that's just the beginning of the story. The film develops from there to touch on other things, in all cases lightly and insubstantially. I like that the film isn't set in the cities typically presumed to be important or relevant enough to warrant alien contact - New York, Washington, D.C., London, Paris, Rome. Why Johannesburg, though? The film never says, and, really, it doesn't matter why. It's just cool that it is, because it opens up opportunities for lots of characters with interesting names, interesting accents and interesting perspectives. The world around the alien encampment is turbulent, somewhat chaotic at times, alive with palpable "African-ness." Even better, none of the central characters is an American expatriate on an African safari. No, these are South Africans and Nigerians, Wikus van der Merwe and Fundiswa Mhlanga and Obesandjo. The special effects are appropriately subtle for the aliens and nice and punchy for the weapons. The characters are interesting, and you're quickly drawn into Wikus' struggle to stay alive and return to normalcy, as well as "Christopher Johnson's" desire to protect his son and return to his home world. The problem is the final third of the film, which resolves nothing. Christopher manages to return to the mothership hovering overhead and then presumably head for his home planet, but he leaves all of his fellow aliens behind. Wikus manages to stay alive, but he's fully mutated into a "prawn" by the end. The aliens are still relocated, MNU is still massively influential and powerful (in fact, Fundiswe is thrown in jail for revealing MNU's illegal genetic research)... If I wanted to watch a documentary of ineffectiveness, I'd watch C-SPAN. Of the various premises touched upon earlier in the film, none is carried to a satisfying conclusion. The final confrontation is between a minor bureaucrat and a mercenary, but neither vanquishes the other - a perfect microcosm of the film as a whole. District 9 is a pretender. It wears the garb of science fiction, but it lacks the genuine philosophical consideration of the human condition that marks the best science fiction; it really is a space opera, but without the grandeur and sense of fun that pervades the best of those - think this summer's Star Trek, or the original Star Wars trilogy. District 9 is too grimy, too covered in muck... too pedestrian.
