District 9 review

District 9 (2009)

TriStar Pictures

directed by Neill Blomkamp

The South African apartheid allegory falls flat, especially when equating the oppressed. The “prawns” are not human after all. One could defend the director's heritage, and the film’s setting in his native Johannesburg, but I don’t buy it. The man is a white 29 year-old.

At its best the film highlights the dangers of bureaucracy and its inherent silliness. One sequence culminates with the scientific and bodily horrors of putting advanced alien bioweapons in human hands. I haven’t seen such poignant illustration of the system since Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, and found the scene deeply, affectingly relevant.

District 9 sparks the imagination thanks to its (probably) realistic depiction of an alien race and the events following their arrival, both in situation and visuals, but its exposition-free documentary style ultimately leaves the viewer with more questions than answers. Inquisitive people though, are hardly a bad thing.