District 9
Sometimes the use of allegory can make for the best of sci-fi movies, and this 2009 release (and rare Best Picture nominee for the genre) uses that all too well, in depicting how a race of 1 million+ aliens stranded on Earth is almost like a retelling of the apartheid saga from years past in South Africa. Of course, the fact that the alien ship is literally stranded IN Johannesburg, South Africa itself might make it seem like weâre being beaten over the head with that comparison, not to mention from the way that the film plays that because the FIRST ever extraterrestrial contact occurred there, that the South African government has the control and jurisdiction all to themselves, which makes it pretty hard to swallow that more powerful, developed countries such as The United States wouldnât figure out SOME way to get involved. The aliens themselves (most of whom are not very intelligent) are set up in a shantytown on the outskirts of the city, where they are quickly taken advantage of by some nasty Nigerian criminals who get them hooked on cat food as their newfound drug of choice, which leads to civil unrest and the aliens being accused of disrupting the humansâ way of life, and thus the government (after thirty years) has decided to now relocate them to another encampment in a more remote location much further away. The film wastes no time in showing just how despicable the human race is in their treatment of the creatures, from not only the Nigerians but also in the government and soldiers that boss them around embodied in the form of a pencil pusher bureaucrat (Sharlto Copley, in his first role before washing out as Howling Mad Murdock in the A-Team movie) who leads the soldiers through the âevictionâ process, merrily bullying the aliens and even burning a den of alien eggs as a form of âpopulation controlâ. Things get interesting when Copley stumbles upon an (very important) alien device and in the process manages to get infected with alien DNA which causes him to actually become a hybrid as his arm starts to turn into an alien limb. At this point, things get powerful as Copleyâs acting steps up big time while he desperately tries to figure out what to do with his changing self, eventually returning to the encampment and confronting the super smart alien (and his son) who built the device and also dealing with the Nigerians whose black magic beliefs make them want to cut off and eat his arm so they can âabsorb his powerâ. The pacing picks up remarkably well also, as we get some great action scenes and Copley has to deal with some private contractor military types led by a particularly nasty Colonel (David James) as we come to discover the secret plan that the aliens have been working on all these years. Credit should not only go to Copley, but also to director Neill Blomkamp for creating characters that the viewer can invest in, particularly with the aliens, who garner our sympathy here perhaps more than at any other time in the history of the genre, all the while keeping us rooted with some great action and violence and some extremely gory kills registered. In the end, while not perfect, definitely one of the best sci-fi films of recent years, and one which doesnât hold back on delivering the goods because of a pressing need to be family friendlyâŚ
8/10