Justin at the Movies

District 9

// August 16th, 2009 // Recommendations, Reviews

Director: Neill Blomkamp

Justin’s Rating: 3.5/5

‘District 9′ is a complex plot that I have found myself struggling to summarize. But essentially what happens is that an alien spaceship stopped over Johannesburg, South Africa in 1982. Under all the pressure to figure out what was going on, we humans boarded said ship and “rescued” the aliens. We put them in a refugee camp which made all the humans nervous and wanting all the aliens to go back to where they came from. Which incidentally, is exactly what the aliens want as well.

I am not a fan of the Sci-Fi genre as a whole, it’s just not my thing. However, every once in awhile there is a movie that comes along and transcends the stigma of it’s genre. ‘District 9′ is that movie. The movie starts out in documentary style and follows Wikus Van De Merwe as he is selected to serve all the aliens eviction notices and to tell them that they are being moved to a different refugee camp because of the protests from the residents of Johannesburg. I felt that the movie starts out rather slowly and almost made me lose interest in it altogether. However, at about thirty minutes in the film really takes off and lands violently. After that initial thirty minutes, ‘District 9′ is an all out thrill ride. It is packed with action and is as intense as any movie you are likely to find this year. While the action is great, and the story is great, the movie is really anchored by an all out balls-to-the-wall performance by Sharlto Copley. His performance as Wikus Van De Merwe cannot be praised enough. He delivered his performance with absolutely everything he had, and he did an incredible job. I look forward to seeing more of him in the future.

People have been telling me that they have been seeing ‘G.I. Joe’ for the action. Well, if you want to see a movie with just as much action (if not more) combined with good acting and a well developed story, then ‘District 9′ is the movie you have been waiting for. Although the movie isn’t perfect, it is relentless, and succeeds exactly where it means to.