District 9: An Instant Review
(Just watched District 9 less than half an hour ago. Felt compelled to share my non-spoilery thoughts.)
District 9 is easily the most fascinating, original, gripping, and arresting film to hit the mulitplex this summer. It’s also an amazing technical feat, seemlessly blending some of the most realistic-looking CGI I’ve ever seen with faux documentary footage, surveilance videos, and more traditional scenes filmed in Johannesburg, South Africa. Director Neill Blomkamp pulls perfect and shockingly realistic performances from all of his actors, especially Sharlto Copley, who transforms from a friendly milquetoast middleman into a frothing, vulgar and desperate man on the run.
The film delivers tons of suspsense, big action, countless grisly bloodstained frames, and some mad lab horror, but none of the thrills feel empty. Blomkamp grounds District 9 in the real world with an urgent documentary style and visual references to apartheid and the world’s history of racial segregation and oppression. It’s this dark and dirty realism that sets the film apart from other recent sci-fi blockbusters, but it might leave some audience members feeling like the movie is missing something. The film features some Hollywood plot conventions, but there’s no likable hero or traditional structure here, and calling the pace frenetic would be an understatement. But if viewed on it own terms, District 9 is one hell of a captivating ride that manages to break new ground while borrowing ideas and concepts from some of Hollywood’s greatest sci-fi flicks.
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