District 9/10

District 9 is the newest popular science fiction release, and does a tremendous job in revitalizing a genre that is often lacking and hokey. The film employs legendary American director Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) to produce the film with lesser-known directors, writers, and actors. Despite the lack of mainstream production factors, the end product is filled with clarity of purpose, dynamic social interactions and commentary, and of course action, action, action.
The introduction of the film is done in a mock documentary style, relying on a pastiche of news clippings, interviews, and television programming to create the backdrop for the sources of conflict in the film. The story’s main character, Wikus van de Merwe, is also introduced and discussed in this style, adding to the film’s verisimilitude. Members of Wikus’s family and friends are asked to give commentary about Wikus. The audience is given negative but mysterious comments about him, which are only understood at the end of the movie. The introduction, although very different from the rest of the movie, allows the audience to relax and suspend their disbelief. The usually ridiculous scenarios, weapons, and technology gaps from other science fiction movies like The Matrix or Star Trek do not seem as far-fetched after the strong, documentary-style introduction.
The intro explains that the government opened the ship’s hull to find 1.8 million malnourished aliens. The creatures, called “prawns” by humans (although not shrimp-like in stature), look like crustaceans- complete with thin waists, claw-like appendages, and thick shell skins. The film introduces violent civil overtones concerning the relocation of 1.8 million aliens into the city. Citizens of Johannesberg began to protest, eventually leading to civil clashes between humans and aliens. Videos and pictures of facilities with species-specific service remind the audience of the recent racist past, adding to the film’s believability. The entire film is rife with irony, but does not lose its class or seriousness.
We follow the adventure of flawed protagonist, Wikus van de Merwe, as he is assigned by his father-in-law and boss to lead a military operation to evict the prawns from their slums called District 9. With the help of MNU, a military weapons company, Wikus and his team go door to door to evict prawns, often times using coercion and threats to get the necessary signatures (inky claw streaks). While delivering eviction notices, Wikus luckily stumbles onto the house and laboratory of Christopher Johnson, a peculiarly intelligent prawn. Wikus confiscates a small cylinder from Johnson’s shack which explodes onto his face and begins turning him into an alien.
The rest of the film takes place during the first 74 hours of Wikus’s exposure to the substance. His left hand begins changing into the hand of a prawn’s, by some unknown and unexplained biological phenomenon. This lucky location for first growth is especially important given that the prawns have brought powerful alien weaponry that can only be used by DNA activation- alien DNA activation. Although the movie’s coincidences and improbable scenarios create a seemingly contrived plot, the movie’s style of direction and production, combined with the familiarity of subjugation make it entirely approachable and watchable.
Although the explosions and bloody, piecemeal bodies left in the wake of the weapons is amazing to watch, and at times slightly humorous, the true brilliance of the movie lies in its scope. By choosing South Africa as the setting for the film, the obvious allusions to apartheid need not be mentioned. The aliens are transformed into the new “other”. The class system of colonialism is changed into an “us against them” situation- where humans are united together against an alien race. The cause of this ambivalence, of wanting to discriminate the aliens but not destroy them, is never understood or explained. It can be attributed towards the xenophobic meditation on race that the film undertakes, or simply as a dramatic device to spur the plot along.
Although modern science fiction films are no stranger to social commentary, with films like Children of Men and Minority Report starring big named actors and grossing millions of dollars in profit, District 9 has a key difference: the social situations which develop in this film are a direct commentary on our past, and our present. The film manages to present a popular conflict device, conflicts in race, and engage the audience in a new way. The irony of a nation still in the aftermath of apartheid advocating a system of discrimination is powerful and thought-provoking. This movie will leave the audience wondering many things (like why the prawns love cat food so much or how the movie portrays human tendencies), but one question I often ask remains silent: “Why did I spend money to see this movie?”