District 9
Neil Blomkamp
Key Creatives
Last month two of the most anticipated movies of the summer came out, and both immediately received very positive reviews.
Inglorious Basterds and District 9 are both high-grossing action movies, but if given the choice as to which one should you shell out the 12 bucks for, don’t waste your money on District 9.
Last year short teasers of an alien being interrogated were shown in theatres.
Even for non-sci-fi fans, this seemed to promise something with a little more substance than Independence Day.
However, District 9 never realizes its potential.
The film takes place in South Africa, in the near future. A huge UFO is spotted approaching Earth and hovers over Johannesburg.
The world stands still waiting for something to happen, but after three months of no signs of life, the army breaks into the craft.
Inside are sick and malnourished aliens, portrayed like the discovery of prisoners of concentration camps in Poland.
The prawns — as most humans call them — are moved to a ghetto called District 9, where they live in poverty and segregation.
The fact that it’s an allegory for the apartheid in South Africa was exciting for the first half hour of the film.
The story was fairly original and the documentary-style cinematography set it apart from other movies within its genre.
However, the film totally switches gears about halfway through, becoming a generic sci-fi action film.
With computer-generated battles that could have been done by Michael Bay and death scenes that look like they belong in kung-fu films, it becomes very hard to take this film seriously.
This movie feels like it’s trying too hard to be artsy and action-packed at the same time, and falls flat on its face doing so.