District 9, and why you shouldn’t miss it.

Admittedly, I went into this movie not knowing anything about it, but I was blown away by the end of it. District 9 is basically an encampment for the aliens that had landed on earth. Unable to return home they have been stuck living in slums as the public turned their back on them, calling them “prawns” as a slang for their overall image and bottom feeder lifestyle. Because of their biological weapons, they gained interest from both the gang warlord, and the MNU (Multinational United) weapons research company. A man named Wikus was assigned the role of moving 1.8 million aliens into their new encampment on an island outside of Johannesburg. While investigating the housing settlements and issuing eviction notices he comes across a container of foreign liquid. He ends up making contact with the liquid and later finds himself very ill… not to mention his hand is turning alien. The MNU quickly quarantines him but instead of trying to heal him, they decide to experiment on him with no regard to his health. After making his escape he becomes a fugitive with the whole country on the look out for him, convinced he is highly contagious and needs mental help. His only chance for salvation becomes the creatures he had looked down upon before.

This movie had a lot of moral undertones. When I was first watching it I was like “Jeez… this is kind of reminiscent of the Nazi Regime, and Japanese Internment camps… that’s bold guys.” I was wondering how they were going to change that discomfort, but when they flipped the tables and the main character suddenly had to live that lifestyle, it brought a very human personality to the aliens (I see what you did there).  The main “bad guys” of the film became the government, and the military. Not the military as a whole but the people who had lost their humanity and became unfeeling. So there is a lot of perspective swapping going on. The whole movie was shot like it was a documentary minus shaky camera movement. It is also rather graphic, if you can’t handle ER shows then I’ll tell you, you might want to cover your eyes for some parts. Don’t let that dissuade you from seeing it though because it is, in all respects, an amazing film.