District 9 (DVD Screening)

(Spoilers)

With the release of Elysium coming up soon, I had seen comments from the critics comparing it to this movie, District 9.  As I am looking forward to Elysium I thought I should check this out, I have been meaning to for sometime but all these comments just spurred me on to watch it.

District 9 has to one of the best Sci-Fi flicks that I have seen.  The plot is so simple which makes it easy to follow and there aren’t constant twists along the way which so many films these days are bogged down with.  I really enjoyed the plot point of the Aliens ship hovering over not one of the major American cities but Johannesburg, it was refreshing from the usual alien invasion type movies – which this was not.  The start of the movie is brilliant as it is played out in a documentary format making the whole story come to life and you nearly forget that you are watching a movie, this was well done.  This format also helped to spark intrigue and interest as to where the story was going.

I was quite surprised at how quick they chose to reveal the aliens (or prawns) as usually this is built up slightly more but it was necessary for this to happen because of the story and it worked out better.  I really feel that District 9 portrayed a realistic series of events that would happen upon this scenario unfolding and I enjoyed the moral issues that it highlighted.  Although these were subtle I think thy were dealt with really well.  The action sequences were good too, and built well towards the climax.  I was so happy with the ending, It was great to see Colonel Koobus Venter meet his death, he was a really unlikeable villain whose involvement in the story was good but it was satisfying to see the end of him.

The final scene of the movie was really good as people in the documentary discussed the whereabouts of Wikus, and then it is revealed that he has become fully prawn and is now living in the slums that he once ran as a human. I’m glad that Peter Jackson had the guts to leave the movie like this and didn’t find a way to change him back.  This ending left more of an impact and deserves praise.

BIGGEST FLAW – The opening scene maybe went on a bit too long

BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT – How realistic it felt

District 9 could easily spawn a  sequel as there was much left unresolved, but not too much to leave the viewer irritated.  I would be happy if it was just left as a one off, but wouldn’t mind seeing what could happen next.

Rating – 9/10