District 9

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Plot: Aliens land on earth, but they are quickly herded into an alien ghetto in Johannesburg, with an obvious parallelism with the Apartheid era in South Africa. The people want the ghetto moved farther from the city, and when soldiers try to do that, one civilian, Wikus, is contaminated with an alien substance. Later in the movie the aliens begin to fight back, and the movie ends like an action movie.

Review: The first half of the movie is a political allegory, and the second half of the movie is an action movie. The whole movie is told with a handheld camera in a documentary style. The character development is awful, and Wikus Van De Merwe played by Sharlto Copley, is creepy and unlikeable. I did like the baby alien though.

I don't know how they animated the aliens, but that seemed realistic thoughout. They were pretty ugly, and they spent a lot of time wiggling their facial appendages at the camera.

This is a Sci-Fi, and it does not need to make sense, but this movie makes less sense then most. There are too many loose ends that have no purpose except to advance the story.

There is a tradition of Sci-Fi that is darker and scarier than recent Sci-Fi films. This film is trying to channel that tradition, and maybe it succeeds in bringing Sci-Fi back to its roots -- on the other hand, better dialog, more character development, and more attention to the plot would have helped.

I ordinarily give a extra points for taking on a tough political or moral issue, but this was a heavy-handed morality play. The messages of this movie -- something like, "People are terrible," and "Be nice or the aliens will get revenge," -- do not seem worth the effort.

Cast: Sharlto Copley -- the only actor worth mentioning

Crew: Written and directed by Neill Blomkamp; produced by Peter Jackson

Rating: 2.0 flasks

More: District Six was a impoverished inter-racial district of Cape Town South Africa during their apartheid era. Notably 60,000 black people were evacuated from District Six during the 1970's. District Six was the subject of many novels, songs, a museum, and a musical. [The poster for the musical is at right.]