District 9 (2009)

District 9 directed by Neill Blomkamp and produced by Peter Jackson implemented an undoubtedly stunning project. The combination of small budget and great special effects, the mixture of an action movie and a sci-fi thriller - these are just few features which make the film worth watching. On the one hand, the work is done in the best traditions of the genre, on the other the director reveals his own creative view of the good old Hollywood techniques.

District 9 is based upon Neill Blomkamp΄s short pseudo documentary Alive in Joburg (2005). These two works of the young South African director are united by the general plot and the place of action. A huge UFO appears from space and stops dead over Johannesburg. Months pass but no one comes out. Having decided to get inside the flying saucer, people find there a colony of aliens. They seem of no harm, lost and frightened. The government decides to organize for them a settlement, which gets the name District 9. The alien craft is in disrepair; they become prisoners on the Earth and have to spend more than 20 years living in slums. The aliens look like something between insects and mollusks; only their large sad eyes are human-like. They starts propagating and even have an illegal business with local criminal groups exchanging the extraterrestrial weapon for cat's food. The population of Joburg gets indignant at the unrest provoked by all this, and the government launches a program of the alien eviction. The project is headed by Wicus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a twitching servile clerk of the MNU (Multi-National United). In the beginning of the film there is a kind of puzzle effect: we are shown short episodes evidently dating different periods. The beginning is stylized as a documentary - shaky camera, confused people interviewed; all this creates a very realistic effect. In the eviction process Van der Merwe spills some strange black liquid over himself, which provokes the process of DNA transformation. He is going to turn in a mollusk in a couple of days.

In fact, one can find that District 9 has much in common with the world's best sci-fi movies. The "shaky camera" technique has already plunged the spectators in the terrifying atmosphere in Matt Reeves's Cloverfield (2008), the inscriptions like "MNU headquarters" or "72 hours after exposure" were already self-printing on the screen in the immortal X-files… We see the eyes of the aliens, wide-set and full of sorrow, and remember unwillingly the cute E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, created by Spielberg in 1982. And as for the robot run by Wikus in the final part, it seems as though fully borrowed from Cameron's sensational Avatar. But despite all these noticeable parallels, the movie remains unique and distinctive. Peter Jackson shouldn't have regretted his investments in Blomkamp's talent, because the young director managed to take the best from his predecessors and create something absolutely special.

One of the most attractive things in the film is the way the main hero changes from the beginning up to the end. Wicus van der Merwe goes through not only physical, but also moral evolution. The unpleasant office toady who burns the alien's eggs with maniac delight in the beginning, turns practically into a noble hero who defends the neglected extra-terrestrials and sacrifices his future for them. Silly sputter and idiotic smile give place to uncommon physical force and fearless look of different eyes of a human and an alien ones in the end.

The moral message of District 9 is quite complicated and philosophic. The despised aliens proved to be much more "humane" with their love for kids and touching homesickness than humans themselves with their cruelty and obsession over weapon and money.