District 9

Its not often I do a movie post, last time I did one was a year ago for the classic Dr. Strangelove. Last night Marcus, Stu and myself went to the cinema to see District 9, which is a science fiction film about aliens coming to Earth.

Alien spacecraft over JHB

Most films which see aliens visiting Earth normally end up in the aliens, obviously a far more superior race, destroying the white house or impregnating humans from which aliens burst out of their stomachs. So this is a completely refreshing film as it casts the aliens as refugees. They arrive on Earth and decide to go to Johannesburg, rather than Washington DC, LA or New York as with most other feature films of the same genre, something which the film highlights and is very refreshing.

The films setting in South Africa is obviously related to the apartheid and “District 9”, the slum where the aliens live, is based on District 6, a real life former inner-city residential area of Cape Town where forced removal occured, which is also a theme of the movie. The trailer pretty much gives nothing away about the content of the actual film, which is another thumbs up as typically the trailer is actually just the highlights for all the best bits of a film –

The film is directed by Peter Jackson Neill Blomkamp and produced by Peter Jackon who is famous for the Lord of the Rings films but also known for his comedy horror films Bad Taste and Braindead so there’s a lot of body parts flying everywhere when the guns start shooting in this film, but they are so well filmed its a strange pleasure to watch.

The central character of the film is fantastic and a newcomer to movies Sharlto Copley, a completely believeable character, in fact as the film draws to a close as I started to question if maybe this wasn’t a science fiction film at all but a real life documentary, which is half how the film is portrayed.

Alien Eviction from District 9

So if you like science fiction, horror, action, alternate reality and politcal movies you must see this film. It’s the best sci-fi film I’ve seen since I can’t remember when!