District 9

For the first twenty minutes of the film, we are watching the greatest mockumentary conceived. More intelligent than "Forgotten Silver" and funnier than "This Is Spinal Tap." The Mockumentary footage serves to set up our hero, a well meaning but misguided man named Wilkus Van De Merwe. It serves as Backstory, a huge flying saucer had shown up over Johannesburg twenty years ago, stranding large amounts of aliens here on Earth. The Aliens end up living in slums. Have become the targets of prejudice. Where there is poverty, there is crime. It sets up the organizations that hopes to contain them. The conflicts that have arisen because of them, and several insights on the causes of certain sociological problems in the world today. Particularly, ones close to the heart of people in South Africa

The sequence starts out with a very even handed, detached perspective, but leans more towards the side of the Aliens as victims as it goes on. These creatures, of course, aren't innocent. They kill people. It's made very clear that they really don't have a problem killing some unlucky sap who wanders on their property, or if they simply have something they want. We are not shown what is a misunderstanding, what situations they may or may not have been merely defending themselves. It's irrelevant.

Now that we have the set up, we enter a more traditional narrative with bits of the mockumentary mixed in. This is the road not traveled. The film was more interesting before it became an action film. Instead of taking the "Twilight Zone" route to show De Merwe's change of heart (which is something I will not reveal, as it is set up like a plot twist when it is in fact the plot itself), how about merely have him learn through constant exposure to the creatures?

Instead of having violent shoot outs, how about continue with this amazing mockumentary? You've already show off superior direction, superior acting, superior writing, do we really need to add more violence to a film that justifies it's R rating within twenty minutes?

I know I am being unfair. These twists were unwanted by me, but I still enjoyed them. I still think they pulled everything off the best way possible. I should be thinking about the movie on screen, but I keep thinking back to the movie it was originally, the movie I thought would end up being a classic. A movie that deals with moral complexities. De Merwe could have easily been a bad guy, based soley on ignorance alone.

Instead, we get bad guys who are heartless for no reason. Prejudice without purpose. That does not address the real issues at hand. Perhaps that's the film's greatest weakness (as opposed to my perceived weaknesses). It's not optimistic to think that people wouldn't be this evil. In fact, I'm sure a fraction of the people would. But everyone in some sort of uniform is a bloodthirsty killer? Now that is doubtful. Villains who are ignorant, well meaning, but horribly misguided people are far more interesting. It would make not only for a more complex story, but it would be a better conflict for De Merwe, who was once just like them.

The film is beautiful. It takes us to a very real world (in fact, the slums in this film are actual South African Slums. Only one, where the interiors are frequently used, was built for the production). Sharto Copley is a name we've never heard before, and I hope that changes. His performance was probably the best I've seen all year. With some of the better effects of the year. Compare to Transformers, which cost several times District 9's budget.

Visually astonishing, with a great performances, and a thoughtful story that doesn't go far enough dealing with it's moral complexities. A classic? Unfortunately not. But it's still one of the best films of the year.


***1/2 out of ****

(Edit- This review still contains my exact feelings for the movie. However, the film has managed to grow on me quite a bit despite it's flaws. You can now consider this a four star review)