Starring Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope
Score 8.5 out of 10
Terminator Salvation could learn a thing or two from District 9. The former movie, with a budget of over $200 million, was an unintentionally funny attempt to show the evolution of humanity in the melding of two species that are at war with one another. District 9 does the same, but worlds better and for a fraction of the budget. Special effects are great, but memorable films live and die on great acting and screenwriting. District 9 is certainly memorable.
Shot in part as a faux documentary, District 9 brings first-time director Blomkist's vision of alien refugees landing on Earth and the human reaction to them. Once the film begins 20 years has passed since the alien ship, which is still hovering ominously over Johannesburg, first arrived. The aliens, nicknamed "prawns" for their shrimp like face tentacles, have been forced to live as second-class citizens in a slum known as District 9. When the weapons manufacturer who has taken on the cost of the aliens' "care" (in exchange for trying to figure out how to use their weaponry, which is tied to their DNA) decides to move the creatures away from the city and Wikus Van De Merwe (Copley), the man in charge of the operation, comes in contact with a small canister in District 9, the movie opens up into something that's more interesting and reflective than any other science fiction film in recent memory. A definite must-see.
