DISTRICT 9 Review:
- I had a feeling about this one. Ever since I heard that Peter Jackson was working with a young new director named Neil Blomkamp on a modestly-budgeted sci-fi movie called District 9, I was intrigued. Amidst all of the big-name summer blockbusters that everyone knew about, this one seemed to have all the makings of a sleeper hit. After all, Peter Jackson is the man behind the most awe-inspiring movie franchise of this decade in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and this new guy, Blomkamp, who had originally been hand-picked by Jackson to direct the now-defunct Halo movie, seemed like maybe, just maybe, he had the chops to be the next big thing. But having just come back from seeing District 9, I stand before you somewhat blown away by what I have just seen. Given the movie's indie-sized budget, and given the tone of the ads and trailers, I was expecting a nice little movie with some cool ideas and concepts ... you know, a more thoughtful, more cerebral sort of sci-fi film.
And yeah, District 9 is plenty thoughtful and plenty cerebral ... but ... ho-lee crap, it's also a white-hot nitro burst of flaming intensity, that will both blow your mind and explode your eyeballs. Despite what accounting sheets might indicate, Blomkamp and Jackson have created a sci-fi blockbuster of epic proportions, one that's not quite like anything we've seen before. Gloriously brutal, disturbingly intense, and completely surprising, District 9 is one of the landmark movies of 2009.
District 9, via a documentary-style presentation, immediately throws us into the game-changing reality of its world, where twenty years ago an alien spacecraft landed on earth, above Johannasberg. Soon after, the odd-looking aliens that arrived in the craft have been sequestered in a slum-like ghetto known as District 9. These aliens, called by the derogatory term "prawns" (due to their shrimp-like appearance), remain somewhat mysterious to us throughout the movie. We're not sure how they ended up on earth, why they arrived with a massive stockpile of weapons that they are mostly unable or unwilling to use, or why their mothership hovers ominously over South Africa yet seems to be stuck high in the air. What we do know is that the prawns (and it's a tribute to the movie that it almost feels wrong to call them that) are fairly intelligent and eventually learned to understand English. They have a strange compulsion to eat cat food, which has a mind-numbing effect on them. And though they are leaderless and unorganized, there are those among them who have been silently plotting ways to escape their captivity.
The film starts out on a smaller-scale, almost quirky note as we meet our main character, the oddly-named Wikus Van De Merwe, played by newcomer Sharlto Copley. Honestly, I think that Copley's performance here and the nature of Wikus' character is going to be a hotly-debated aspect of the movie for a long time to come. If nothing else, Wikus is a complete departure from the typical protaganist of this kind of movie. He's basically an ass - a skinny, dweeby sort of fellow who is almost like a South African version of The Office's Michael Scott. Actually, his oblivious and spineless nature, and his faux-confidence, reminded me a lot of Murray, the character that Rhys Darby plays on Flight of the Conchords, if you can believe that. Wikus works for the MNU, a special organization charged with studying, containing, and interacting with the prawns. Of course, Wikus only achieved his management position due to the fact that he happened to marry his boss' daughter. But he's not just some harmlessly annoying middle-manager - the work that Wikus and his team do in District 9 is genuinely horrifying, and you can't help but draw the parallels between District 9 and the Apartheid-era slums of South Africa, or even the European ghettos set up by the Nazis prior to World War II. Even worse, the MNU is in the process of evicting the prawns from their homes in order to transport them to District 10 - for all intents and purposes, a concentration camp. It's a dark, cautionary nod to previous crimes against humanity, and a fitting metaphor that calls to mind the sci-fi parables of Rod Serling and the like.
But back to Copley as Wikus, he really is one of the oddest lead characters you'll ever see in a movie, in that every time you really feel for the guy and begin to root for him, he reveals himself to be the same self-centered, snivelling coward that he's been all along. On one hand, it's fascinating. On the other, it can at times hurt the narrative momentum of the movie, when so many moments of apparent character growth in fact turn out to be red herrings. But even though there were times when you want to groan in disbelief at Wikus, at the same time, I found myself amazed at the fact that Blomkamp almost never succumbed to any Hollywood movie cliches. It definitely took a lot of nerve on his part to craft such an uncoventional storyarc featuring such an oddball and oftentimes unsympathetic character.
But it's also an amazing tribute to the movie's creative team that, despite having such a relatively unlikable main character, you still find yourself glued to his every move. The way that District 9's plot unravels, the way that it starts out as this intimate documentary-style film and then explodes into an all-out, balls-to-the-wall action epic, is simply brilliant. I don't want to talk too much about any of the big twists or turns here - District 9 is a movie that works as well as it does because it defies expectation at every turn. I mean, for a movie that employs a documentary style for much of its running time, rarely have I seen a film that is so constantly, viscerally exciting. I mean, holy lord, I had heard all of the hype, but never did I expect to see some of the most badass and off-the-chain action sequences ever seen in a sci-fi flick. Sure, there are tons of interesting philisophical and political ideas at the heart of District 9. But what elevates this movie to that whole other level is the combination of those ideas with action that makes you cringe, that makes you smile, that makes you cheer. Again, I don't want to spoil too much here. But man, when we start seeing some of those alien weapons being put to use, hot damn, the result is EPIC DESTRUCTION on a massive scale. Okay, dammit, I have to at least give a little tease of some of the crazy stuff that goes on in this one ... all I can say is that, oh my god, this movie has the coolest mecha-robot fight scene since the ED-209 battled Robocop all those years ago. Yep, you heard me. Intrigued? Hells yeah, baby, you should be. Suffice it to say, the carnage in this movie is just crazy, and directed with style and aplomb by Blomkamp. With one movie, he's shot to the top of the list of directors who you want at the helm of the biggest and best blockbusters out there.
It's not just District 9's action that looks amazing - the whole movie is a visual tour de force, and that is absolutely mind boggling given its meager $30-million dollar budget. What makes this look like a $100-million dollar-plus movie is that every single shot is there for a reason. We only get a couple of glimpses of the alien mothership, for example. But when we do see it, damn, is it epic-looking. And the aliens themselves look great. It's not just the detail of the costumes and CGI work, either. It's the little things - the way they move, the way they talk - you buy them 100% as being real.
Meanwhile, both in the action scenes and in general, District 9 is a brutal movie that pulls no punches. There are scenes that are shocking and disturbing. Some of the violence is more on the cartoonish side, but some is hard to watch given the disturbing context in relation to the plot. This is a movie that shows humanity at its worst, and it's one that makes you wonder how people really would react if odd-looking alien lifeforms suddenly landed on our planet. There are also some very horror-movie-like moments that call to mind the slow-burn creepiness of films like The Fly. In fact, these are some of the best bits of the film, as Wikus is such an unlikely "hero", far removed from being a brave soldier type, that all the crazy stuff that happens to him has that added element of reality. We've seen countless movies where some alpha-male hero has to endure pain and suffering and crazy circumstances, but how many movies have all of this happen to some dorky cubicle-dweller? Wikus' constant, frantic, and heavily-accented cursing is pretty funny at times, actually, but it works because hey, if most of us were in his shoes, we'd be rambling, ranting, raving, and screaming out f-bombs too.
As I alluded to earlier, the movie does have its flaws, particularly in terms of Wikus' very jumpy character arc. Without going into details, you kind of get lulled into rooting for him, only to have the rug pulled out from under you - and the result is that some of his changes of heart feel a bit rushed or out-of-nowhere, particularly towards the end of the movie. I also wonder if Copley just plays Wikus too broad at times. He is so unusual a character that he is fascinating to watch, but sometime it does feel like you're getting a quasi-comedic performance when perhaps a completely serious approach might have worked better or been more effective. Maybe it was just Wikus' Daniel Plainview-like mustache that elicited the comparison, but at times I wondered how an actor like Daniel Day Lewis - someone with more real dramatic chops - would have fared in the role.
The other thing about the movie which might bother some is just how ambiguous it is in some respects. This is a film that leaves A LOT to the imagination. Personally, the more I think about it, the more I like the fact that so many of District 9's details are left for us to fill in on our own. The movie takes us on a thrilling, intense, awe-inspiring ride, and then leaves it to us to disuss and speculate on the details behind the story. That's cool, and hey, there's always a potential sequel to fill in some of the blanks.
But regardless of whether or not a "District 10" is ever made, what's so great about District 9 is that it's the rare movie where you watch it and feel like you're witnessing the birth of a landmark franchise, and the emergence of a brave new voice in the world of filmmaking. Not based on a book or graphic novel. Not a remake. Not a sequel. Not a movie that conforms to any of the usual Hollywood conventions. This is something all-new, all-different, and not at all what I was expecting. There is some messiness, some spotty acting here and there, some jumpiness in the plotting. But oh man, rarely have I sat through a film so completely engrossed, simply wanting to see more and not wanting it to end. Rarely have I seen a movie that is this contemplative and cerebral and yet this packed with applause-worthy "holy-$#%&" moments. Mr. Blomkamp, with District 9 you have just thoroughly kicked the Hollywood studios and the moviegoing public in the ass, and all I can say to you is "thank you, Sir, may I have another?"
My Grade: A
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