"District 9"

Innovating and unpredictable!

I was supriced to see a movie dropped so suddenly from "Mister Lord of The Rings" Peter Jackson Himself without hearing about it months in advance - he has become something of an icon after the epic trilogy he so masterly assembled.

None the less, it didn't matter much - it almost improved the experience once you had no idea what you were going to!

The movie itself was at first mostly designed as a documentary - telling and showing the tale of a gigantic alien spacecraft that for some reason stationed itself over Johannesburg, South Africa. And to everyone's surprise, went into a completely idle state. Eventually the government decided to enter the alien craft, and within they found thousands of aliens - starving. International pressure then forces the government to bring the aliens out and help them, and they are stationed in camps right beneath the floating loitering alien craft.

And that's where the fun begins. Humans, racist by nature as they are, quickly nickname the aliens "prawns" in an attempt to degrade and patronize them. The aliens, who act sort of like ants without an ant-queen, wander aimlessly around, starting to copy human behavior.

The movie starts sort of like a short story - tossing you into the action, 20 years after the alien ship first came to earth, and when the situation between humans and aliens have grown tense and uncomfortable. The plot follows MNU-Field Operative Wikus Van De Merwe, whose role in the movie takes a turn for the worse and forces him to realize that there is always two sides of a coin.

The film gave me a sort of "Cloverfield"-wibe, wrapping the encounter with aliens into a realistic and human package - all of the reactions, the exploitations, the racism and the tension - all aspects to be found in our own human history, and not at all unlikely to occur in a situation like this.

The way it is told is also an impressive achievement - the semi-documentary style strengthens the realism, as well as giving the whole film an innovating twist.

Worth seeing, ladies and gentlemen!

Sincerely
JanaMart