District 9 = Blair Witch redux?

A couple of weeks ago, we were celebrating some friend's birthdays at a Japanese restaurant. We were discussing what we wanted to do afterward. After some discussion, it was decided we would go see the movie District 9.

Despite being a science fiction fan, I had no idea what District 9 was about. I had not read or watched any previews of the movie. In retrospect, that is the best way to judge how good a movie was.

I won't rehash the plot of the movie as you can get that from many other sites. I will say that the movie was certainly different than any other film that I've seen before. Whether that made the movie better or worst is certainly up for debate.

The first thought that came to mind after watching the movie was that it was partially styled like the 1999 horror film The Blair Witch Project. For those who don't recall the movie, The Blair Witch Project involved three student filmmakers that were filming a documentary about a local legend called the Blair Witch. The movie was recorded in a first person / documentary style and viewed through the eyes of the students as event occurred.

District 9 doesn't copy Blair Witch's style exactly though. The film is presented in a documentary style initially as people are interviewed about the aliens and the events revolving around the lead character Wikus. The movie then transitions to a news reporting style as it follows Wikus while he tries to evict the aliens (or Prawns as they call them in the film) from District 9. After all of this, the movie transitions into your typical summer flick as Wikus comes to terms with his situation (he's been infected and turning in an alien) and what he is going to do about it. The movie reverts back to being a documentary at the end as people are interviewed about the final fate of Wikus. In a sense, District 9 was a documentary, dramatization, news and action film all in one.

From a personal perspective, while the film was interesting, it wasn't a huge favorite of mine. I thought the initial documentary pieces dragged on for far too long and the section following Wikus trying to evict the aliens was a little boring. For someone who had no idea what the film was about, the foreshadowing of Wikus getting infected was given away (in my opinion) way too easily. However, I did guess wrong about Wikus involvement with the aliens. I thought Wikus would somehow side with the aliens in their evil or sinister plans. Alas, if you watched the film, Wikus himself was subjected to experiments and exploitation by various groups of people.

That brought up some other issues with the movie. There was very little discussion about the aliens and their background. The movie played for almost two hours but there was nothing about why the aliens came to earth and why they allowed themselves to be herded into District 9 (and later District 10). The aliens are presented in a menacing fashion initially, but Wikus befriends an alien (named Christopher Johnson) who promises to help Wikus become human again. So obviously, the aliens aren't completely evil.

The other unexplained plot point (it was somewhat convenient in my perspective) is what infected Wikus. It was explained by Christopher that the liquid Wikus discovered prior to being infected was gasoline to get the alien ship moving so they could go home. However, it is unknown if the liquid that sprayed Wikus was just a defense mechanism or the gasoline itself.

All in all, District 9 was a nice change of pace from your typical summer blockbuster as there was a little bit of everything in the film. I think this was the reason why the film generally received positive ratings from various reviews I read.

However, I think District 9 wasn't as good as many of the reviews stated. There were things that I thought were missing or unexplained which detracted from the film. All in all, District 9 was an ok film in my book. It wasn't horrible but wasn't the greatest thing since sliced bread. Check it out for yourself and see it you like it!