District 9

District 9
Direct by Neil Blomkamp

Starring: Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, David James, Mandla Gaduka, and Vanessa Haywood

Runtime of 111 minutes

Rated : R

Disrict 9 was a very impressive movie. Delivering great acting from a cast of relative unknowns, with action and suspense, that once it starts it doesn’t relent until credits roll. With its relatively cheap budget of $30 million, the special effects are incredible, especially when you consider the fact that all of the aliens in the movie are completely CGI. The movie is shot as a combination of faux documentary and as a regular movie, alternating between the two styles to create a movie experience that draws you into the story. Producer Peter Jackson and Director Neil Blomkamp have ended the summer movie season with a bang.

As the movie opens we discover that an alien ship is hovering over Johannesburg, South Africa and it has been there for the last 20 years. The movie cuts to different interviews, as well as newsreel footage, in which we learn that three months after the ship first appeared, military forces decide to go in after growing tired of waiting for something to come out. Once inside they discover the aliens living in their own filth and malnourished. The aliens are brought out of the ship and housed in a government-controlled camp called District 9.

After years of ever growing tension between humans and aliens, control of District 9 has been contracted out to MNU (Multi-National United). MNU is given the task of relocating all 1.8 million aliens a safe distance outside the city. The man in charge of the operation is the recently promoted Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley). As Wikus is in the process of searching a suspicious alien residence he contracts a mysterious virus that begins to change his DNA. On the run and with no place to hide, Wikus must seek refuge in District 9 as he begins his search for a cure.

The lead character Wikis is played excellently by Sharlto Copley, a man unknown to many of us in America, but I think that will change after the exposure he will gain from this movie. Copley’s portrayal of Wikis as he goes from being an office drone to terrorized victim to hero is done in an authentic and believable way.

I walked out of the theater not quite knowing what to say in my review. I knew that I would recommend it because it was a very good and so suspenseful that I didn’t even realize that I had my fists clenched for the last 45 minutes of the movie. I said that to say this, if you enjoy a movie that has suspense, action that actually serves the story and the plot, and has developed the characters so that you are concerned for them, then do yourself a favor and watch this movie.

The Buzz on District 9 is 4 stars out of 5