Movie Review: District 9

"Alive in Joburg".

This video was the inspiration for the movie "District 9". The actor who plays the caucasian helicopter sniper in this short was the main character in the movie version.

The movie "District 9" starts much like this short film. It's a documentary format about the Wigus Incident. In 1982 an alien craft coasted to a stop over Johannesburg, South Africa. After sitting there doing nothing for 3 months we boarded it and found about a million sick aliens living in filth. They were transported to a slum below their ship. Now it's 2010. The slum is now a compound in which the aliens are held. We can't make their ship work. We can't make their weapons work. The locals live in fear of these creatures.

Wikus Van De Merwe is a happy but not bright looking man who has been given the job of moving the aliens to a new compound. The documentary follows his promotion, what we know about the aliens, and the serving of eviction notices to the slum dwellers. Along the way they find illegal weapons, illegal technology, and even illegal children.

Wikus also finds something that will ruin his life and make him wanted by every government, weapons corp, and gangster in South Africa and everywhere else as well. The only thing he can do is turn to the aliens for help.

By the end of the movie you come to seriously dislike your own species.

Slowly, the movie integrates more and more footage that isn't part of the documentary until the movie is almost all action/sci-fi. You walk out of the movie talking and thinking. Partially, you're wondering about a lot that came before and will come after the movie. You're also thinking about the underlying message about racism and apartheid, some of which you got from the short film above.

I will be getting this on DVD. I highly recommend this movie to pretty much anyone.