District 9

As an action movie, District 9 is exceptional. It takes risks. For one, the inventive step of taking place in Johannesburg, South Africa instead of the typical alien landing spots in movies like New York City. Another, making the aliens look pretty inhuman (unlike the inoffensive aliens in Alien Nation, which I’ve seen D9 compared to). That you ultimately get over their offputting appearance and sympathize with them (I really cared and rooted for Christopher Johnson, and somehow his kid was adorable), shows how well the film works. But what really distinguishes D9 and what it has really been praised for is its metaphor for Apartheid. It doesn’t shy away from condemning humanity – it gets pretty dark.

Though I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed with how it went for the high action route. For the first half it runs with the Apartheid/xenophobia premise, employing a faux-documentary approach with interviews, news footage, and first-hand recording. And it was really compelling, because it was an interesting world Neill Blomkamp set up, if just for the sociological angle. But Blomkamp soon breaks completely with the documentary-format completely (which felt like a pretty rough break of style for me). Michael Phillips makes a good point on that. It strays into the violent, high-body-count kind of action movie (which I have a conflicted relationship to), but, then again, the graphic violence might be understandable given the context and subject matter. According to the LA Times article: “Grappling with the larger social commentary about apartheid and minority rule he wanted to make, however, Blomkamp worried the film would become too serious and oppressive and that it ‘wouldn’t be entertaining on a popcorn level.’”

But maybe it’s nitpicking. Even if it aspires to be “entertaining on a popcorn level,” D9 distinguishes itself from other action blockbusters for its inventive, daring, and rich premise that Blomkamp doesn’t shy too much away from, especially with the challenging themes and implications.