Friday, 2 October 2009

District 9 cinema review



Peter Jackson and director Neil Blomkamp are bringing a new type of alien film to our screens with District 9.

The film is about a group of aliens who become stuck on earth after their Mothership breaks down. The people of Johannesburg find them malnourished and so they set up a secure camp for them to live in where they can be separate from the human population.

However, this does not quite work for the locals as the aliens (or ‘prawns’) start to break the rules of their confinement. The authorities decide it’s time for them to be moved outside of Johannesburg into a new camp and so they are all served eviction notices which they are expected to cooperate with.

One vigilante alien has other ideas; he has been running an operation under his home in District 9 where he has been working on a special substance which will enable him to repair the Mothership to take his people home again.
The government agent in charge of the evictions is exposed to the liquid when searching the alien’s home and slowly finds that he is transforming into one of the ‘prawns’.

District 9 is a really interesting film. It’s shot in a documentary style which feels strange at first but really works as you adapt to the technique.
The film is gripping from start to finish and the interaction between the aliens and the humans is great to watch and offers plenty of laughs.
The film feels fresh and quite different to the alien films we usually see, which makes it a brilliant watch.