District X: Episode 0 (a.k.a. District 9)

The movie that came out of nowhere… Produced and sponsored by Peter Jackson. Made for cheap and heavily advertised, it went to make a huge profit. Not bad for a guy whose first movies were short films on Youtube.

 

While I did enjoy the movie, I didn’t understand what all the hype was about. Yes, it does have a story, and is story-driven, AND it’s not Transformers 2… But, the story has more plot holes than actual plot lines. And I didn’t care for the main character, at all.

 

The following review contains SPOILERS. I repeat, SPOILER ALERT. You have been WARNED!

 

The story about a space ship that appeared out of nowhere and stopped over Johannesburg seems very promising. The first few minutes with their documentary-style really attracted my attention. But I guess the movie was like a pretty girl who was pretty until she started speaking.

 

If the movie didn’t try to be big on the story, I wouldn’t have minded, but to try to be story-centric and then deliver a mediocre one is baaaaad in my book. The movie fails to answer a lot of the questions that it asks, giving you the impression that the story is incomplete. The biggest mistake they made was the 20-year time gap between the arrivals of the aliens and the events of the movie. 20 YEARS!!! That’s a lot of time… If the aliens were sick when they arrived and the humans helped them and reallocated them. Did we learn anything about them (except that they love cat food)? Nope. Nothing. Did the movie tell us how come they were prefectly adapted to the Earth’s atmosphere and gravity? Nope. Are we given any explanation on how come humans and aliens are able to understand each other without speaking the same language and without even being able to replicate the same sounds? Nope. I don’t even think that it is humanly possible to replicate these clicks. Do we know anything about their government system, their society, religion(s), anatomy and physiology? Nope. Did anyone try to board the ship and dismantle it, know its energy source, flight logs, operating mode, loaded weapons? Why wasn’t the ship destroyed after the evacuation of the aliens? So many questions.

 

But the most important question that was left unanswered is why they came to earth? Refugees? Then why pack such kick-ass weapons? Which brings me to the point of how come were these weapons brought to earth from the ship if the evacuations were done by humans? And if you had such awesome weapons that can only be used by your kind, why beg for food when you can take it? Why stand so much humiliation for 20 YEARS without doing something about it? Wasn’t any of these aliens interrogated to find their purpose? Why wasn’t the city evacuated for fear of something so massive as the mothership to fall down? And speaking about falling down, why did the little shuttle fall down? And why was it needed for the operation of the ship? And how come no one found it, again for 20 YEARS?!!! Why, why and a million other whys?

 

And here is another why: why do I care? Because the movie could have been GREAT. It could have been a whole new sci-fi universe that could rival Star Wars, Trek and Battlestar Galactica. But no. It was just a wasted opportunity. I don’t care that the movie was made for cheap. Look at The Fountain. It was made for real cheap! And it delivered a great, minimalistic story that respected its budget while answering most of its questions.

 

This brings us to the point of looks. The movie is a looker and I think after watching this movie two persons committed suicide right away: whoever was responsible for the Halo movie in both Microsoft and Universal. A Halo movie with these filming techniques and visuals would have been massive… It could have been the biggest blockbuster for many years, looking at home much the game is popular. The special effects in District 9 are life-like, gritty and believable. Too bad that the story wasn’t given the same attention to details. Great job by the WETA guys. After all, the made Lord of the Rings visuals!

 

For a movie that was shot by a South African and filmed in South Africa, I think the movie is racist! There is not a single good black character, except for Wikus’s assistant who is a total noob! The bad, non-alien guys are black, and they are (surprise, surprise) Nigerian. Nigerian? Why Nigerian? Why not South African? And why not white, or a mixture of both? And it’s really ironic that Wikus can understand the clicks of the aliens, but he can’t understand the Swahili or whatever these Nigerians are speaking… Ironic, isn’t it?

 

So, after everything is said, this is a good movie that could have been great. It was a commercial and critical hit, which means that District 10 is only a matter of time! Which makes District 9 nothing more than a pilot movie, a proof of concept and a test drive to the abilities of Neil Blomkamp… And as Christopher the Prawn told Wikus that he will be back in 3 years, I am waiting for the sequel in 3 years.

 

I didn’t hate the movie, but I was pissed off because I was expecting something great. The hype was incredible and I did put myself in my radio silence mode and avoided any distractions from trailers and reviews. But I wanted more… The Amorphous Snake is disappointed… 3.5/5.

 

P.S. I guess after reading this you must be shaking your head at disbelief and saying, “All this criticism and he gives it 3.5/5”. And my answer is that I could have gladly given it 5/5 if it had filled the clothes it made for itself. It’s a nice first effort, and it has great action and visuals for a $30 million movie, but when you start something, you finish it. Look how Battlestar Galactica’s pilot was. It didn’t fill in all the details about the Cylons, but the movie was about the human survival and the Cylons were a mystery to us and the movie didn’t try to give you conclusions, but asked you to focus your attention elsewhere and allowed you to fill in the gaps with your imagination, but the gaps were small gaps, not lunar craters!