By Scott Muoio

On the surface, District 9 is a unique aliens come to earth spectacle wrapped in a bit of social commentary and presented as a faux documentary with a decidedly non-American sense of humour. But like the other groundbreaking film of 2009, Avatar, District 9 also falls victim to plotted clichés and a shoot ‘em up second half that looks very much like a cadre of other science fiction thrillers.

The film’s heart and soul is its bumbling main character, Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a lowly beauracratic drone promoted to the position of alien slum evictor because no one wants the job. Van de Merwe takes his promotion very seriously and proves an entertaining dolt who quickly finds his new slum lord role more than he can handle. The slum in question is a dilapidated no man’s land outside of Johannesburg, South Africa, named District 9. The site strictly houses a colony of unusual space aliens whose incapacitated spaceship has been stranded, hovering above the area since 1982. Enter the mustachioed van de Merwe in an attempt to relocate the aliens farther from the city to District 10, an obvious allusion to South Africa’s very real history of apartheid.

Confronting the alien “prawns,” a racial slur that fits their spindly sea creature appearance, proves difficult as the aliens understand English but we can’t really understand their grunts and chirps. Miscommunication and a freak accident lead to van de Merwe’s bizarre transformation into a half-human, half alien renegade caught between private military testing, human gang violence, and alien technological weirdness. Cue the race between van de Merwe, the violent military group, and a secret alien plot that inevitably leads to an explosive showdown and a bit of symbolic moralizing.

Overall District 9 is a breath of fresh air for science fiction aficionados desperate for something outside the norm. Its technical merit and clever ideas make it a bonafide winner. However, for those viewers inherently averse to science fiction, District 9 probably has too much going on to win any converts. Between the aliens, the violence, the social commentary, and the faux documentary sheen District 9 is too weird for the mainstream but an undoubtedly refreshing change of pace for those in the sci-fi know.

Director: Neill Blomkamp

Producer: Peter Jackson, Carolynne Cunningham

Writer: Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell

Starring: Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, David James

Original Music: Clinton Shorter

Cinematographer: Trent Opaloch

Editor: Julian Clarke