District 9

District 9 is defiantly not a movie for everyone. If you are not a fan of Sci-Fi movies or are one who can't stomach typical Sci-Fi violence then you most likely will not enjoy this movie. But if you can get past those things you are in for a very original movie where the aliens are not necessarily the bad guys and the humans not the good guys.


The movie starts by setting up the plot in a documentary like way. We learn that the aliens arrived in South Africa twenty years ago when their ship just stopped working. For 3 months the ship just hovered over the skies of Johannesburg with no activity of any kind until the humans cut their way into the ship to find the aliens malnourished and in very poor health. That is when District 9 is set up as a home for the aliens that over the twenty years becomes a slum and the residents of Johannesburg have had enough. Enter MNU tasked with evicting the aliens and moving them to a new home far away from the humans.


It is at this point that the movie really starts to take shape. We learn that MNU is more interested in the aliens weapons then their well being. The problem is the weapons are bio-engineered only to work for the aliens. Enter Wikus (the perfect fall guy should things go wrong), the man MNU has tasked with evicting the aliens who are called prawns in a derogatory way. While evicting the aliens Wikus comes across one alien who has developed an item that can help him and the other aliens get out of District 9 and return to their home planet. For the sake of those of you who have yet to see the movie I will leave it at that. Lets just say that things do not go as planned for either side.


The reason this movie worked for me is because it touched on so many aspects of human life. I have a feeling that if aliens where to show up on Earth they would be treated very much like those in District 9. There have been many comparisons of this movie to the apartheid in South Africa and that can not be ignored because these aliens really are treated like second class citizens who have little worth. In the end though the movie shows us what can happen if we can look past others differences and work together. District 9 is rated R, mainly for language and gory violence.