Districted Analysis.
Jumping far into the future with this review, I recently downloaded the widely successful science fiction/action film DISTRICT 9. Now if I seem harsh with this film it’s because I liked it. So I may just be nit-picking here. But overall I really enjoyed it. It was intense and heartbreaking at points. At first I thought the whole movie was going to be filmed in this stereotypical, documentary style. Which would not have been a bad thing but clearly in order to allow greater storytelling they needed to break that chain, which they do. Pretty ungracefully, it’s like at points they are using the documentary style camerawork as the main character goes around telling aliens they are being evicted and have to move to a place called District 10 which is a glorified alien concentration camp. And the movie calls attention that there is in fact a man holding a camera filming these events, the main character even goes as far as grabbing the camera at one point and pushing it down because he is throwing up and doesn’t want it on tape. But shortly after, the story starts following two of the aliens, or “prawns” as they are referred to, and although the camera still sways and shakes, clearly being held by a man it’s not. The story abandons that concept and the rest of the film is shown as a regular movie would be but still filmed by an intentionally erratic cameraman. Although adding a dose of reality to the events unfolding the camerawork could have been transitioned a little nicer. My other big issue is pretty much the first 15 minutes of the film. There is no graceful introduction to the aliens or the story it just throws you into it. And when we first see the main character interacting with the aliens they show them doing a number of just really silly and cheeky things. They just paint them to be really cartoony.There’s one urinating in public, one cursing, one hiding an obscene amount of weaponry, etc. So it’s hard for you to sympathize with them at first because they have about as much appeal as Gremlins. Whenever there is obviously something silly or a joke it just seems so out of place because the mood of the entire film is incredibly bleak and grim. Also, I don’t know if it was just a bad copy that I watched because the audio was a little muffled but a lot of times the dialogue was a little hard to follow because of the thick African accents. Once the movie got past it’s baby steps it matures a great deal and becomes very enjoyable. The best part for me was seeing the main character evolve into the total bad-ass he becomes later on. He starts out as this geeky and adorable guy that wants to help the aliens and in the end causes many a body to explode in a satisfying and greatly gory fashion. The alien weapons are a sight, they don’t fuck around. Nobody just gets shot in this film, pieces and debris of all manner rain from the sky. It seems sort of unfortunate that more films like this don’t get made that often, I didn’t even really think it was that original or groundbreaking but it felt like it should have been made long ago but never was. If I had to give it a 1-5 rating, I’d go with a 3 and half. And that’s pretty good by my standards. I’m unnecessarily picky.
