District 9

District 9

Science Fiction isn’t a genre that has much of a following in the Philippines. My theory is that because of the lack of focus on science in schools, and the growing introversion of society, Pinoys grew up without the sense of wonder that American kids of the 70’s and 80’s grew up with. We lived in an age when Space Shuttle lauches were watched with a quiet awe and where we lived things like Star Trek and Transformers in our heads and wondered what it would be to race among the stars. Remember when every kid you knew wanted to be an astronaut? I do.

Nowadays, I can see why that awe has left us. Reality has set in. We’re no where near where the SciFi greats said we’d be. Where are the robots? The space ships and teleportation pads? We haven’t even reached Mars yet, let alone Proxima Centauri. I don’t remember the last time I saw a scientific breakthrough make it to the news. If it’s not sensationalist coverage of Michael Jackson’s death, then it’s news of impending doom, or the reality of today’s economy sinking in. No one has time to wonder anymore.

And that’s exactly where Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 comes in.

This isn’t the science fiction of Roddenberry’s day; bright utopian futures where no one worries about money and the goal of the human race is the betterment of all the species of the Federation. Nope, Blomkamp’s vision is of a world that wouldn’t be out of place in today’s news headlines. It’s set in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the 90’s, when apartheid was still in effect. If you don’t know what apartheid is, shame on you. The slums of the city are a perfect backdrop to the story’s themes of prejudice and intolerance.

The plot goes like this: Ginormous alien spaceship drops out of the sky and parks itself right outside the city. The government eventually decides to break in and finds a million alien beings, starving in the hold. Government says “Hey, let’s build these guys a slum and take run experiments on them and take any technology we can find”. Naturally, aliens aren’t to happy about it. Local crime lords begin taking advantage of them, tensions rise between alien and human population. Violent, graphic family fun ensues.

It’s sort of a cross between Alien Nation, Blair Witch Project and Independence Day.

The hero of our story is Wikus van de Merwe, an office worker of MNU, a multi-national company that handles military contacts. They are the ones who are handling the security for District 9, the alien slum. When the disturbances between “prawns” (derogatory term for the aliens) and humans increase, and the human population demands their removal, the MNU are tasked to serve the prawns eviction notices. Wikus is promoted to the project manager. Naturally, the eviction and re-location doesn’t go as planned and Wikus finds himself teaming up with a sympathetic alien character, “Christopher” in an attempt to free his people.

While I love documentaries (I’m a PBS - Public Broadcasting Service - fan from way back), I’m not a fan of the “mock documentary” school of filmmaking. I hated Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield did little to redeem the genre for me. I’m of the opinion that there is a reason that hand held camera is reserved for scenes where you want to create tension. However, great storytelling can do wonders. Look at Battlestar Galactica. District 9 actually succeeds in it’s use of handheld because it takes the idea to another level. The whole movie is like a documentary complete with interviews from subject matter experts, candid shots, and the lame, sappy money shots, close ups that are meant to tug at your heartstrings. Of course, there are moments when you’ll be called upon to suspend your disbelief. How can the camera be following Wikus and Christopher into a SECRET underground lab? I don’t know, and I hardly care. The movie is good enough that I barely registered that until the moment was gone.

The effects aren’t the most spectacular. They’re meant to serve the story and the film. Since the film is meant to be a fake documentary, much of it is grainy and from odd agles. Word of advice, don’t eat a lot before sitting down to watch. It can make you queasy. Thankfully, SM cinema has cut out much of the gore that might have tickled my gag reflex. Oh, you’ll see a few dismemberments, and an exploding body or two, but their cut short. Those think they censored a lot of essential stuff can rest easy. The story is intact.

Sadly, I don’t think this kind of movie has much of a chance here in the Philippines. When it came out, it was in what is equivalent to limited release. Not all theaters were screening it, and those that did only had it on 1 screen. Even Megamall. Megamall had Transformers on 6 or 7 screens opening day. It’s really a sad day on Earth when a movie like Transformers is getting more attention than a movie like District 9. If you want to see it in theaters, as it was meant to be seen, go now. Don’t wait. I doubt it’ll last beyond a week and a half.