District 9 (Short film review)

District 9 is a dystopian sci-fi film which follows the character of Wikus who is to evict aliens living in District 9, to relocate them to a new District 10. These aliens arrived on earth in Johannesburg after having been neglected from their own planet and have arrived on earth. Throughout the film the audience gradually see how badly they are treated by the humans, through being put into the slum District 9 and always referred to and named by the humans with the derogatory name ‘prawns’. The audience are also highly manipulated through the media that the MNU (which is represented as another character in the film through its significance) uses as control on the humans and aliens. There is a very strong realist message through the use of these prawns in connection to apartheid in Johannesburg today which is intriguing Blomkamp adds this (as it is also his hometown), due to it being a sci-fi film and that its original purpose as a film was to be a video-game spin-off.

There is a mastery with the visual effects in this film. The documentary-style way of filmmaking within the film makes it hard to not create mistakes with the realistic CG alien characters and they are created without flaw. The alien character of Chris and his son also elicits an emotional response from the audience which is significant and shows the extent of how well done the visual effects were. In a guardian review by Peter Bradshaw, he puts it to the performance of Sharlto Copley as Wikus. However, though the performance of this new star Copley was exceptional, there was a high artistry from the visual effects team for their work on the aliens that also has to be noted, because without that there would be a lack of sympathy and support for these aliens against humans. Furthermore, the resolution would also lack if the audience were not be happy for Chris to leave in the mothership in hope for the future to come back and help the remaining aliens living on earth (and Wikus).

The film follows narrative theory well, with using Todorov's 3 and 5 stage structures and effectively combining the use of Levi Straus’ Binary Opposites with the juxtaposition of the aliens and the humans and their presentations and representations of both moral good vs evil. However, it can be argued that the resolution lacks through a lack of satisfaction with the cliffhanger ending, and not knowing whether Chris will return for Wikus. Although we do see Wikus for the last time, here now as a fully transformed alien making a flower for his wife, showing he is still human and the same Wikus, just now in a different and discriminated body.