District 9

Review by Sean Lynch

It's rare these days for a film like District 9 to come along in which you literally can't predict whats going to happen from one moment to the next.

In fact, mainstream film making is almost at a stage where it's pointless to complain about it - because highly skilled chipmunks, explosions and Fast & The Furious 47 : Ford Fiesta's Revenge are all that the public seems to want... and get.

Thankfully Peter Jackson (Lord Of The Rings), and a handful of other film makers, aren't giving up on us just yet.

In fact, they are raising the bar with District 9 - mashing together at least three mutually exclusive genres and turning them into something truly sublime.

For those who haven't been following the wonderful viral Internet marketing of the film (there is some great stuff floating around if you have the time to waste at work), District 9 is a "documentary".

As "history" tells us, thirty years ago aliens made first contact with Earth.

Humans waited for the hostile attack, or the giant advances in technology. Neither came. Instead, the aliens were refugees, the last survivors of their home world.

The creatures (or "Prawns" as they are known) were set up in a makeshift home in South Africa's District 9 as the world's nations argued over what to do with them.

Twenty years later, patience over the alien situation ran out. Control over the alien-prawn situation was subsequently contracted out to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company uninterested in the aliens' welfare...

It's a company also destined to make enormous profits if they manage to make the aliens' space-age weaponry work.

Combining a mixture of interviews with "experts" looking back at events, footage taken during the political shit storm of MNU field operative Wikus van der Merwe, and the occasional "real-time" cutaway - District 9 delivers some truly compelling storytelling.

Using a cast of unknowns (Sharlto Copley delivers a stellar performance as the Clarke Kent-esque Wikus), as well as setting the film in Johannesburg (far away from the "seen it all before" world of NYC), director Neill Blomkamp somehow manages to lure the audience deep inside the realistic alternate dimension he has created - and keeps them there for the entire ride.

It's Cloverfield meets Alien with a dash of Transformers - the ultimate blockbuster recipe - and is deliciously layered, fresh and utterly captivating from beginning to end.

District  9 is so wondrously original, smart, intense and action packed - it's hard to see another film coming close to challenging it for the mantle as one of the best flicks of 2009.

5 out of 5

District 9
Australian release: 13th August, 2009
Official Site: District 9
Cast: Sharlto Copley, David James, Jason Cope, Mandla Gaduka, Vanessa Haywood
Director: Neill Blomkamp