Reviews of the Past: District 9 Borrows Without Paying Back

From January 10, 2010:

My erstwhile vacation not only led me to the multiplex, it also allowed me to take in some random movies rented at friends' and family's homes or that were lent to me on recommendation. One film I caught quite unexpectedly was District 9. I consented to watch this film because I had heard some good word-of-mouth buzz at or around the time of its release and because the illustrious Peter Jackson's name was attached to it. Now, he was only an executive producer, but I thought he might have offered some helpful hints on horror directing or something useful and artistically entertaining to actual director Neill Blomkamp's vision. Plus, the apartheid allegory of the plot suggested some intelligence injected to an otherwise run-of-the-mill alien invasion-type science fiction film, so I gave it a whirl.

District 9 refers to the equivalent of a concentration camp or internment camp for aliens who have come to visit but have been somehow unable to leave. Told from the perspective of an alternate, contemporary reality, the story follows an alien spaceship (in the strain of "V") that punctured Earth's atmosphere twenty years ago, hovering above the city of Johannesberg, South Africa, yielding extraterrestrials that resemble large cockroaches. Some unidentified problem has rendered the aliens and their craft virtually powerless, and humanity's response to the visitors has been largely predictable per our race's sorted history. Curiosity morphed into fear, as the formerly free-roaming aliens became less ruly, not bound by the laws, rules, and cultural norms of the human race; therefore, the aliens were first segregated and then interred into a section of the city called District 9, where they live in squallor and interact with the dregs of South African society. An international agency, the name of which I can't remember right now, decides that the alien population, which has grown in size in twenty years, must be moved to a larger, more secluded area away from the humans and undertakes an eviction initiative where the lucky yet hapless bureaucrat in charge, Wikus Van Der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), must lead the door-to-door program that copiously infringes upon individual rights in favor of irrational prejudices. Unknown to Wikus, however, the aliens have developed a plan to change their fortunes, which may have disastrous consequences for the host planet that has imprisoned them.

I am a science fiction fan. I have watched a lot of science fiction in my time. Some of it is formulaic, but science fiction is not a genre that has become confined by its formula. Every so often, a new premise will emerge that injects the genre with a new excitement and garners new viewers by the hordes, including traditionally non-science fiction fans.

Some viewers of District 9 see the film as one such example of a science fiction vehicle that has somehow breathed life into what is perceived to be a stagnant genre. First, I'm not so sure that the genre has truly stagnated, except for the fact that few new vehicles have been released in recent years, much less purely original ideas of the type that inspire the loyalty previously discussed. Second, and more importantly, District 9 is really not that original. It liberally borrows concepts and plot devices from other science fiction films and television in an obvious and hackneyed way. Oil that can change a human to an alien? Try the X-Files. An omnipresent spacecraft with aliens and humans trying to co-exist? Try V, except that the humans do not have inconvenient human-skin costumes confusing the proceedings. The voices of the aliens sound like they are recycled from Star Wars, and the insect-like alien types themselves hearken back to Starship Troopers. When Wikus finds himself inside the alien technology and operates it with his mind, it crosses the intellectual property boundaries of Aliens, the Star Wars prequels, Minority Report, and virtually every virtual reality film released in the last two decades. Speaking of Minority Report, it also explores social themes and cultural philosophy like that other film, only in a more in-your-face, club-one-over-the-head, slightly manipulative way.

Sometimes, the visual effects and spectacle of a film can distract the viewer from some of these obvious robberies and recyclables, but, unfortunately, the visual effects and action aren't exactly new ideas or that well executed in District 9. When the alien beings are not inside buildings and are being illuminated by what is supposed to pass for the South African sunshine, they look like three-dimensional, plastic action figures being posed and re-posed for shot after shot and generally played as some of the poorest CGI seen in a movie in awhile. In some ways, I was reminded of some of the 50s and 60s scifi films, only the alien protoypes were not crude, per se. They looked better in interior settings, particularly the shack and underground ship of the primary alien who eventually teams up with Wikus to undermine the efforts of the alien-human liaison agency responsible for the eviction initiative.

While Blomkamp adopted a documentary film-style approach to give the storytelling a fresh and original aspect that might have subdued the fiction half of the science fiction and allowed the film to meditate on its social commentary for the viewer's benefit, this approach would do little to fool an avid science fiction fan, such as myself, of the other borrowed story conventions. Additionally, some of the performances of this largely unknown (because they are South African) cast bordered on over-the-top and, therefore, slightly ridiculous (though some responses seemed natural too). The ridiculous and overly-theatrical performance qualities actually inspired me to laugh on occasion, which I do not believe was the filmmakers' intention at all.

I sat down to watch this film with very few expectations, but when the film stopped, it struck me as largely unoriginal and silly. I understood what this director was trying to do, and for my money, his attempts at taking a fresh film-making approach are certainly something to be appreciated, but the rest of the film betrayed a mediocrity that I'm surprised other viewers don't see, especially other self-proclaimed science fiction fans. I also don't understand why the Directors Guild of America almost elected this director as a possible nominee for its top annual prize, though I do believe that Blomkamp has a lot of potential that may better be devoted toward other films with slightly larger budgets. Ultimately, I felt District 9 was the very definition of hackneyed in just about every way (not even being the first science fiction film to toy with social allegory), and that the documentary technique was its only redeeming feature. While others will no doubt disagree (but this is my blog, so it is what it is), I believe District 9 merits a 5 for utterly mediocre on the patented ratings scale. It also does not pass the test. Between the impulse to laugh and the impulse to sleep battling their ways through my brain while watching this film (and I'm pretty sure the film is not supposed to be a comedy), I don't think I would benefit from owning it. Still, to those who enjoy District 9, I highly recommend the other scifi vehicles discussed in this entry that served as obvious influences to the storytellers here, and to those who would watch District 9 anyway, decide for yourselves whether the film pays its debt to the sources from which it so liberally borrows in its final product.