District 9: The Best “Government Is Shady” Sci-Fi Flick Since The Entire 80s Decade

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District 9, the Neill Blomkamp-directed, Peter Jackson-produced inversion of a typical alien-invasion story was one of the most simultaneously unique and my-stupid-divergent-brain-pleasing sci-fi/action movies I’ve ever seen.

The film essentially takes the idea of aliens landing on earth — a theme that’s been explored maybe two or three times before in other films (ballpark) — and dilutes the expected grandiose “War of the Worlds” intergalactic battle situation into an extremely mundane and bureaucratic existence for a bunch of sad aliens whose lives on earth are no different than that of any other unwanted, alienated subgroup (alienated, am I right people??? This thing on??? I am typing into a microphone.)

The first hour of the film is just phenomenally engaging, with a pseudo-documentary style that resembles the film Christopher Guest would make if he ever chooses to tackle the subject of understated background alien-violence. The second hour of the film, however, must’ve occurred after someone dared Blomkamp to direct a suddenly batsh*t-crazy actiony-heist movie with a bunch of dudes constantly exploding, which was equally entertaining, though for obviously very different reasons (explosion reasons).

Don’t just take my word for it — District 9 is now the 26th Greatest Film Of All Time:

IMDB District 9

After the jump, my random specific thoughts about District 9 — some spoilers included. ALIEN spoilers. There were aliens in it. SPOILER. That’s one of them.

District 9 – A minor touch, and partly for comic relief, but I loved the doctored news report photos of Wickus having sex with the prawns. With just one altered detail, the government managed to morally alienate Wickus so completely, even his wife had second thoughts about his motives, and Wickus’ resulting frustration was both hilarious and scarily relatable. (Who hasn’t had a friend tag us in a Facebook picture having sex with an alien? All of us have, is the answer.)

– For all the alien surgery and dudes who got shot by lasers and blown up, nothing in the movie was even close to as cringe-worthy as the scene when Wikus noticed his fingernails were falling off. Odd how so often the most stomach-turning images in movies are extremely plausible, minor grossities (see: Jackass papercut scene), whereas exploding heads and limbs flying all over the place are just cartoony and amusing.

District 9 – I also loved that the film revealed the prawns within the first five minutes, forgoing absolutely any cliched suspenseful reveal and instead just dropping the aliens right in there, establishing the film’s completely mundane tone right off the bat. I’m also glad they cut the scene where a dad alien comes home, hangs up his hat, sets his briefcase down, and says “Another day at the office. Man, my dogs are barkin!”

– One plothole that required a bit of a pass from the audience was the idea that the aliens have been working non-stop for 20 years to collect enough “fluid” to power their mothership, and manage to acquire the last drop on the exact day that Wickus is doing his evictions, but whatever, I feel that was more of a filmmaking “just have everything happen all at once” conceit than an actual problem with the story. (”Up until today, we could’ve gotten within ten feet of our planet but nooooottttt quiiiiiite there, but now this little thing my kid found has put us over the Double Dare cup line!”)

District 9 – I also was slightly confused about how some of the aliens were almost simian, tearing the MNU Colonel to shreds with their bare hands, while Christopher Johnson was a brilliant, rational uber-scientist. I guess this could be chalked up to a symbolic human-like class hierarchy even within the world of the prawns? Again, didn’t really have a problem with it. Seeing dudes blow up quickly takes your mind off most minor plot matters.

– There have to be .gifs online of Wickus in the battle-bot shooting the pig at the soldier, right? How has the internet not solely turned into District 9 pig-shooting .gifs? I give it two more days.

– Despite the movie’s many weighty themes — immigration, racism, government persecution, etc. — and therefore high probability for “we get the point” audience eye-rolling, I felt that the documentary portion really adeptly avoiding smashing the audience in the face with too many on-the-nose revelations. Sure, the last shot in the movie was about as subtle as the last shot in The Departed, but District 9 had earned the right to end itself however it wanted in my eyes, plus I can’t imagine another ending to the film that wouldn’t have felt either forced or incomplete, so I ended up completely satisfied.

Actually, it miiiight have been improved slightly if the Wickus-alien got hit in the balls with a pig right before the closing credits, but whatever, I’m not picky.

Thoughts on District 9, everyone? I give it one human thumb and one giant alien weapon-operated hook thingy up!

McDLT District 9