“District 9,” which opened with a whopping $14.2 million in ticket sales Friday, is a fresh and bold, action-packed take on the age-old exploration of how humans behave when exposed to cultures different from their own. In “District 9,” South Africans confront aliens stranded on earth and living under harsh third world conditions in a Johannesburg slum.
One of the most dangerous and economically segregated cities in the world, Johannesburg acts as the perfect setting for exploring the clash of cultures. Aliens look very different than humans in “District 9”, but their behavior is pretty similar. The aliens trade weaponry for food and engage in all manner of vice one might expect to find in a slum. Pejoratively called “prawns” by the humans, the creatures are also subjected to a myriad of scams, some of which are orchestrated by Multi-National United (MNU), the government contractor hired to manage the aliens.
In one powerful scene, it becomes clear that MNU has engaged in a fiction leading the aliens into thinking they have legal rights. But the charade wears thin when some aliens refuse to relocate to another settlement. One MNU employee threatens to take their children while another use aliens for target practice.
What makes “District 9” so compelling is that viewers aren’t given the luxury of knowing who is good and who is bad in this story. Humans appear marginally civilized and almost eager to “eat their own..” Moreover, for much of the film we are unsure whether our hero, Wikus, a MNU employee who has unwittingly become a living genetic link between human and alien, is a good guy. Similarly, the aliens, depicted as highly intelligent and sympathetic, are also gross, sometimes savage and highly dangerous.
The film balances its complex character development with plenty of smart action, violence and gore. When Wikus stops running, mans up and turns to fight back, viewers want to see him descend into a blood-soaked rampage.
“District 9” easily lives up to its hype as the “best” sci-fi film of the summer.