District 9

I haven't gone out to see a movie in a long time. I haven't seen the new Batman movie or the new Star Trek movie though I want to see both and have been told that both are good. But when I watched this review, it told me to go see this movie right away if only to prove to Hollywood that a movie can be smart, action packed, and profitable. So I did. This kind of activism is easy to get behind.

District 9 is a tour de force and there isn't anything else like it out there.

Tiny plot summary (no spoilers here): aliens have become stranded on Earth. The humanitarian camp they were put in has become a festering slum spilling over with human/alien crime. Tensions are running deep on both sides so the aliens are being forcibly evicted to another site. Things go very wrong.

D9 is an intelligent movie. It's not a comfortable movie to watch, but it wouldn't be very intelligent if it didn't push buttons and take the viewer way outside their comfort zone. Watching D9 is a bit like watching a 2-hour Stanley Milgram experiment, but like the famous experiment, there is something important and disturbing to take away.

How about the action?
It's awesome and intense. The action (and not incidentally some of the story) feels like a tip of the hat to the video game Half Life 2. If you've played it, then you know the thrill of realizing the power in your hands when you acquire the suped-up gravity gun. I got the same feeling at one point in D9. Sometimes the only path is through, and when that's the case, you need a gun that's going to lay down the law. D9's got it. Have no doubt, D9 delivers the action.

What's not to like? A few minor things:

• Documentary-style filming is in vogue these days and, while it is used effectively in D9, inevitably some of the action gets muddled in bouncy wild camera spinning that just left me disoriented and regretting sitting so close to the screen.
• Some of the flow is broken when the documentary style is inevitably ditched and then abruptly returned to.
• Pacing: ever since The Matrix Reloaded I've been painfully aware of over-long action sequences. Towards the end of D9 I was feeling a bit action-fatigued. (Though the action is way better than Reloaded.)
• A small amount of dialogue was cliched enough to bounce me out of the movie.
• Graphic gore will make this movie a no-go for some viewers, though in its defense, the gore is used intentionally and sparingly, never as a blunt instrument.

If you've been convinced to see this movie. Then do so. Don't read any further. Better to see for yourself, think for yourself, and if you can, judge for yourself what this movie has to say. It's got an important message, probably more than one, and it is nonetheless a heart-wrenching character-driven film, and a kick ass action movie.

Lastly a bit about the presentation and story. The story is presented in the style of a documentary, or a 60 Minutes special, and it effectively immerses the viewer in the reality of the situation. When I first saw the alien slums, my mind went immediately to the situation of the Palestinian Refugees, though the aliens also stand in for many other historically persecuted groups including blacks, Jews, and Native Americans. The film implicitly reference many crimes committed against these groups, but what is most harrowing, and what makes this film so important is the attitude with which these crimes are performed and condoned.

D9 sets the action movie bar very high. You owe it to yourself to see this movie.

Trailers

Other tags this item is listed under include: reviews, smartamusement,