A cross of David Cronenberg's The Fly ,McG's Terminator Salvation, The Fugitive and E.T(YEAH, I SAID IT)...District 9 is a blow-out down-right amazing film. After leaving the theatre it will take you several minutes to piece together what you just saw...and when you do that's when it will hit you how truely special this film is. It is, in my opinion the best film of the summer...quite possibly the year. It's a breath of fresh air in the otherwise stale movie offerings this summer. Even though it has a gritty feel and look to it...it feels new and fresh.
It's a sci-fi film that manages the astonishing feat of never feeling like your typical sci-fi flick ( a true testament to how special this film is)It doesn't feel like T4, Alien, Blade runner, The Thing, etc. I kept forgetting that this was a sci-fi film...in fact most of the time it feels more like The Fugitive than an alien flick.
It was made on a really small budget but at times the effects are so fantastic that I began to think that they actually had a huge budget but lied to the public about it. Their THAT good!! (certainly better than those you'll find in T4 or Transformers 2)
Right from the beginning scenes the film establishes a feeling of realness. What you witness on the big screen seems like it's really happenning. The aliens look real and sound real...their grimy and dusty shells adding to the illusion of reality. The characters seem like real people you could encounter on the street and strike up a conversation with.
I am not going to explain the plot because this is one film where the less you know the better the film will be. All I will say is that District 9 follows a small population of Aliens and Wikus Van De Merwe (Pronounced Vikus or Wikus?? I still don't know) as he goes on the run from the agency he works for, finding a safe spot in District 9 (the home of the aliens). An instant connection with Wikus is established early in the film...it stays strong until you have left the theatre. You feel for his plight.He is one of the few heroes to come out of a summer film this year that you actually care about and have no trouble rooting for...you WANT to see this guy survive. You WANT everything to end up being all-right for him in the end. You WANT him to live happily ever after. But will he??
In my opinion this was the film that had the most humanity in it this Summer. Terminator Salvation tried to get us to root for humanity and gain renewed hope for the future but instead only got our interest whenever an explosion flashed across the screen or Sam Worthington's mug glared into our eyes. Transformers 2 tried to wow us with special effects and more of just about everything, It's strive for perfection was It's un-doing and it collapsed on itself.
District 9 is one of the rare films where it doesn't seem to care about what we think. It forces open our eyes and shows us a mirror. We see our greediness, our lack of morality and lack of compassion for others. The film condemns us and leaves us in the hot desert of South Africa to rot away slowly.
It is NOT a happy feel-good film, It is NOT a comedy and it most certainly is NOT an action-adventure. It is an unflinching cold stare that refuses to look the other way, exposing all our faults to our face. YES, IT'S SCARY.
District 9 is a special, one-of-a kind film. It gains points for it's refusal to glorify us and its refusal to reassure us that we're doing the right thing. In this film there are no easy answers and it leaves us with several things to chew on.
I left the theatre feeling raw and exposed...and you will too.
FULL PRICE- 4 STARS
(quite possibly an instant classic)
No comments:
Post a Comment