I have seen the future and it's got scales and eats cat food. Yes, I've finally managed to haul myself away for long enough to take in 'District 9', the sci-fi film that sets itself in the slums of South Africa to tell a story about aliens whose mistreatment is an unambiguous reference to apartheid. And you know what? It's way better than I expected.
The 'word on the street' from reviewers has been that 'District 9' is a brilliant idea wrapped up in a good film that turns into an ok action flick. I think that's doing it a disservice. It deserves way more praise than that....
For a start, the concept, the idea, is just about the most original thing to have turned up in cinemas in years. The fairly predictable genre of sci film films, already unsettled by the fantastic 'Moon' could never ever have seen this coming. The story is bristling with originality at a level most of the other 'stuff' out this month can only weep in the face of....
The casting is great too. By using less well-known faces the producers have not only presumably saved themselves some money, but also enabled the story to shine. There are none of the distractions normally associated with watching a 'star'. And let's hear it for the aliens. The cgi is particularly nicely done, which helps, but the overall concept of what they look like works really well. So, story, casting, cgi and "prawns' all deliver. True, the film does move into action mode halfway through, but that worked for me. I loved the gradual redemption of the main character from weak and unsympathetic, to someone who begins to see the aliens differently and compassionately. There's a theological point here: do we have to 'become' the orphan, the poor, the dispossessed in order to understand them? The transformation of Wikus Van De Merwe is deeper than simply learning to understand them.... his journey involves the ultimate sacrifice of leaving his past 'self' behind. I wonder what we have to learn from this in terms of mission and engagement with those who are different around us?
So a cracker all round - I'm tempted to say prawn cracker but... oh well, it's done now. And that's exactly the kind of joke that might be made by MTU about those aliens, come to think of it. I think there's a lot to like here, both as a film and as something deeper to ponder. Not quite at the top of the list for 2009, but close.
