Directed by Neill Blomkamp, whose follow up, Elysium, is arriving in theatres today, District 9 was a film about politics, social standings, and racism, and it was all disguised in a way that made it very easy to swallow for us space nerds. Based off a short film (which you can watch here), District 9 presented a world invaded by aliens (or “prawns” in this case, based off their spectacular design) but presented it like no other alien invasion movie we had ever seen.
In this case, the aliens were stuck here, and really didn’t want to be. And on top of it, they were delegated to government camps where they were treated as inhumanly as possible. Think Guantanamo and you have a solid idea.
On top of that, we have a man named Wikus van de Merwe, played brilliant by actor Shartlo Copley, who ends up getting infected and slowly turning into one of the prawns, and in the process, he evolves to a sort of freedom fighter, leading their cause. From the inside he sees just how unfairly they are treated, and he reacts. It is a powerful and well written film, and the constant current of sci-fi running through the whole thing reminds us just how much we love this genre and why.
Also, the Prawns are the best looking CG aliens on film to date. Someone needed to say it.
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