Mini Film Review – District 9

I have just re-watched District 9 for the first time in a long while; and it’s still pretty brilliant! I first saw District 9 when it was first released in 2009. I really enjoyed it back then and grabbed the DVD off the shelves as soon as it was released. District 9 is a truly great little science fiction movie. It sets itself up as a sort of found footage documentary about the events of the eviction of an area of Johannesburg populated by aliens, and is inspired by the Apartheid era, specifically the events of District 6. The film has an interesting development of its characters as it takes a loveable fool of sorts and comes close to torture him as the film unfolds. It sets out to make humanity look deplorable and really works to show how ugly racism is; to this end we have several different factions of humans, all of whom seem unacceptable to the bone. Meanwhile the aliens are made to look weak and pathetic to the eye; but in turn this makes it easier to understand their plight, plus it helps to show who deep down they truly are, and that looks really aren’t everything!  The special effects are just fabulous and the scenes of action and fighting is joyfully tremendous. The one thing though that I take back from re-watching it again is how the film is plotted out in the beginning with the interviews; an interesting little detail that I missed before. Altogether, a wondrously enjoyable and totally gripping film!