Movie Review: District 9

District 9 is an action packed sci-fi movie released in 2009. The premise is that a giant alien starship has arrived on Earth many years earlier in 1982 and has been hovering above the city of Johannesburg ever since. Its passengers are a race of prawn-like aliens, most of whom are of low intelligence and who keep multiplying fast. There are two among millions who are known to be of high intelligence, one adult and one young one. They find themselves stranded in a slum because they lack a substance getting the ship restarted requires.

The main human character of the film is a fool who is the son-in-law of an executive of a multinational corporation the government has hired to relocate the aliens. He discovers the missing substance and accidentally sprays it on himself initiating a process that turns him into one of the aliens. As a result of his transformation, he is the only human capable of using the advanced technology of the aliens, including the weapons the corporation is interested in.

District 9 is a fun action/sci-fi movie with an interesting gallery of characters including Nigerian gangsters. The aliens are bipedal and have faces but are insect-like and speak in sounds that make them sound like insects. What makes them sympathetic is what the intelligent ones say to each other. The adult is in charge of his lesser brothers feels deeply responsible for them. Their seemingly intractable problem is finding the substance. The main character delivers it to them, which allows them to leave the planet in their starship to get help.

The main themes in the movie are racism, xenophobia, corruption, apartheid and class divisions. But I think District 9 is pretty good for an action movie as well.

Here's the main character raising hell using a piece of alien tech:

It's also quite funny at times when it comes to the dialogue.

Here's the human main character delivering an eviction notice to the alien main character in an earlier scene. Definitely resonates with how the authorities use their powers to harass the lower classes. The issue it refers to is nothing to laugh about but it's the deliver of the lines by the actors that never fails.