District 9
Starring: Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, David James, Mandla Gaduka
Dir: Neill Blomkamp
Rating: 5/5
Ok so Peter Jackson isn't behind the camera on his return to the big screen but Neill Blomkamp is a protege of the Oscar winning filmmaker and he makes an impressive debut with District 9, which is unlike anything you have seen this year.
Thirty years ago, aliens made first contact with Earth. Humans waited for the hostile attack, or the giant advances in technology. Neither came.
Instead, the aliens were refugees, the last survivors of their home world. The creatures were set up in a makeshift home in South Africa's District 9 as the world's nations argued over what to do with them.
The Multi-National United (MNU)keep a watchful eye on the slum where the aliens now live and the peace between the humans and aliens is beginning to disintegrate.
Wikus Van Der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) leads the MNU into the slums in a bid to rehome them outside of Johannesburg when he ingests a black liquid and begins to transform.
The one thing that can be said about District 9 is it is a true original and, in that respect, can be likened to E.T and Alien.
This movie has relentless pace as Bloomkamp mixes sci-fi with action, comedy, political intrigue but it is very human at it's core, and that is thanks to a great lead performance from Sharlto Copley, around whom the whole movie pivots.
His character Wikus goes on a real transformation throughout the movie, and I don't just mean physically, as he comes to accept the aliens that inhabit his home.
Finding himself turning into one of them he becomes a target for the company in which he works an asset a science experiment. On the run he finds friendship and support in the last place he expected it, the alien community.
Blomkamp mixes in a real message of racial prejudice and how we all judge on appearance without looking beyond what we see and that makes the movie pack a further punch.
And the way that Blomkamp has filmed the movie, quite a lot of it in a documentary style, put the audience right in the middle of the action from the word go as we see events through the eyes of Wikus.
Jackson's influence is obvious as the CGI is simply flawless, clearly Weta have been on the case, the aliens and the space ship that looms over the city of Johannesburg are truly spectacular.
It's rare that a movie lives up to it's hype but, as they say, there is an exception to every rule and this really is as it's one of the finest sci-fi movie to hit the big screen in many a year.
It's not just a mindless movie, although there are some great action set pieces, but it's a film that looks at the human condition and what it means to be human, is a study of racial tension while suggesting that humanity, compassion and understanding goes beyond our own race.
With real emotion as well as visually beautiful District 9 is an absolute must-see.
District 9 is out now.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw