Review of extra-terrestrial sci-fi thriller District 9 produced by Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings) and directed by Neil Blomkamp

Director: Neil Blomkamp
Starring: Sharlto Copley, Vanessa Haywood, Jason Cope, Louis Minnaar, David James
Running time: 112 mins

WARNING: This review contains PLOT SPOILERS

In District 9’s fictional 1980s, an alien mothership comes to a mid-air standstill over the South African city of Johannesburg, subsequently bringing an alien species to Earth – the residents of a far distant planet who soon come to make their homes in the city’s outlying scrubland, district 9. The human inhabitants of Johannesburg however become prejudiced, intolerant and aggressive towards the new alien immigrants, becoming hostile and giving them the slur of ‘Prawns’ for their Piscean appearance. This prejudice develops into outright social unrest, forcing the government to serve ‘eviction notices’ and re-house the aliens. However, as one might expect with moving an entire colony of people, the government’s plan is met with unexpected problems.

District 9 begins with documentary-style footage of the mysterious alien spacecraft coming to a halt over South Africa’s second city and talking heads discussing the social and cultural impact the alien visitors had on the country, thus presenting the film’s premise  - a plot which has many elements of a more pedestrian film but is never clichéd, having a certain quality of freshness about it. This is partly due to the distinct socio-political commentary that runs throughout the film, touching on themes of racial intolerance, discrimination and autocracy, the plethora of social problems still alive in South Africa in the aftermath of apartheid – a commentary which to this critic at least, is one of the film’s trump cards.

The other is the performance of Sharlto Copley as main protagonist Wikus van der Merwe – the head of the government led team in charge of moving the alien community from their homes in district 9 to what is effectively a concentration camp. Copley plays Wikus as essentially an everyman, but one for which there is great deal of of moral ambiguity, rendering him a more intriguing character as a result. The supporting players are also very good, in particular Louis Minnaar and David James. However, credit must go to the CG artists in charge of rendering the facial expressions and twitches of Christopher Johnson (the main ‘Prawn’ character), conveying as much emotion and inner turmoil as we see in his human (and non-CG) counterpart Wikus.

District 9’s shaky, steadi-cam driven visual style, while not being in any way innovative (seen memorably before in The Blair Witch Project and more recently in Cloverfield), seems fresh, unique and completely in keeping with tone and plot, making a perfect marriage between the two. The presentation of the Alien technology and weaponry is equally good, as is Wickus’ agony and visceral disgust at his physical transformation into one of the ‘Prawn’ species, presented in horrific detail that will have those more lily-livered audience members squirming in their seats. As thrilling as all this is however, the film loses pace in a tricky third act which plods along comparatively slowly compared to the rest of the film.

District 9’s climax sets up the possibility for a sequel naturally, in a subtle way that leaves room for the story to continue, an exciting prospect with a film this promising. A well structured, thought provoking, thrilling and thoroughly entertaining alternative to the regular Hollywood sci-fi gloss – hopefully in the future we might see a District 10.

Rating: MMMM

Rating: MM

The first review originally written for Maz’s Movie Memorandum, of Michael Bay’s sequel to his 2007 summer box-office smash, Transformers.

Director: Michael Bay
Starring: Shia La Beouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro
Running Time: 150 mins

As with most Michael Bay films and its predecessor, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is expectedly a triumph of style over substance. The film opens with a frenetic action sequence which gives way to some pleasing lighter scenes, involving the loveable (if somewhat unlikely) hero Sam Witwicky and his family. However, these scenes and other more character-driven moments seem few and far between in a film that is almost entirely composed of explosions and clouds of scattered dust.

Having said this though, the film is good solid summer fare, with a few witty lines here and there and enough charm to keep the audience interested. Where the film falls down however, is in the deployment of a troublesome third act, in which the film loses all sense of pace (the film feels 45 minutes too long) and in fact, narrative trajectory; it takes a monologue of exposition from a new old-man transformer (found and re-awoken by the protagonists at a visit to the Smithsonian Museum, of Night at the Museum 2 fame) to make things clear – a lack of clarity and obscure plot that this film shares with the original, something that Bay and his writers clearly haven’t managed to improve upon, despite a seemingly infinite budget. This, it appears has been spent entirely on visual effects, all of which are admittedly stunning, but are nothing we haven’t seen before.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen demonstrates that in a franchise, both premise and characters need an element of freshness to really succeed. Shia La Boeuf returns as Sam, a likeable enough character, but with far less to do than in the first Transformers film which certainly gave La Beouf more scope to develop the role. Perennial men’s magazine favourite Megan Fox also reprises her role of Sam’s love interest Mikaela, but seems to appear only in the capacity of the token gorgeous girl, wearing skimpy shorts and running around screaming for her boyfriend – her only saving grace being that she can hot-wire a car.

In this second outing of the Transformers franchise there seems to be far less dialogue between characters and much more time given to gratuitous action sequences with more transformers than one can really keep up with. And keeping up appears a hard task – in fact truthfully, staying focused is harder, as the film really does suffer from being just that bit too long. In all, for a summer blockbuster there is enough to keep audiences happy, but only just.

Rating: MM (add another if you’re a fan of the toys/cartoon)