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Special Features
Metamorphosis: The Transformation of Wikus
Director's commentary
Deleted scenes
The Alien Agenda: A Filmmaker's Log -- three-part documentary Innovation: Acting and Improvisation
Conception and Design: Creating the World of District 9
Alien Generation: Visual Effects
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
A provocative science fiction drama, District 9 boasts an original story that gets a little lost in blow-'em-up mayhem. Set in Johannesburg, South Africa, District 9 begins as a mock documentary about the imminent eviction of extraterrestrials from a pathetic shantytown (called District 9). The creatures, it turns out, have been on Earth for years, having arrived sickly and starving. Initially received by humans with compassion and care, the aliens are now mired in blighted conditions typical of long-term refugee camps unwanted by a hostile, host society. With the creatures' care contracted out to a for-profit corporation, the shantytown has become a violent slum. The aliens sift through massive piles of junk while their minders secretly research weapons technology that arrived on the visitors' spacecraft.
Against this backdrop is a more personal story about a bureaucrat named Wikus (Sharlto Copley) who is accidentally exposed to a DNA-altering substance. As he begins metamorphosing into one of the creatures, Wikus goes on the run from scientists who want to harvest his evolving, new parts and aliens who see him as a threat. When he pairs up with an extraterrestrial secretly planning an escape from Earth, however, what should be a fascinating relationship story becomes a series of firefights and explosions. Nuance is lost to numbing violence, and the more interesting potential of the film is obscured. Yet, for a while District 9 is a powerful movie with a unique tale to tell. Seamless special effects alone are worth seeing: the (often brutal) exchanges between alien and human are breathtaking. --Tom Keogh
> District 9 downloadables (Click for pdf file)
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Product Description
From producer Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy) and director Neill Blomkamp comes a startlingly original science fiction thriller that "soars on the imagination of its creators" (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone). With stunning special effects and gritty realism, the film plunges us into a world where the aliens have landed... only to be exiled to a slum on the fringes of Johannesburg. Now, one lone human discovers the mysterious secret of the extraterrestrial weapon technology. Hunted and hounded through the bizarre back alleys of an alien shantytown, he will discover what it means to be the ultimate outsider on your own planet.
Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
37 of 44 people found the following review helpful
Format:Blu-ray
At first, the plot and characters in this movie seem quite bizarre, but it eventually becomes apparent that the movie is clearly and faithfully illustrating a theme which is natural to the human condition. That theme revolves around what happens when a minority group lives in the midst of a majority group, with the division into different and opposing groups being established based on their differences in ancestry, appearance, language, diet, and other cultural traits.
In such a situation, the majority group may grow to detest the minority group and unjustly blame them for many of their own troubles, and they may even be tempted to exterminate the minority group (ie, genocide), but their instincts will usually tell them that that's going too far. Instead, the minority group will usually be allowed to continue to exist, but they'll be geographically cordoned off and their rights will be limited, so that they suffer deprived circumstances, including epithets, physical abuse, poverty, exploitation, and crime.
Again, the movie illustrates this (important) theme well, and in a way that there's no question about who the minority group is and the ways in which they're being mistreated. I found the movie gripping, and I suspect that I'll remember it for a long time.
If I have to come up with a negative criticism of the movie, I would say that perhaps some of the violence is over the top, and I wonder if it was necessary to include Nigerians among the really bad guys (given that their reputation is already bad enough).
Nevertheless, I do recommend this movie. It's much better than I expected, and it does its job well enough to warrant a full 5 stars.
In such a situation, the majority group may grow to detest the minority group and unjustly blame them for many of their own troubles, and they may even be tempted to exterminate the minority group (ie, genocide), but their instincts will usually tell them that that's going too far. Instead, the minority group will usually be allowed to continue to exist, but they'll be geographically cordoned off and their rights will be limited, so that they suffer deprived circumstances, including epithets, physical abuse, poverty, exploitation, and crime.
Again, the movie illustrates this (important) theme well, and in a way that there's no question about who the minority group is and the ways in which they're being mistreated. I found the movie gripping, and I suspect that I'll remember it for a long time.
If I have to come up with a negative criticism of the movie, I would say that perhaps some of the violence is over the top, and I wonder if it was necessary to include Nigerians among the really bad guys (given that their reputation is already bad enough).
Nevertheless, I do recommend this movie. It's much better than I expected, and it does its job well enough to warrant a full 5 stars.
111 of 146 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
District 9 is something that perhaps no one saw coming, and ends up being the absolute best movie of the summer hands down. Produced by Peter Jackson and helmed by Neill Blomkamp (the director Jackson hand picked for the shelved Halo movie), District 9 depicts an alien race that came to Earth on an emergency basis a couple decades before hand, and have since become refugees in a violent slum in Johannesburg. Bureaucrat Wikus (Sharlto Copley) is charged with serving eviction notices to the alien "prawns", and through a mishap, ends up undergoing a horrifying transformation that makes him a wanted man by everyone. As he and a prawn dubbed Christopher Johnson become unlikely allies, things begin to really kick into high gear. Beginning as part mockumentary and part satire on apartheid, District 9 takes its time to become a bloody full-blown action/sci-fi opus that stays with you long after the credits are done rolling. What also helps make District 9 so good is that you truly never know what is going to happen next. The sheer unpredictability of the film helps make it so magnetic, and newcomer Copley manages to be hateable, likable, and sympathetic all at the same time as his character continues to develop and change (literally) as the film goes on. All in all, District 9 is an incredible science fiction film that features equal parts action and heart, and in a bloated summer full of empty blockbusters like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, G.I. Joe, and the like; it is indeed refreshing to see something like this on the big screen. Do yourself a favor, don't miss out on District 9.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By Mark Turner
Format:DVD
Sometimes the best way to describe a situation is to come at it from the side. Rather than comment directly on what is happening, use an allegory to describe a situation and discuss it. Such is the case with DISTRICT 9.
Set in the not too distant future, the story is pieced together at first via news footage and interviews, later on depending on the standard filmed story. An alien spaceship hovers over South Africa, motionless in the air. A team is dispatched to enter the vessel and they discover a breed of alien that seems a cross between an insect and a crawfish.
Called prawns due to their bottom feeding nature of scavenging for food, the folks of Johannesburg treat the aliens with a combination of fear and resentment. The story continues as we learn of the aliens settling into an encampment of their own, a shanty town that houses both aliens and a group of Nigerian thugs who trade weapons and run their own crime ring out of District 9.
Enter Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley), an employee of MNU (Multi National United). A Halliburton type group of weapons dealing/mercenary styled executives, they've employ both soldiers and Wikus types, office workers who believe in what their doing with no clue what goes on behind the scenes. Wikus is put in charge of a plan to relocate the "prawns" from the shanty town they're in to a new location built with huts for them all.
Going door to door to get their required signatures for the eviction notices, Wikus and his group face everything from attack to verbal confrontation with the "prawns". Unbeknownst to him, one alien is in the midst of formulating fuel to power a shuttlecraft to leave the planet. Wikus confiscates the fuel but accidentally is exposed to it. As the film progresses, Wikus personal DNA begins to alter and he starts to take on the aspects of the aliens, watching as first his hand changes into a claw and moving forward.
Of course MNU sees this as an opportunity since the weapons they confiscated from the aliens won't work when held by a human. It seems there is something in the genetic make up of the aliens that causes the weapons to work. Wikus becomes a guinea pig of sorts, used to make the weapons work and kept away from friends and family in a science outpost.
Fearing for his life, Wikus escapes and seeks out the alien he encountered with the vial of fuel for help. He discovers what it was that changed him but also the fact that the only fuel left, the only way for him to receive help, is to recapture the fuel container at the research station he was in.
Should the pair be successful, Wikus may be able to be changed back, the alien return to his home world with his young son and the "prawns" finally be treated as something other than outcasts. A battle between the mercenaries employed by MNU and Wikus in a souped up mechanical suit add some action to the tale as we wait to find out what the future holds for all involved.
The story about the mistreatment of those that are different from us is universal to every country in the world. Perhaps that accounts for the popularity of this film when it was released. As Wikus becomes one of them, he is exposed to their treatment and how they are perceived. By becoming one with them, he learns in the process and his outlook on his life and the world around him changes.
As with all great science fiction films, the story is the centerpiece but the surrounding portions add to the whole. The special effects are magnificent, offering us a look at an alien life form that looks as if it is right there, shot on camera without the use of effects. It makes the story all the more believable. And the performances by stars that are relatively unknown in the US make them seem real as well. While grounded in sci-fi, the film makes it seem as if it's taking place now.
Slow going at first, we are given a look at a world we think we known inhabited by creatures we do not. It takes a bit of time to learn about them as well as about ourselves. And in the end, the story we witness makes us think a little bit more about how we react to others. At least let's hope that those who see the film do.
Set in the not too distant future, the story is pieced together at first via news footage and interviews, later on depending on the standard filmed story. An alien spaceship hovers over South Africa, motionless in the air. A team is dispatched to enter the vessel and they discover a breed of alien that seems a cross between an insect and a crawfish.
Called prawns due to their bottom feeding nature of scavenging for food, the folks of Johannesburg treat the aliens with a combination of fear and resentment. The story continues as we learn of the aliens settling into an encampment of their own, a shanty town that houses both aliens and a group of Nigerian thugs who trade weapons and run their own crime ring out of District 9.
Enter Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley), an employee of MNU (Multi National United). A Halliburton type group of weapons dealing/mercenary styled executives, they've employ both soldiers and Wikus types, office workers who believe in what their doing with no clue what goes on behind the scenes. Wikus is put in charge of a plan to relocate the "prawns" from the shanty town they're in to a new location built with huts for them all.
Going door to door to get their required signatures for the eviction notices, Wikus and his group face everything from attack to verbal confrontation with the "prawns". Unbeknownst to him, one alien is in the midst of formulating fuel to power a shuttlecraft to leave the planet. Wikus confiscates the fuel but accidentally is exposed to it. As the film progresses, Wikus personal DNA begins to alter and he starts to take on the aspects of the aliens, watching as first his hand changes into a claw and moving forward.
Of course MNU sees this as an opportunity since the weapons they confiscated from the aliens won't work when held by a human. It seems there is something in the genetic make up of the aliens that causes the weapons to work. Wikus becomes a guinea pig of sorts, used to make the weapons work and kept away from friends and family in a science outpost.
Fearing for his life, Wikus escapes and seeks out the alien he encountered with the vial of fuel for help. He discovers what it was that changed him but also the fact that the only fuel left, the only way for him to receive help, is to recapture the fuel container at the research station he was in.
Should the pair be successful, Wikus may be able to be changed back, the alien return to his home world with his young son and the "prawns" finally be treated as something other than outcasts. A battle between the mercenaries employed by MNU and Wikus in a souped up mechanical suit add some action to the tale as we wait to find out what the future holds for all involved.
The story about the mistreatment of those that are different from us is universal to every country in the world. Perhaps that accounts for the popularity of this film when it was released. As Wikus becomes one of them, he is exposed to their treatment and how they are perceived. By becoming one with them, he learns in the process and his outlook on his life and the world around him changes.
As with all great science fiction films, the story is the centerpiece but the surrounding portions add to the whole. The special effects are magnificent, offering us a look at an alien life form that looks as if it is right there, shot on camera without the use of effects. It makes the story all the more believable. And the performances by stars that are relatively unknown in the US make them seem real as well. While grounded in sci-fi, the film makes it seem as if it's taking place now.
Slow going at first, we are given a look at a world we think we known inhabited by creatures we do not. It takes a bit of time to learn about them as well as about ourselves. And in the end, the story we witness makes us think a little bit more about how we react to others. At least let's hope that those who see the film do.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Over the top rave reviews ruined it for me!
District 9 is the sort of film that sits just on the edge of being remembered as a great science fiction classic, but sits far below dozens of better sci-fi movies of the recent... Read more
Published 10 days ago by Natja Kristy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome movie
sci fi at its greatest by a great director! Loved every minute! Looking forward to Awesome movie his next movies too!
Published 11 days ago by Sandra K. Powers
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very well done
I went into this film not knowing what to expect and was pleasantly surprised at the storyline. The story seems to transform into something unexpected and unravels into a truly... Read more
Published 18 days ago by cmleziva
2.0 out of 5 stars
Should've been just straight sci-fi, no documentary style
(Possible Spoilers)
In the early 80's a big alien ship showed up above Johannesburg, South Africa, some aliens came from it and some 28 years later the camp that was set... Read more
In the early 80's a big alien ship showed up above Johannesburg, South Africa, some aliens came from it and some 28 years later the camp that was set... Read more
Published 20 days ago by Jonnathan Ritland
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome movie
Fantastic movie, sci fi at its greatest by a great director! Loved every minute! Looking forward to his next movies too!
Published 20 days ago by Ekaj
5.0 out of 5 stars
It is Marvelous
You can't get much better cinema. Great story, immaculate main character arc, great drama, great filmmaking, provocative, an indisputable 'best actor' performance from Sharlto... Read more
Published 1 month ago by C&D
5.0 out of 5 stars
Recommended
This review is a note for myself. All of these notes will provide a one-liner in the title to summarize my feelings of the film.
Published 1 month ago by Gene Kim
5.0 out of 5 stars
Imaginative
This is one of the more interesting and imaginative films I have seen in my recent tour of more or less current, more or less science fiction, movies. Read more
Published 1 month ago by drkhimxz
4.0 out of 5 stars
Social Issues Sci-Fi
Actually an interesting movie. An action movie, with social issues (e.g., immigration and abortion), how interesting. Too bad it has so many "F" bombs in it.
Published 1 month ago by Thomas Bush
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the greatest Sci Fi movies in a while
This movie is amazing. It's starts out a little silly, but get's much much better. The ending is great. It shows real character development and the world it is set in is amazing.
Published 1 month ago by The Flint
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