There were so many ways District 9 could have gone wrong. It has a director and cast nobody’s heard of, it relies heavily on special effects and spectacle yet had a (by Hollywood standards) meager budget. It shifts narrative style back and forth between pseudo-documentary and cinematic. It throws a handful of genres – sci-fi thriller, action, political commentary and love story – into a blender and pours it all out. And the end result? One of the most gripping and imaginative movies I’ve seen in years.

TV director Neil Blomkamp’s tale opens with what feels like a History Channel episode, revealing via interviews and “file footage” that a mothership full of buglike alien drones landed over Johannesburg, South Africa 20 years ago. With their leaders mysteriously vanished and no apparent means of getting their ship mobile again, the creatures were “welcomed” to earth and assigned living quarters in the area below their ship, referred to as District 9. The creatures possessed a substantial arsenal of weapons only they could operate, yet had little interest in using other than to trade for food. Disliked and exploited by the locals and the government, the aliens have spent the last two decades living as scavengers and District 9 is a miserable ghetto. Now, the government (or more specifically the government branch MNU – Multi National Union) is setting out to remove the creatures from the city into District 10, a camp-like area (note the use of the word “camp”.) Placed in charge of this massive eviction is MNU agent Wykum van de Merwe, who’s pretty much the walking definition of “stooge.” Halfway through his first day on the job, he encounters Christopher, a creature who is sharper and less compliant than the others. Inside Christopher’s shack Wykum discovers an array of handbuilt computers and what looks like a chemistry set. From there, things begin to go down hill.

D9 has plenty going for it but its two biggest assets lie in the portrayal of the main characters, Wykum and Christopher. Sharlto Copley, in his first major picture, plays Wykum with amazing conviction, and he doesn’t shy away from the character’s substantial flaws. One minute you want to punch him in the face, the next, you’re holding your breath hoping he’ll survive. And Christopher is so endearing a character, and so realistically rendered, the fact that he’s completely a CGI creation doesn’t even register. The villains (and there are a lot of them) don’t fare quite as well. Though well-acted, they are all almost cartoonishly one-dimensional, and it’s a jarring contrast to the complex, strongly developed characters of Christopher and Wykum. That’s the only major criticism I have. D9 looks gorgeous, the entire cast is excellent and the story, while simple, isn’t dumbed down. I definitely want to see more from Blomkamp, whether it’s District 10 or something else entirely.

9/10