I didn't see District 9 at Comic-Con, and I regrettably missed the screening last Friday with the director and star in attendance. I saw a press screening last Thursday morning, and even a week later, I can't completely side with all the of rave reviews out there, but certainly not with Armond White's slam. I'm certain the effusive praise for the movie is coming out of feelings of relief. My greatest fear for District 9 is how it can endure the impossibly high expectations others have put on it.
District 9 is a real science fiction film, unlike many modern effects-based movies that use sci-fi elements to dress up what would otherwise be a conventional action movie. I'm still amazed that all of the aliens were completely CG and that the budget was around $30 million. When you see the movie, you won't believe it. I wasn't very fond of the faux-documentary style that opens the picture, but just as it started to bug me, it faded. I wouldn't go so far as to proclaim it one of the greatest science fiction films of all time, as others have done, but it is undeniably brilliant.
The backstory I'm about to describe is gone over in the opening minutes of the movie, so no one bite my head off about spoilers. District 9 is told entirely in flashback, but principally takes place 20 years after an alien craft is mysteriously disabled over Johannesburg. The helpless surviving aliens are herded into a refugee camp and treated like little more than oversized bipedal zoo animals. They're given the derogatory nickname of "Prawns" over time and humans of all colors and creeds show open prejudice against them.
The apartheid allegory at play and the portrayal of a gang of Nigerian gangsters will be the two things I'd wager will be most hotly-debated as time goes on. Lefties unfamiliar with apartheid (they exist) will erroneously link the imagery to immigration policy and existing family prisons like the T. Don Hutto facility just miles from me here in Austin. Righties will go on about how the government involved should have just exterminated the "bugs" rather than let them be a burden on taxpayers. On a side note, the local news reports featuring concerned citizens speaking out about the Prawns reminded me of those at the beginning of Children of Men.
The snarling, sub-human Nigerian gangsters have cannibalistic tendencies. They know nothing but greed, murder, and hunger. Some will equate their depiction as overt, careless racism. I don't know whether people will be bothered because it really was offensive, or because Michael Bay put those little Sambots in Transformers 2.
In an ideal situation, District 9 would win the weekend with a tally greater than its budget and set a precedent for more low cost, high ingenuity, and auteur-driven sci-fi. The first thing very well may happen, but the latter is a lot less likely. The marketing is wisely misrepresenting the movie as all action, like the Halo movie that director Blomkamp never got to make (and no longer has interest in).
People word-of-mouthing it as the Second Coming should dial themselves back a bit so as to not hype it too hard for their friends. The movie is very well-made, thrilling, and truly exciting at points. There's also definite sequel potential, and for once in a long while, I'm very eager to see this mutate into a franchise.