District 9 review

PLOT: In 1982, a very large alien spaceship stops above Johannesburg, South Africa. Reports suggest that the ship became stranded after a command module separated from the ship and dropped to Earth, nowhere to be found. After cutting their way inside, an exploratory team discovers a large group of unhealthy and leaderless arthropod-like species. These alien creatures, derogatorily referred to as prawns, are taken from the ship and housed in a government camp inside Johannesburg called District 9, which soon turns into a slum. In the first decade of the 21st century, Multinational United (MNU), a private military contractor, is placed in charge of policing and relocating the now 1.8 million aliens to District 10, a new camp 240 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg.

Wikus van de Merwe is the MNU field operative assigned to lead the relocation, which begins with the serving of eviction notices on August 9, 2010. As the eviction continues, some nearby aliens are shown distilling a liquid from a piece of their technology into a small canister. In raiding one of the aliens' hovels, Wikus discovers the container, but accidentally sprays some of the liquid onto his own face. The other alien, named Christopher Johnson by MNU, is served his eviction notice by Wikus. Christopher questions the legality of the eviction and demands his rights. That night Wikus falls ill and is taken to hospital, where his left lower arm is revealed to have mutated into an alien appendage. He is overpowered and taken into custody by MNU guards. MNU intends to vivisect Wikus before he fully transforms into an alien, in an attempt to replicate his ability to operate alien weapons, initially only operable by aliens. With his new strength, however, Wikus overpowers his captors and escapes.

Now a fugitive, Wikus takes refuge in District 9 and returns to Christopher's shack. Initially hostile towards Wikus, Christopher eventually reveals that the canister Wikus confiscated contains a liquid which would allow him to activate the mother ship and leave the planet. After revealing that the lost command module is hidden under his hut, Christopher agrees to help reverse Wikus' genetic transformation if Wikus, in turn, retrieves the canister. Wikus agrees and tries to buy weapons from the local Nigerian gang. Their leader, the paralyzed warlord Obesandjo, seizes Wikus seeking to gain his power to operate alien weapons, which he believes he will achieve by eating Wikus' mutated arm. Wikus again manages to escape and takes some alien weapons with him.

Wikus and Christopher break into the MNU offices using alien weapons and retrieve the canister. They then fight their way back to District 9, but Christopher, having just learned that MNU is performing medical experiments on his race, informs Wikus that he has decided to return to his homeworld to seek help for his people before he cures Wikus, which would take three years. Frustrated, Wikus knocks Christopher unconscious and powers up the command module with the help of Christopher's son. However, soon after its takeoff, the spacecraft is shot down by MNU, causing it to crash nearby.

MNU forces take Wikus and Christopher prisoner but Obesandjo's gang ambushes them on the way out. The Nigerian gang captures Wikus and prepares to sever his mutated arm for Obesandjo. From the command module, Christopher's son activates the mothership and a mechanized battlesuit that kills Obesandjo and his men. Wikus then gets into the suit and rescues Christopher from MNU mercenaries, allowing him to get to the command module. Promising Wikus that he will return to reverse his transformation, Christopher returns to the mother ship. Heavily wounded and in a much more advanced state of his mutation, Wikus crawls out of the battlesuit and is confronted by Venter, the sole survivor and captain of the MNU squad. However, before he is able to kill Wikus, aliens in the camp dismember and eat Venter.

Christopher activates the mother ship's engines and Johannesburg's residents celebrate its departure. A series of interviews and news broadcasts are then shown, providing various opinions on the events. The aliens are successfully moved to District 10, said to have a population of 2.5 million and growing. MNU's illegal experiments on aliens are exposed. Some people theorize about Wikus' fate, while others hypothesize that Christopher Johnson might return for the refugees, or even to declare war on humanity. Wikus' wife reveals that, having found a small metal flower on her doorstep, she has hope that her husband is still alive. In a scrapyard, an alien with a bandaged left arm and human right eye crafts a flower out of metal.

REVIEW: District 9 was one of the few movies that I felt like wanting to walk out of the theater on. The movie just plainly sucked. That's right, District 9 sucked and I would not recommend my dog to go see it. Though the movie had a storyline that could have made for a great movie, it was juust not made right. It felt like I was watching a documentary during most of the movie and the filming was horrible. I debated with myself the whole time to walk out and get my money back but kept thinking to myself that the movie had to get better, boy was I wrong.

Rating: 1.0