I know a good deal of people disagree with me about District 9, but just hear me out. Yes, the film looked great and was surprisingly impressive considering its budget of $30 million. On the other hand, or whatever appendage you prefer, there were a lot of poor choices made plot-wise that undid the film in a big way.
Firstly, I really think that Neill Blomkamp took his message a bit too far in this one. Most of the humans were portrayed as being unnecessarily cruel and arrogant, even towards other humans, and the aliens were too temperamental and violent to garner sympathy. During one of the most pivotal points in the film I found myself so disconnected from the characters that I didn't really care how the events panned out. In fact, I was kind of hoping that some sort of device would go off (beam, bomb, whatever) that would just blow everyone up. I felt nothing for the characters.
Along these lines, the synopsis for District 9 was very much a lie. I never get the sense that the prawns have found a "kindred spirit" in Wikus. He never really treats them with very much respect, he is only helping them for his own gain, and in a crucial moment he betrays his one and only "friend." Yeah, definitely not "kindred spirit" qualities.
Secondly, and most importantly, I couldn't see why war hadn't already broken out between the two species. The "prawns" were obviously not a peaceful people and we were even shown scenes of them wielding weaponry, both human (for some reason) and their own. Why hadn't they used any of their payload (they had mecha for goodness sake) to break out of the slum and fight back when the humans were openly murdering them and "aborting" (burning) their children? And similarly, why hadn't the humans gotten more violent when the prawns were apparently killing, and on some occasions eating, them? Hell, a guy was torn apart and eaten on what was apparently national television. We are supposed to believe that after twenty years no major conflict has broken out? Come on.
Finally, I found that the cinema verite style became a bit overused and confusing by the end of the film. I wasn't sure when the "cameras" were really there and when they weren't, the mush flying into the screen at every overly dramatic head explosion became annoying after the first three times, and they beat the interview "footage" into the ground. Every time we see something in District 9 we don't need to see an interviewee talk about it. Just let us see what is going on, please. Also, I found that my experience was greatly cheapened by the fact that we were constantly shown interviews where people were talking about events that have yet to be shown in the film. It was as if they kept popping up to say "hey, you're going to be so shocked when you see what happens in this movie! Man, I can't wait to see the look on your face!"
I am awarding District 9 two and a half stars out of five for being visually stunning, but having a weak plot. All in all I was greatly disappointed by this film and a bit ashamed that I thought it might redeem this terrible "summer at the cinema." I guess it's time to see what the Fall and Winter seasons have to offer. Yes, I am looking at you 2012 and Legion.
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