Where did I Park my Spaceship?

By popular request, I recently viewed the film District 9. I remember when this film originally was being advertised (and then opening) that there seemed to be some confusion as to the involvement of Peter Jackson on this project. If memory serves, it was originally packaged as either From Peter Jackson or Peter Jackson Presents which led me to believe that he was directing the film. It turned out, of course, that Jackson was just a producer of the film and that money was just about the end of his involvement rope. Never the less, I actually liked this film and though there were some quirky plot points I thought it moved along just fine and had a powerful message.

District 9 is an Alien chase picture set in Johannesburg, South Africa. I knew that the picture was set up to be a side door explanation of Apartheid but I was not prepared for the personal reflection that the story would require. I especially enjoyed the film scenery because I was a visitor to Johannesburg a couple of years ago.

After flying into Johannesburg International Airport (it was a jumping off point for a safari trip to Botswana) I was whisked off to a hotel for a single night. The route to the hotel had me driving by settlements that looked eerily like the shanty town that was District 9. It was very hard for me to reconcile that people still lived in these kinds of shacks, largely without basic services, not only in this day and age but also in such an important city. I remember the bus driver commenting that the Government was trying to figure out what to do with the folks living in these settlements as the pressure of hosting the 2010 World Cup drew closer.

The hotel I stayed at in Johannesburg was very nice and appeared to be in the middle of the banking and financial district probably in what we might consider a downtown corridor. The real shock came when I went to the front desk to retrieve my room key and was told not to go outside, especially at night. It was explained that Johannesburg had a crime problem and that kidnappings were a very real possibility.

District 9, as a film, largely portrayed Johannesburg in the same manner as I found it during my visit.

In this film, a large group of aliens have descended upon Earth in what appeared to be the exact same ship as seen in Independence Day. I have no problem with Directors utilizing existing special effects, no need in reinventing the wheel. It would be ironic though if the aliens in deep space really did all have the same ships. Can you imagine a whole galaxy filled with the equivalent of Toyota Corollas? I do like the idea that aliens leaving sporting events or concerts could have that look on their face (you know the one) when they walk outside and see a sky filled with the same colored ships wondering exactly where they had parked.

For a largely unexplained reason, the aliens that arrived in the Corolla ran out of gas and just hovered above Earth until the humans forced their way in and transferred them to a settlement on the ground. This portion of the film utilized news footage and interviews to set the stage for the present day action. The present day action revolved around a plan by a government contractor, Multi-National United, to relocate the alien population from District 9 to a new settlement further outside of Johannesburg. This plan was going to be carried out by a middle manager named Wikus Van De Marwe.

In an obviously well thought out idea, Wikus plans to go door to door in District 9 having 1.8 million “Prawns” read and sign an eviction notice over the course of one business day (it is a 24 hour eviction notice). I don’t know how the math works out as to how many signatures you would need per hour to get all 1.8 million in a day, but I only saw Wikus get four signatures prior to lunch. At that pace I think he was better suited to work for the Department of Transportation! Unfortunately, we will never know if he would have obtained all of the signatures because he spilled some Corolla Gas on himself and began transforming into an alien (I would use the same excuse if I needed 1.8 million signatures and had 4).

I don’t want to spend a lot of my space on a technical review of the film. I do want to point out that there was a major hole in the film that was exposed at this point in the story. As I previously mentioned the introduction to the film was largely based on interviews and file footage. Once the present day relocation program started the film style turned to documentary with Wikus being recorded by a camera crew and acknowledging both the camera and the audience (think of it as Dwight Schrute meets Alf). Unfortunately, once Wikus spilled the Corolla Gas the Director forgot to change the style from Documentary to Narrative. It did not make sense to have the characters shot in a documentary style when there obviously was not a camera crew following them (they were wanted fugitives). It would have been funny though if Wikus as a fugitive would have shown some good emotional confusion as to why his secret plans and hiding places were so easily deciphered (the full camera crew, hair & make-up team and boom operator tend to give away your location).

Skipping back, once Wikus spilled the Corolla Gas he started to turn into an alien and his own company brought him in for testing, experimenting and weaponry. In today’s security first society, I found it really funny that this top secret testing was performed on the third floor of a public building and the experimentation rooms were conveniently located next to a stairwell that led directly to an exterior building exit. Not only was Wikus able to easily escape the testing room, he was able to find his cell phone, his company identification cards and his access badge.

After Wikus escaped the experimentation center he returned to District 9 to learn that the Corolla Gas actually powered the hovering space ship and that a Prawn and his son could reverse the effects of the alien transformation if they had the gas and turned on the ship. Realizing this was great news, Wikus easily broke back into the public building, utilized his still active access code to gain entry to the experimentation room and obtained the loosely secured gas before dodging a volley of automatically fired bullets from Army sharpshooters and drove back to District 9 in a plane white government vehicle. The plan played out just like he drew it up!

Figuring the rest of the film would play out as a traditional Hollywood script, I was surprised at the twists that finalized the story. The first twist was the use of the Corolla Gas. Although the space ship had been hovering above South Africa for many years and the Prawns were basically a group of dangerous, procreating squatters the Humans were afraid to let the visitors actually use their ship to leave the planet. The second twist involved the Prawn and his son who said they could fix Wikus. It turned out that the Prawn could fix Wikus but it would take three years. As the Prawn explained it he needed to help his own people first.

Expecting an ending where the aliens leave the planet and Wikus is turned back into a human and reunited with his wife, I was very surprised to find the planet still inhabited by aliens, the space ship gone and Wikus fully transformed into a Prawn.

When the film wrapped up I spent some time thinking about the story that Director Neill Blomkamp had told. It was a science fiction representation of South Africa under the rule of Apartheid. Every viewer of this film should take the time to think about what they have seen and to question why Humans let segregation, disenfranchisement, removal, relocation and racism exist and sometimes flourish. There simply is no place in our world for these injustices yesterday, today or tomorrow.

Wow, that last part sure seemed cooler in my mind. As I read that paragraph it makes me think that I was suddenly channeled by Keith Olbermann. “Multi-National United, you are the worst people in the world.”

Warren