Friday 21 August 2009

So I saw 'District 9'

An alien mother ship has been hovering above Johannesburg for two decades. As it turned out, the ETs on it weren't the badasses we humans thought them to be. In fact, despite their hideous prawny exterior, they're rather docile. And in need of relief.

So what do we, humans, do? We put them in camps. We subject them to all kinds of oppressive rules, regulations, and red tape --under the critical eye of the rest of the world of course. And we try to steal their technology and conduct experiments on them. Why? Because we can.

Besides, the "prawns" have been here for more than twenty years now. The whole novelty of it has worn off. We've learned their language, they've learned ours. An entire new generation of humans has been born and is used to the idea that we're not alone.

The movie is shot in such a matter-of-fact way you'd think that would be indeed our reaction in that specific setting.

(Running time: 112 minutes)