Simon Dillon reviews the film

Much has been said about Neill Blomkamp's widely acclaimed debut feature (executive produced by Peter Jackson). It's been financially successful, exceptionally well marketed, politically provocative, and yet still manages, at its most basic level, to be a really exciting piece of science fiction.

The premise is certainly intriguing. In 1982, a huge alien spacecraft appeared over Johannesburg and the world held its breath at the excitement of first contact. However, far from a Close Encounters type event, the ship was filled with almost a million prawn-like aliens suffering from malnutrition. Once on Earth, they were fed and housed, only to become resented by the local population who felt money was being wasted on them at their expense. As a result, over twenty years later the "prawn" refugee camp has degenerated into a militarized ghetto resembling a shanty town called District 9.

Eventually, the munitions corporation Multi National United (MNU) is contracted to forcibly evict the "prawn" population of District 9 into a new camp. With the ignorant, somewhat inept MNU operative Wikus Van Der Merwe (the excellent Sharlto Copely) in charge, the relocation begins, but along the way Wikus becomes exposed to an unknown alien chemical that causes him to begin mutating into one of the "prawns". Because the alien technology requires "prawn" DNA to operate it, Wikus suddenly becomes the most hunted - and valuable - man in the world.

Although this film has been described as low budget I should clarify that the budget isn't actually low - merely comparatively low for Hollywood. It cost a fraction of what it would cost Michael Bay to direct, yet a few seconds of District 9 has more flair, wit, intelligence, imagination and cinematic verve than Bay's entire back catalogue. Perhaps hiring talent instead of stars minimised the amount of interference, ego, cocaine habits and so forth that often gets swallowed up by budgets on such films, thus, the money really is - for once - up there on the screen.

And boy does it look good. The visual effects are utterly astonishing, primarily because they don't jump up and down screaming "Look at me I'm an amazing special effect!" like so much other Hollywood product. The screenplay is fiercely uncompromising, refusing to provide reasons why the aliens came to Earth in the first place as well as unsettling ambiguity in the finale. Instead, moral and spiritual issues are placed front and centre - as well as the blistering action and horror which provides hefty dollops of tomato ketchup (my father's vernacular for strong bloody violence), not to mention a plethora of f-words that will no doubt put off some Christian audiences. Performances are all excellent (Wikus has a brilliant character arc from ignorant and cowardly to self-pitying and ultimately heroic), and although Blomkamp's direction largely employs the current fad for hand-held documentary style, here it seems miraculously fresh.

As a political allegory, District 9 isn't so much thinly veiled as not veiled at all. The deliberately provocative Johannesburg setting obviously conjures up apartheid/ANC parallels, but these allegories can apply equally to other ethnic conflict situations from Bosnia to Rwanda and even Nazi Germany, especially considering the gruesome experimentation being secretly performed on the "prawns" and the concentration camps they are being relocated into. On a moral/spiritual note, selfishness and prejudice are clearly and obviously condemned. However, on a slightly more subtle note, there is an implicit pro-life message in a scene where alien babies are aborted in a disgusting, dehumanising manner. Also, although he is prejudiced and selfish for much of the film's running time, Wikus clearly loves his wife Tania (Vanessa Haywood) and remains completely faithful to her, as she does to him despite enormous social pressure and understandable fears. The most fleshed-out "prawn" character - a single parent father called Christopher Johnson (Jason Cope) - is selfless, protective and is given an intriguing, almost Moses-like quality when he speaks of "his people".

There are nits that can be picked. It feels a little uneven in places, especially after the film (by necessity) drops the faux-documentary approach that dominates the opening. It could also be accused of being derivative in certain sections. The "prawns" look a bit like a cross between the Predator and the Geonosian aliens in Attack of the Clones (they even sound like the latter), and in general the film draws obvious inspiration from other science fiction and horror films, most notably The Fly. But District 9 still packs a heck of a punch, and ultimately does feel like something unique and different. For that reason, and also because it has a great deal of food for thought, I would highly recommend this to those who have the stomach for it.