When District 9 hit in 2009, a lot of people assumed that we had a new science fiction visionary entering the world of cinema. It was, at the time, a fair enough assumption - audiences hadn't really seen that kind of aesthetic applied to a sci-fi story in years, and the story being told was original, interesting, and had the kind of social commentary needed to create a classic film, a deeper (although admittedly, rather heavy handed) meaning underneath the story.
Now that Chappie has made everyone revisit their pre-conceived notions of Neil Blomkamp (and you can read my full review of Chappie here), I decided to go back and take another look at District 9, the film that catapulted Blomkamp into the spotlight as the supposed saviour of science fiction back in 2009.
Set in Johannesburg, South Africa, District 9 follows Wikus Van De Merwe, employee of the MNU, a weapons company that are also in control of the District 9 slums. Wikus is charged with leading a task force as they serve eviction notices to the inhabitants of District 9, an alien race known locally as "prawns" that are stranded on Earth after their mothership broke down directly above Johannesburg. Unfortunately for Wikus, he ends up getting a strange alien substance on himself that begins to slowly turn him into one of the "prawns".
Now that Chappie has made everyone revisit their pre-conceived notions of Neil Blomkamp (and you can read my full review of Chappie here), I decided to go back and take another look at District 9, the film that catapulted Blomkamp into the spotlight as the supposed saviour of science fiction back in 2009.
Set in Johannesburg, South Africa, District 9 follows Wikus Van De Merwe, employee of the MNU, a weapons company that are also in control of the District 9 slums. Wikus is charged with leading a task force as they serve eviction notices to the inhabitants of District 9, an alien race known locally as "prawns" that are stranded on Earth after their mothership broke down directly above Johannesburg. Unfortunately for Wikus, he ends up getting a strange alien substance on himself that begins to slowly turn him into one of the "prawns".