District 9 (2009)

Directed by: Neil Blomkamp
Starring: Sharlto Copley

***

Whether or not District 9 could have been a great movie is a better question to ask than whether or not was it. There were elements, scenes and characters scattered throughout that were truly great and while there were aspects that didn't work, they could have been forgotten had the movie known what it really wanted to be. All the great elements, scenes and characters didn't really mesh well together and what we ended up with was a cool idea, some kick ass battle sequences and one great performance.

The film opens documentary style. Handheld cameras follow around members of Multi-National United Corporation as they patrol District 9... the home of non-hostile aliens for more than 20 years. Intermingled interviews explain that most people don't want the aliens around but they are so important to science that the humans refuse to let them leave. What they plan to do instead, is move them to a bigger and cheaper enclosed facility further away from the city and human life. Things go horribly wrong when Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) accidently sprays some strange alien concocted liquid into his eyes. What happens to him, the importance of that liquid and everything surrounding that element of the story is great. What tags along is somewhat of a mindless summer action flick.

As I mentioned, the film really didn't know what it wanted to be. It ranged from a mockumentary, to a compelling character piece, to Iron Man. Wikus was a perfectly created character played perfectly by Copley. So many other characters were one dimensional and did so little for the movie, their absence, even without the conflicts they brought with them, would have been fine by me.

District 9's biggest flaw was its inability to make what was happening believable. It wasn't just that aliens lived on earth and could communicate with humans... there was just something about the way they lived and interacted that didn't work, and I certainly did not believe that they'd been on earth for 20 years. Had the film managed to really implant that aspect, I feel like everything else would have been seemed acceptable. Add on top of all this that the aliens can make complex lethal weapons out of practically nothing but still live in shacks and you have a movie that's not necessary fleshed out completely.

All flaws aside however, I can't say enough about the performance of Sharlto Copley. He easily will fall into my top five leading male performances of 2009 and he single-handedly carried this movie to the approval rating I've given it. Without Copley, who while brilliant, certainly benefited from playing the most detailed, complex and interesting character on the page, this film would have fallen completely flat. He was believable and managed the best he could to make things around him believable.

I feel like I'm being generous with a three-star rating but when it comes down to it, I was entertained. The movie at some points was a mindless summer action flick, but it was an entertaining one. And the good parts of the movie were really good. I feel like had it decided to be simply a mindless summer action flick it may have worked better. It tried to be more and it didn't really work, but again... I was entertained.