(Spoiler Warning for District 9)
With any film I walk out of glowing about like I did with District 9, I feel somewhat obligated to drop another $8.00 at the box office just to see it again. I don’t know if it’s out of respect for the filmmaker, to compensate for the fool who went and saw some stupid trash instead. Rather, I think it’s to make sure — especially sure — that I wasn’t just seeing things. With a great film, or even a very good film, the first viewing is about a smeared, blurry, big picture. The second is about detail, filling in the gaps between the money shots, often coming to grips with the fact that your beloved 2-week-old piece of cinema has some flaws.
With that in mind, here are some of my thoughts on District 9, given a week to settle.
• This is Sharlto Copley’s movie. My first viewing of District 9 was confusing for the reason I imagine the studios voiced to Neill Blomkamp and Peter Jackson at least once: it’s really hard for someone seeing it spoiler-free (which I was blessed enough to be) to pinpoint the main character for the first 20-25 minutes of the film. The documentary footage is eye-candy exposition, and a second viewing reveals how much this is, in fact, Wikus’ story from minute one.
I imagine most audience members were a little reluctant to tag along with him as was I — he’s a really unlikeable character for the first act of the film, a tax man with a smile. Seeing the film with the knowledge of his character arc in mind, it becomes apparent just how astounding Copley’s performance is. He plays two versions of a man, both nothing like himself, and he’s completely convincing in both roles. Given the knowledge of the direction in which he was headed, I viewed his character at the beginning of the film as I do Ash at the beginning of The Evil Dead: you poor sap, you have no idea how much anguish you’ll have to endure to become a complete badass.
• As much is explained as is needed, nothing more. We get the precise amount of information to understand the plight of these creatures and the devastating effects their arrival has had upon the way our world functions, and we’re left to gather the rest for ourselves. Thus, when we’re thrust into District 9 with Wikus that first time, we’re tense, unknowing what they’ll do. When that first prawn bats a clipboard violently (humanly) from Wikus’ hands, I could see people visibly react in their seats. We don’t know their agenda, and we distrust them as much as Blomkamp’s fictional world does.
• The CGI is as convincing as everyone says it is. Someone mentioned in a review that the “prawns” looked wonderful on screen because the artists knew what textures would look most photorealistic, but that’s only half the story here. No effect is telegraphed, nothing is too in-focus. Many of the effects shots are framed with the aliens only partially off-screen, as if they are human extras. There’s a scene involving Christopher Johnson and his son rummaging around in the dark with a small light that looks as textural and real as any scene involving human beings shot in the film.
And the eyes! Kudos to whoever made the executive decision to design the “prawns” with the most expressive, human-like eyes possible. In another movie it could have come across as silly, but here they make for some of the film’s most powerful emotional beats.
What’s not so great, upon a second viewing?
• It’s bloated. Every scene with Sharlto is great. Every scene with Christopher and son is great. However, there are too many forces at work in the film. I love the element of chaos (the detail is what brings District 9 as a place alive), but time spent with the mercenaries and time spent with the gun runners tends to drag out while we wait to return to our hero(es). We’ve seen a hundred characters like these before, but never anything quite like our leads.
Conclusion drawn: it’s not flawless, but it’s as flawless as anything released this year. The time spent with two of the most interesting leading characters in recent memory more than makes up for my sole qualm with District 9, and it’s undoubtedly worth the hype it’s been getting. According to Box Office Mojo, it’s already earned $17,000,000 over its budget, which is a slam dunk for a genre film of this sort. Seeing it in a crowded house on a Tuesday night a week after release is a great sign that Blomkamp will be returning with something stellar.
