District 9, one of the more unexpected successes of the year, is a strong film in what it tries to accomplish. Overall, the idea is simple – presenting segregation and xenophobia not among people, but among planets. So it was, that in 2005 Neil Blomkamp made a short film entitled Alive in Joburg, about a group of aliens stranded in South Africa. District 9 is an expansion on the concept. The aliens are met with extreme xenophobia and injustice. Laws are made against their reproduction. They are segregated from humans in an apartheid system reminiscent of South Africa 15 years ago. The “prawns” (a derogatory term for the aliens) attract various groups seeking to profit from them, including bandits, as well as non-governmental paramilitary organizations.

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The film begins as a documentary on a massive operation intended to forcibly move all aliens further away from human civilization, to a sort of concentration camp. MNU, a private military contractor put in charge of the aliens assigns a Wikus van der Merwe to spearhead the mission. Wikus, played by Sharlto Copley, is a meek and unimpressive bureaucrat. During the eviction, however, he is accidentally sprayed with a strange liquid of the aliens, prompting him to begin a transformation to one of the aliens. In his partially mutated state, he is seen as a massive asset to MNU due to their interest in replicating certain abilities he is developing for military use. When it turns out that MNU means to kill him, Wikus is forced to go on the run, to seek a cure for himself. It is around here that the documentary format is dropped almost entirely, resurfacing occasionally. What follows is a mad action film, where Wikus is played by the interests of the MNU, blood-thirsty bandits, and the aliens themselves.

While generally unremarkable, Sharlto Copley's character does possess a tremendous character ark, going from a boring and almost despicably pathetic bureaucrat, to a take-no-prisoners action hero. The acting is spot on, and the revelation of Wikus as being the central character was as genuine a surprise as movies manage to deliver, even after having seen the trailers.

Neil Blomkamp, and his co-writer Terri Tatchell do a fine job of not making the film too sermonizing, but the flip side is that the film is extremely plot-oriented. While District 9 does have a valid message and socio-political commentary, this is spelled out for us in the first half-hour of the film, and just as well in the afore-mentioned short Alive in Joburg. The rest of the movie does not goes in an action direction. Granted, the direction was clever, and the transition from documentary style to action was seamless enough to merit praise. Overall, however, viewers should not expect a profoundly thought-provoking experience, but rather an exiting adventure in a world where inter-species conscience is sorely lacking.