I think that everybody I knew who saw District 9, loved it, and from what I could tell, the critical assessments in the media were also glowing, and so, it was with an open, optimistic and entirely excited heart that I went to see the movie.
I thought that the premise, the launching point for the movie, was absolutely brilliant. In this case, the mysterious arrival of aliens on the planet– which is usually portrayed as either catastrophe or salvation in Sci Fi– appears to be little more than a refugee dump. How would humanity deal with the unwanted class of an alien civilization?
However, after about the first five minutes, I watched in dismay, as District 9 became a very conventional, derivative and annoyingly commercial enterprise.
For reasons that are not clear to me, the lead character was modeled after Steve Carell’s portrayal of Michael Scott in The Office. It was a curious and awkward stab at humour, one that helped drain the movie of the complexity and nuance the premise deserved. Content to use a visual shorthand rather than constructing a style of it’s own, District 9 plundered a variety of sources in what seemed an aimless manner. There were symbolic references to ET, Aliens, X-Files, The Fly, and numerous others, including the documentary frame of The Office (now something of a horror-film cliché), which they sped away from whenever convenient.
The movie itself wasn’t exactly coherent, and to enjoy it as so many did, you have to live in the present, by which I mean allow yourself to propelled along by the visual dynamism, rather than sitting back and thinking about what was actually taking place.
After about half an hour, it struck me that the movie was in fact built to structurally resemble a video game, which is not necessarily a bad thing. However, it does mean that District 9 is an expression of chaotic, visual energy. It’s explicit and superficial, adhering to the philosophy that the more components it contains, the better it is. The narrative, such as it is, is all about problem solving– the acquisition and mastery of specific tools in order to solve problems in a shifting landscape–rather than say, the maturation of a character. You don’t learn lessons in District 9, you move from level to level.
After about an hour, I just wanted the movie to end, having nothing invested in any of the characters on the screen. I simply could not shake the feeling that the movie was merely a trailer for the TV series/video game/sequel it was designed to precede and market, and I found myself wishing that the producers had an artistic goal rather than a commercial one, because the premise was so strong.