You can find episode 1here



I finally got around to renting District 9 based on all of the praise I've heard from, well, everywhere.


Were we watching the same movie? You could throw thousands of cans of cat food through the plot holes!


1. The political commentary is not subtle nor ingenious

The aliens land in South Africa. If you have been in the 6th grade at some point (hell, you didn't even have to pass), you've learned about apartheid. In fact, when one says "South Africa", I would bet a dollar that apartheid is the first thing that comes to people's minds. In this manner, the aliens didn't have to even land anywhere in Africa to get the apartheid message across. In fact, it might have been more powerful if they landed in the United States.

Immediately we know there's going to be segregation and whatnot, but then, for the first 30 minutes or so, we are constantly hit over the head with the message. The best political commentary is subtle. Your subconscious recognizes it immediately and then later you think about it. It's even better when it gets you to be a little conflicted about the scenario at hand. The opportunity to feel sorry for the humans is not existent, especially when they make very poor choices (more on this later).

Apartheid in South Africa was the separation of people based on their race. It did not always implement this with "camps". People could leave their areas, but were limited in where they could go. The "no alien" signs indicated that aliens could freely move throughout the city, but that was never shown. If the aliens weren't allowed out of the camp, why did they have all of these signs and rules on what aliens could/could not do?


2. The aliens are dumb and we have to explain it away

The first time we're told that the aliens that survived in the ship are the "workers", the manual laborers, the proletariat, it is slightly plausible. The "brains" died somehow (still plausible), and now the remaining drones have no ability to think, rationalize, or make decisions. That holds up for about an hour until we see the aliens' ability to defend themselves and the "main" alien who has been fixing the ship that fell twenty years ago that is under his shack.

Either they're dumb or they're not. Assuming the aliens' original plan was to go to Earth, we'd have to speculate that the brains died while at space because the choice of South Africa (out of all the places to hangout/land) is downright retarded. There's nothing there. Oh wait, this movie is about apartheid, so it has to be South Africa.

The movie never attempted to explain why the aliens just took all the shit handed to them. Since we were never provided an alternate set of "rules", we are operating under the assumption that all living organisms have a self preservation drive. At some point, the prawns would rise up and begin defending themselves. Why didn't the "dad" alien be their leader? He seemed capable of intelligence thought and cognitive processes. He understood the need to protect his species (as evidenced by his care for his son; more on this later).

3. What is the point of keeping them (in a camp)?

We're never shown the aliens doing any amount of work. Nothing. How do they earn money? How do they live? Oh wait, this movie is about apartheid so they scrounge around looking for dirt and tires. Seriously though, what purpose do they serve? Until we find out about the evil experiments being done later there really is no need to keep them. There's a whole scene dedicated to killing the aliens' young (which they need a permit for, what? That was never explained either!), but they never say why they want to curb the population growth...why not kill them all and be done with it?

4. Not so subtle political point number two

Corporations are bad. Corporation who support apartheid are bad. Privatization of military type activities are bad (I can agree with this, but we aren't ever given the back-story, that would have been interesting). So, at some point shortly after the aliens arrived, the South African government hires MNU (a bad corporation!) to handle all of the aliens business. Where is the United States? Where is the European Union? Where is China? Aliens land and the rest of the world lets South Africa handle it on their own? I would understand giving them full reign 10-20 years later, but at ground zero the world's super powers are absent? Please. As soon as the ship appears, there would have been 2 air craft carriers patrolling the coast down there. Oh wait, this movie is about apartheid, so it has to be South Africa.

Running with the idea that the aliens are kept around for experiments and their technology, why set up a refugee camp? A cover? Why? Why let it go to shit? If this is truly about money, MNU would have been more interested in making District 9 a safer place for aliens to live until they were taken to the HQ to be chopped up.

5. Voodoo

I really do not care that some Nigerians were offended. I do care why Nigerians were even in District 9 to begin with. Wasn't this supposed to be an alien internment camp? Where is MNU? Why are the borders not secure? Anyone can go in as they please? This wasn't really explained. I suppose there had to be a contrast to the corporations' effort to utilize alien tech, some guy wanted to eat them.

6. The language barrier

This one absolutely kills me. The main character can understand every bug and they can understand him, but neither speaks the others' language. Why isn't a translator present? At some point in the last twenty years, humans had to figure out and teach themselves the alien language. How did they issue the aliens commands in the beginning? Gesticulate? How did the aliens figure out English? They couldn't possibly, they're dumb! There's other scenes where some humans can't understand all of what the alien says, only part. How that occurs is never explained.

7. Terrible character choices

The main character is traveling around an alien ghetto and gets sprayed with some mysterious substance. Why doesn't he go directly to a hospital? Why does alien fuel convert people? If we poured gasoline on a prawn would they turn into us?

After some "converting", his wife believes her father over him? They must not have had a close relationship. His father in law would rather have a few billion dollars then his son-in-law? Oh wait, corporations are bad.

The worst offense is the scene where the "dad" alien tells the protagonist that it will take three years to heal him. Then he knocks out the alien and goes down to pilot the ship. WHAT? He knows shit about the technology. How is he going to heal himself if and when gets to the mother-ship? The main character is terribly stupid.

8. The second half

The premise is set up and we're ready to see a story unfold. Unfortunately, the second half turns into a Rambo fest (which isn't bad), but doesn't explain anything! PEW PEW! We are told that these are "contractors"/mercenaries. When they saw one of their comrades explode into pink mist, WHY ARE THEY STILL STANDING THERE? They aren't soldiers, there's no sense of honor or duty, they're fighting for a paycheck. Standing in the line of fire, where a weapon will "find" you with its blast? Please.

Not to mention we're treated to a "go on without me" scene. Barf. Supposedly there was some tension between the merc captain and the main character, but I wasn't feeling it. We then see the aliens tear the guy limb from limb. So they're just as fragile as we are, but super strong? And they take all of this punishment? Why? I'm guessing it has something to do with apartheid.

9. The ship leaves

So the dad and son alien activate the mother-ship and leave. To do what exactly? Is their home planet populated? What are they going to do? Why would it take three years? He promised to come back, but never gave any specifics. Why do all the prawns just look up at the ship when it leaves? They make no attempt to get on it, run after it, anything! The people of South Africa seem to be rejoicing. Why? The aliens were in a damn camp, they didn't go into the city (unless there are incidents were weren't told about).

The mother ship is gone and MNU still goes through with the relocation to District 10. Why!?! We're told the population is rapidly increasing, so evidently they aren't curbing it anymore, why?

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I do not understand why this got such good reviews. The CGI was fantastic and the action was decent, but the story left so much out.

Cat Food 9 District 9, you've been over-analyzed.