The Adventures of Captain Otter

Okay, District 9 isn’t related to comics.  But it’s sci fi, and there just arn’t too many comic book movies this summer.  Still, I’m going to related this to comics.  Just trust me on this one.  District 9 is Neil Blomkamp’s first big screen outing, and it’s sure not to be his last.  I didn’t even hear about this movie until a month or two ago, and it’s looking to be a sleeper hit.  All I knew was that there were aliens in South Africa, and they couldn’t go home.  I had no idea where they would go from there, and that mystery just made me that more excited to see the movie.

Let’s start out with the good parts.  The highlight of the movie is undeniably the alien designs.  There’s nothing unique or new here actually.  We’ve all seen motherships, and we’ve all seen alien weapons that cause crazy damage.  These are classic sci-fi staples.  What Blomkamp does do is take these old school elements and makes them feel real.  I can’t emphasize how big of an achievement this is.  We know that a mothership is some kind of big floating disc, but the ship in District 9 feels like something that could be built.  And it’s almost worth going to see the movie just to see the guns.  This is where the movie excels: taking the ordinary and making it feel real.  Even the basic premise is an extension of this concept.  We’ve seen aliens crash land on our planet before.  Again, this isn’t a new concept.  But we’ve never see such a realistic portrayal of how this would actually happen in reality and how governments would respond to the issue.  This sense of realism is boosted by the cinematography as well.  Much of the movie is in “documentary” form, with plenty of interviews to fill the viewer in on what’s going on.

So, the graphics and designs are great.  The premise is great.  Even the acting was great.  What could possibly be wrong with this movie?  The plot.  Despite all of this movie’s achievements, the plot brings it down.  It’s not that the plot is bad, it’s just incredibly predictable.  If I tell you the first 20 minutes or so of what happens, I can guarantee that you will able to figure out the rest of the movie.  With such an original set up and premise, I was hoping for something a bit more.  I don’t want to give away too much, but (SPOILER), the plot feels way too much like Blood Diamond’s.  Also, I’m getting a bit frustrated at how in almost every movie, corporations are downright evil.  I can’t think of a movie where a big company is even neutral, let alone good.  Having them as villains is starting to get old, and when you can predict that they’re going to be the bad guys before the movie even starts, you have a serious problem.  If I tell you that there’s a big corporation in the movie, do you have any doubts that they’re going to be evil?  In fact, the plot becomes so predictable, I stopped caring about the characters.  Sure, the protagonist is a well rounded character, but by the end of the movie I felt like he was just going through the motions.District 9 is a very good movie, but that’s it.  If someone had taken this premise and done something different, it could have been a science fiction legend.  Did the apartheid and racial messages work?  Yes, but even a good theme can’t salvage a predictable plot.  People will hold it in high regard because it’s original and different, and they’re not wrong.  For me though, the movie just lacked heart.  This is one of the reasons I love comic book movies (see?  I told you I would relate this to comics).  In comic book movies, we know who the characters will be and we know the hero will win in the end.  Chances are some of us will know what specific story the movie is based on.  Even then, good comic book movies are still amazing.  The characters are interesting and you actually care about them.  The stories are time tested and compelling (hopefully).  This is what District 9 lacked.  It had all the potential to be a great movie, and it was “original” and “different”.  But without characters you care about and interesting plot developments, it’s just alright.

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