District 9

My son talked me into going to see this.

Sometimes, when I go to a regular priced movie, I feel like I'm in Wiemar Germany, pushing the wheelbarrow full of cash up to the ticket window where I leave half of all my money, with the other half at the concession stand.

If it's a good movie, I don't mind forking over all that cash. Was this a good movie?

It was good sci-fi as such things go. The premise is that aliens came to earth and became stranded over Johannesburg, South Africa. The ship sits there, hovering over the city in a rather unnerving way, until the government decides to force its way in. They discover 1 million aliens in really bad shape. So they rescue them, removing them to a facility that looks a lot like, after twenty years, an apartheid township.

Imagine the bad luck of these aliens to land in South Africa, where they have a lot of experience dealing with people/aliens who look different. Oh, and guess what? Nigerians (not sure why they have picked on that nationality) have moved in to set up black markets among the aliens, who have some super weapons that humans can't use because they are tied to alien DNA. Nonetheless, the Nigerians think if they can just get some of that mojo, they can rule the slum, the country or the world, whatever such people think such an attitude will get them. Mostly survival, I suppose.

If I were South Africa, I would be a little peeved of being portrayed in this way, reverting back to their apartheid roots and all. Softening the political correctness of it is the story that it's not the really the South African people or government doing this to the poor, hapless aliens. The task of of managing this mess has been outsourced to a giant weapons company, who hope to gain the alien weapons technology in a slightly more advanced way than the Nigerians in return for moving this camp away from JHB (I never knew Johannesburg was abbreviated this way. One learns something new everyday.) to a new and improved camp 200 miles away.

It's all neatly packaged for consumption. The big, evil corporation is at fault. The South African government and people can wash their hands of the whole affair. In fact, the government is mentioned only once, as the rescuer from the mothership.

I would like to remind Peter Jackson and other producer/directors that it is governments that set up camps and are responsible for much of man's inhumanity to man (in this case, aliens). I don't think corporations find much profit in it.

I won't go into the plot because it just doesn't seem worth it. My advice: wait until it comes out at the dollar theater or on DVD. Don't take young kids or squeamish women because it is very bloody and gory. If I was Joe Bob, I'd give it 2 thumbs up, with points lost because of the evil corporation cliche. Heads definitely roll. No breasts.