District 9

There's nothing like a massive and cleverly-directed viral video marketing campaign to get me interested in a new science fiction film. I'm a sucker for watching film trailers and teasers on the internet, so I was pretty hyped about the recent release of 'District 9' - the new film "by Peter Jackson" about aliens who came to Earth and had nothing better to do than slum it up in sunny Jo'berg. The teaser clips seemed to indicate that the film would follow a documentary style, kind of a Cloverfield thing. I'm a big fan of that style, so I'm surprised I even managed to wait for a whole week after its release before seeing it.

I knew before I got to the cinema that this wasn't just going to be a science fiction thriller, but an attempt at a clever piece of social commentary. I love it when story-writers can wrap intelligent stuff up inside a good plot and don't need to signpost the things you're supposed to see. In 'District 9' the aliens are ghettoed in a slum in Johannesburg, without basic rights and demonised by the rest of the population they engage in crime and looting to survive. It doesn't take a genius to work out that this refers to South Africa's Apartheid years and the institutionalised discrimination that surrounded it. There is also a nasty great faceless corporation trying to appropriate the aliens' technology for their own weapons research, not caring who gets in the way in the meantime. It also hints at attitudes towards mass immigration and how the people who settled in a place first react to other populations who come along later.

Apart from all the clever bits, which were fairly predictable, the film threw an exciting curve-ball at me. The documentary style which we had been promised in the trailers lasted only about 25 minutes, right up until the point where the main character gets alien goo on him and starts turning a little weird. The shaky-cam vanishes and we start to get a kind of normal film, the whole thing turns into a proper action film with massive guns, laser weapons, spaceships, explosions, evil Nigerians and a robocop suit. I really was not expecting that; and although I might often shake my head at the disappointing Holywoodness of it all, for some reason I went along with it this time. Maybe it was because the subtexts were so interesting, maybe it was because the film earned a flash-bang ending after a quality start, maybe it was just because the explosions were loads of fun. The bit where all the soldiers get blown apart in sequence by ever-increasingly bizarre weapons - call me a nutter if you want but I thought it was well funny.

It is about time that a film came along that lived up to the billing. So if you want explosions as well as social commentary - look no further. Best science fiction film I've seen this year (not seen 'Moon' yet though).