The Musings of Wazit Sneak Peek into Wazit's Mind

Yeah... gasp! Updates daily for two consecutive days? This cannot be! But yes, I just did. Anyway, enought about that. Today it's about a new subject I never touched before in this blog. Movie review... and from the title of my post, you would have know what movie I'll be reviewing now, yeah? Well, let me start by saying District 9 is an awesome movie though some of my friends would beg to differ. But to each his own, eh? So, now that you know my general thoughts on the movie, it's time to go a little in depth.

Now, I'll try to make this as spoiler-free as possible but I can't guarantee it's going to be totally spoiler-free. So, if you hate spoilers, you better stop reading now and just take my advice to go watch it if you still haven't done so. You still with me? Ok, so District 9 is a reference to District 6, a former residential area in South Africa. It was declared a 'whites only' area by the apartheid government in the 60s and the population there was forcibly relocated. Similiarly in the movie, a group of malnourished and leaderless aliens were discovered in an alien ship which was floating on top of Johannesburg, South Africa. These aliens were referred to as 'prawns', a somewhat degratory term. These aliens were housed in a government camp called District 9 and in the beginning of the movie, they were being forcibly evicted from the area.

So, this is the main setting of the story. First, let me say that this movie is unlike Transformers 2 or G.I. Joe with flashy explosions and cool fight scenes. Although there are gunfight scenes later in the movie, the charm of the movie does not lie there. In fact, it lies in the story and character development. After all, when's the last time you seen an alien movie where aliens did not try to take over the earth or come to Earth for a friendly chat? Anyway, the character development of the movie is the best I've seen in a while. The main character, Wikus van der Merwe, is just a normal man trying to earn an honest living. In the beginning of the movie, he was seen with plenty of personality flaws. But after all, who on earth doesn't? Anyway, what's important was that the character eventually grows on you. You can see how Wikus changes throughout the movie and you can't help but feel pity due to the circumstances he's in.