My Problems With "DISTRICT 9" (2009)
MY PROBLEMS WITH "DISTRICT 9" (2009)
After hearing that Neil Blomkamp's science-fiction thriller about aliens being oppressed by humans in South African had earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, I found myself slightly disgusted by the news. I might as well be frank. I never liked "DISTRICT 9". Not from the moment I first saw it.
Quite frankly, I do not believe that it deserves a Best Picture Academy Award nomination. I have to congratulate Neil Blomkamp for trying something slightly original - namely a science-fiction tale about Humans and aliens in which the Humans are viewed as villainous. But I believe that certain plot points in the movie prevented it from being a truly first-rate movie.
If the aliens were supposed to be a metaphor for black South Africans during apartheid, then the movie as a whole does not work for me. The South Africans were natives to their country. They were oppressed by descendants of those who invaded and conquered their land. In "DISTRICT 9", the aliens were the visitors. What was the director trying to say? That the black South Africans should have been considered as visitors?
Here is one topic that I have asked questions about in the past . . . and no one has bothered to answer. How did the aliens' mother ship remain above Johannesburg for two decades or more without the power module beneath the alien Christopher's shack? How? That damn thing should have crashed upon the streets of Johannesburg years ago. Christopher could not fly the mother ship without the power module . . . yet, the ship managed to hover above the city for so many years?
The Nigerian females' sexual encounters with the aliens are regarded in a negative light - especially by one of ARE supposed to be a metaphor of black South Africans, does this viewpoint against alien/human sex supposed to be a metaphor for Blomkamp's views on interracial relationships? Was the South African woman's negative comments on the relationships between Nigerian prostitutes and the aliens supposed to be a reflection of interracial romances or sexual encounters? It must be. Blomkamp certainly did not bother to counter the woman's comments with any positive views on the sexual encounters between the Nigerian women and the aliens.
Considering that the Johannesburg authorities and private arms manufacturers managed to get their hands on the aliens' weaponry when the latter were ill upon their arrival on Earth, how did so many aliens managed to possess enough weapons to trade with the Nigerians for food? Why did they not bother to use those weapons to free their colleagues being held by the South Africans and keep the latter at bay, until they could leave?
Right now, I find it so hard to believe that this movie is highly regarded by film critics and movie goers alike. It had promise. But the movie's flaws along with its questionable portrayal of the Nigerians and their relations with the aliens has led me to view "DISTRICT 9" in a negative light. And now my opinion of the Academy Awards has lowered even further with the movie's nomination for Best Picture. A nomination, I believe that is fully undeserved.