Well, because someone didn't like Touhou and call it crap, I went and have a craptastic day at the mall that ended up rather fantastic!
I went and watched District 9, a new movie by acclaimed director of Lord of The Rings centering this time on aliens. Now, we have seen many and a lot of alien movies, but I assure you, nothing comes quite as intense as this one and I assure you, double that amount, that if you don't watch this you will regret it.
District 9 comes off as one of best shows I can recommend you on short notice, because this really is that good.
Our story centers on a man Wikus van der Wrewe (stupid name, Wikus-vander-wer) who is a representative of MNU Multi National United. Wikus is a honest to goodness man who sometimes is weak in the heart and mind, and he is somewhat of like all the other humans you and me, selfish. Very very selfish would be the case, we all are.
In the near future, or maybe tomorrow even, an alien ship nearly the size of a small town arrived to the skies of much unlike normal movies of aliens, in the center of Johannesburg. Humans, like our good natured self with the sheep skin on, wolves underneath hoped and rubbed our hands in hope for first contact. Who wouldn't? After all, we are a peaceful race of people excited to know we are not alone in the universe.
So we waved, we flagged, we shouted, "HEY ALIEN SAN WELCOME AND KONNICHIWA, WE ARE NINGEN, WE LIKE TO BECOME TOMODACHI WITH YOU"... but then, there is no response. Soon, months, maybe a year passed, and we grow tired of donning our fake smiles. We decide it was better to barge in.
A team of people were sent to check out what Alien-tachi are doing in their UFO desu. They drilled the ship open, breaking in and in it, they discovered, were not something expected at all.
Normally you would fine superior technology of a space-faring race, their faces kind, long, maybe eyes that show wisdom beyond human knowing. They possibly have technology that far supercedes our own, yes indeed they do. You would expect whitewashed walls filled with blue blinking lights, panels of screens floating in the air with interfaces that reacts to touch and synaptic responses. No, instead, what they found were aliens indeed, aliens that look like prawns, 2 limbs as arms, legs that looked like a feline standing vertically, bodies scrawny and skeletal with two extra feelers of sorts that grow from their lower chest.
Truth to be said they weren't pleasant, and the area they were in the ship aren't either. It reeks of rot, millions of alien refugees without an agenda or hope, stranded on planet surface on top of a city called Johannesburg in Africa. Starving, sick, putrid. When we realized they weren't about to start talking to us nor are we able to speak their language, our smiles faded completely. However, United Nations is there to the rescue, the humanitarians are protesting, the issue is too hot.
"WE MUST SAVE ALIEN-TACHI, THEY ARE SICK, THEY NEED OUR CARE AND LOVE. WE MUST WELCOME THEM WITH OPEN ARMS" their slogans chanted loudly.
Thus, a district was set up, we call it District 9. 1.5 million refugees were ferried from their putrid non-functional vessel to the surface of earth, and there, they were given care.
However, like all things human and alien alike, over time, unrest began to stir. What was once human need became 'we must spend the fund on keeping the aliens', 'let's show them our hospitality.' What was once human desires were neglected, the locals began to clamor, "THEY DON'T DESERVE THIS, SAVE OUR STARVING CHILDREN NOT THEIRS!" they shouted in protest, waving signs and chanting in marching bands of mobs.
Things soon turn to an area that District 9, called once a refugee camp, became a militarized zone. High barriers set to prevent them from getting out, men with guns patrolling the area shooting to kill them because they don't understand and the GREATEST FEAR OF ALL IS THE FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN. They don't look like us, they look like bugs, bottom feeders that raid homes and garbage cans, they hurt humans, they are not peaceful. THEY ARE ALIENS. Where once was the hospitality of mankind soon turned and reared its ugly head, there is only one thing left to do... With this, District 9 became a field of dirt, junk piled, miscreants appeared, unruly began to rule... nothing was sacred anymore.
If they aren't gonna talk about their rights (despite language barriers), then we will have to find a way to grab back all that money we spent on them, we will proliferate them. WE WILL USE THEM. We will extract their technology, we will do everything we can to them, inhumane experiments, drug tests, heck... we will use them as shooting targets because they look evil anyway. No telling what they are thinking right? They must be thinking the best ways to kill humans, cause they are aliens see?
One man, Wikus, works for MNU see, before this in case you forget about him already... is the agent, and he is on today to help the aliens move to a new place, called District 10, a concentration camp 'advertised to look like a place to help Aliens-tachi adapt to human life.' MUCH LIKE THE NAZI, gathering the Jews into them.
Isn't that fun, alien-san? You can have child-care services, training for work, you can be SLAVES to the HUMANS because WE FED YOU, WE TRIED TO TALK TO YOU, BUT YOU ARE USELESS TO US if you don't talk back... so, we had to. We have to fulfill our desires you know? 20 years did pass after all... we cared for you as long as we could... we really did... our smiles are weakening.
Wikus had to make a living, he was recently married and he needed to care for his wife...
In the background, the aliens said among themselves, all these days, these 20 years that passed are so helpless, we... we are sick too, tired of all this. We don't know what is civility anymore, in this chaos... we are dying slowly... being used like white lab rats. We are just pawns to you? Two men and a child of the alien race searched about in the junkyard that is District 9 for a way to get enough 'fluid'.
So they made a device... and tried to hide it. Fate becomes a crossing path as Wikus unfortunately by an act of God arrived before the house of these alien-men, "We are going to evict you..." he says, he is just doing his job you know? I am just a man, doing what the BIG MEN are saying.
Then, something happened, he got something on him... what is it? A freak accident caused alien liquid to spray on him! Things quickly pick up pace as they go straight for the boil. A sickened Wikus returns to home, to hear his boss nagging him on how many aliens got killed out there today because of him 'fucking it all up'.
"GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER..." he heard, and then he fainted. He woke up to a different reality, a reality where humans fade their smiles, and malicious snarls of greed greeted him. He has grown something...not human... HE IS THE USEFUL TOOL NOW...
HE, Wikus, becomes the tool that everyone wants their hands on, he is the one who has been infected... so of course, he is now a lab rat. So like all lab rats, he tried to break free, and he did.
I AM HUMAN DAMN IT! He shouted, but no one would listen. He is a wanted lab rat now, lies soon spread over him, he began to wonder whereforth are those happy smiling faces of his colleagues? where is his friend of 20 years? where happen to the family he once called home?
Then... he came to the home of the one he tried to evict last time... and now, fates are entangled.
Can they save each other? Or will they?
Human or aliens? Selfish desire or love? True understanding or true nature?
Peter Jackson puts this to the test, and the sleeper hit, a low budget film of this epic scale is born.
They say true art really pops where you least expected it.
________
Verdict 10/10
Excellent work there, Peter Jackson shows his arthouse mastery of the perfect film director, I dare say his experience, dedication when directing greats like LOTR, shows here. There is everything about this show that makes you feel intense emotions, you begin at some point to listen... in your heart.
"WHERE ARE THE PEOPLE THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO CARE?"
Only when the face of cruelty rises that one can realize the face of the human make can fakely smile in the most convincing matter.
Who is the true enemy at heart? I think I will leave the film's greatness to show you what it really means to test the faith of mankind. Is mankind truly born decent, capable of good and evil? or born evil, capable of having a heart?
That is really what this story is about.
