The Big Smoke

It’s revealing that Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 was produced by Peter Jackson, as he’s been heavily involved with the forthcoming Halo movie. There were parts of the film which could have been lifted straight from sections of a first person shooter such as Halo or Half Life.

That’s not a criticism, I thought District 9 looked stunning and loved the way it was filmed. The heavy use of documentary style footage added authenticity, the alien “prawns” were convincing and the squalid shantytown of District 9 was beautifully realised.

It’s true to say that worthwhile science fiction often uses ideas of the future to tell us about the world we live in. Reviews of District 9 have praised its examination of apartheid and modern attitudes to refugees. In this respect, the film is original and interesting, but I felt its moral message was never properly fleshed out.

For a film with such a bloody and action-packed finale, I was surprised it managed to fizzle out so spectacularly. My guess is they got halfway through production and were so pleased with what they had done that they decided to leave things wide open for District 10.