Producer Peter Jackson champions director Neill Blomkamp's debut feature film DISTRICT 9, a quirky and smart hybrid of socio-political satire, sci-fi dystopia and a splash of good old fashioned gore.  The resulting creation is an alien world co-existing right here on Earth in the non-human ghettos of Johannesburg, South Africa in 2010, nearly three decades into an alternate reality which looks and feels more real than most overblown Holllywood epics. Written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, District 9 exists in a palpable dream-state for audiences, misdirected from the artful fantasy elements amid a barrage of cleverly edited news reports (many containing actual video footage of real events) and documentary-style filming which quickly sucks us into this alien-human conflict. To the filmmakers' credit, it's the apparent normalcy of this intergalactic standoff that sells the enjoyable (if typical) sci-fi plot.  Dipping into cinematic themes ranging from Spielberg's AMISTAD to Cronenberg's THE FLY, DISTRICT 9 delivers a summer sleeper poised to ensnare audiences desperate for a new, quirky take on gooey and good genre film fun.

THERE ARE A LOT OF SECRETS IN DISTRICT 9

The secret to DISTRICT 9's success at the box office will be how closely Blomkamp and his crew stick to the alternate reality of its world, which offers cultural touchstones to which any audience can relate.  The alien's arrival happened twenty-eight years ago in this tale, so the gee-whiz CLOSE ENCOUNTERS wonder of their mothership's arrival is a distant memory if that.  Blomkamp and Tatchell's taut script barely acknowledges any joy about this galactic dilemma, since the prawns' unwanted presence has become all too real a political and economic nightmare.  One end of the human tug-rope rallies for alien rights and justice while the other, Multi-National United, is mired in corporate containment of these marginalized creatures — the middle majority simply wish the problems of crime, civil unrest and costly expense to go away.

Draw all the social parallels you like: apartheid, civil rights movement, caste systems, immigration, you name it and DISTRICT 9 touches on it but wisely without beating viewers over the head with political commentary.  The drama makes the problem personal as MNU bureaucrat Wikus van der Merwe (Shaltro Copley) is put in charge of evicting the aliens from their ghetto into a new encampment farther away from Johannesburg.  Two decades of tension and injustice erupt as Wikus uncovers contraband weapons smuggling in the camp, only to find a greater secret hidden beneath it.

It would be completely unfair to spoil the fun and the twists awaiting in the story, but suffice it to say that Wikus, an ineffectual, inured MNU middle-man, quickly becomes the crux of the human-alien conflict.  Copley, an affable actor skillfully walking the line between moral protagonist and misused fool, embodies the social and science-fiction struggle unfolding amid the chaos.  As Wikus descends deeper into the gut-wrenching mysteries of District 9, he becomes the target of both sides in the battle.  Hunted by ruthless MNU bounty hunter Koobus (David James in an effective but underwritten role) ordered to capture Wikus by his own father-in-law, and allied with crust-alien Christopher Johnson (solid alien character work by Jason Cope),  Wikus must personally confront the anti-alien prejudice and conspiracy in order to regain his freedom and reunite with his wife (the sympathetic Vanessa Haywood).

The reality-bending concept gains strength through the mixed-media cinematography by Trent Opaloch and editor Julian Clarke, who weave a convincing tapestry of real-world civil strife in South Africa with big-bug action.  Blomkamp's team succeeds in using real and created news reports to ground his fancifully dark tale and quickly involve his audience.  His camera never shies away from the squalor of the dusty internment camps of District 9, nor does he sugar coat the drama exploring the bigotry and frustration of both human and alien characters.  Indeed, Blomkamp's smartest goal and shining achievement is to get audiences to erase their own mental and emotional dividing line between the two species.  As humans and aliens learn, we make our own reality every day.

Much credit to the film's success is also due to the gritty, detailed production design of Philip Ivey and visual effects by WETA Workshop, who combine forces to deliver an incredibly realistic world you simply will not see in another film this year.   The alien creatures are a clever partnership of on-set practical figures and digital effects as convincing as any Hollywood blockbuster, and better than quite a few I could name.  Location filming with the ever-present alien mothership hovering over Johannesburg, and locking the plot of Wikus' evolving horror catches audiences' attention and imagination, never letting go.  If the script has a weak point, it's a subplot about the black market weapons culture lurking in District 9 which never really gains dramatic relevance until it serves the main story's progress — it's a rare predictable move in this otherwise savvy and sneaky gem.

FILMEDGE offers this warning: miss seeing DISTRICT 9 at your own risk this summer, because Jackson and Blomkamp have landed their intergalactic parable right on target  to please genre and general filmgoers alike.  This film mixes deftly mixes genre influences while retaining its utterly unique attitude about what could have been a lifeless cliché in the hands of lesser filmmakers, yet the dramatic core of the story overrides any indulgent detours into sci-fi silliness or excess.  Who would have guess that a late-summer foreign film could have audiences rethinking their image of Earth-bound alien bugs?  Update your passports and book your ticket for DISTRICT 9 today — this film will grow on you!