District 9

Though it does boast a few admittedly impressive action sequences within its third act, District 9 suffers from an opening half hour that’s almost oppressive in its unpleasantness – as filmmaker Neill Blomkamp offers up a pervasively low-rent atmosphere that’s exacerbated by a total and utter lack of compelling characters. The storyline follows a twitchy bureaucrat (Sharlto Copley’s Wikus Van De Merwe) as he attempts to evict thousands of aliens from a Johannesburg-based shanty town, with problems ensuing after Wikus accidentally ingests a foreign substance and is subsequently forced to go on the run with one of the outer-space visitors. Screenwriters Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell essentially drop the viewer into the movie’s gritty environs with little by way of context, which, when coupled with Copley’s competent yet far-from-sympathetic turn as the central character, ensures that one’s initial efforts at wholeheartedly connecting with the material fall flat. Such concerns are compounded by special effects that look like special effects, with the almost cartoonish appearance of the various creatures certainly ranking high on the film’s list of unconvincing elements. It’s not until it morphs into a full-bore chase movie that District 9 starts to slowly-but-surely win back the viewer’s flagging interest, as Blomkamp augments the brutal fight sequences with a frenetic pace that temporarily compensates for the inherently unappealing nature of the world in which the film transpires. There’s little doubt, however, that the movie, even during its more overtly high-octane interludes, never quite becomes the intense, balls-to-the-wall thriller one imagines Blomkamp was striving for, with the final result a marginally entertaining endeavor that’s sure to leave most viewers wondering what all the fuss is about.

**1/2 out of ****