Gross encounters of the third kind

The aliens in District 9 resemble slimy crustaceans. Humans call them “prawns,” a derogatory yet appropriate term. Some humans find them to be as irresistible as shrimp cocktails; a woman noisily slurps up alien blood, a man gobbles up a dismembered alien arm. These space creatures have been living in Johannesburg, South Africa for 20 years, segregated into various slums — “districts” — designated by the human government.

It’s Ellen Ripley’s worst nightmare. Luckily, these are not the same vicious predators that Signourney Weaver had to contend with. The aliens want nothing more than to go home, but until they figure out a way to refuel their ship, they are stuck in an increasingly violent co-existence with the earthlings.

Director Neill Blomkamp’s debut feature is ingeniously constructed. It starts off as a documentary, something you might see on the Discovery channel, then shifts into a conventional narrative you might call The Last Samurai meets Predator meets The Fugitive. Like the Tom Cruise film, a white male protagonist befriends his enemy, a different race (in this case, a different species), and discovers that he has something in common with them. Then he joins the enemy for some serious ass-kicking.

The unlikely hero of District 9 is Wikus, a man whose job is to shepherd 1.8 million aliens into a new district. When he inadvertently squirts alien liquid in his eyes, his DNA begins to mutate, slowly changing him into a prawn. The shocking transformation begins with his arm, which is no longer recognizable as human. The government wants his body for ungodly experiments, and so he runs.

District 9 emerged from Blomkamp’s Alive in Joburg, a six-minute short that caught Peter Jackson’s eye. Though it is Blomkamp’s vision that propels the story, District 9 carries the emotional weight of a Jackson movie. Jackson’s films are about human struggles against powerful, larger-than-life forces; the prawns are feared and misunderstood, like King Kong or the women of Heavenly Creatures.

Blomkamp is a confident director who clearly understands that good storytelling is based on emotional truth. What separates District 9 from banal films like Independence Day and Terminator Salvation is a propensity for honesty. Though the film eventually settles for typical Hollywood conventions, it never loses its authenticity. District 9 is about identity and home; the two could be synonymous — for who are we without a home? And when our very notion of “self” has been threatened, where do we go? The filmmakers don’t attempt to answer these questions, but it’s obvious, by the end, who the real aliens are.

Grade: B+