‘District 9’ has freaky aliens, freakier people

If you have heard anything about “District 9,” it is most likely either some form of, “It was totally awesome!” by an action movie fan, or, “It was icky,” by everyone else.

Produced by Peter Jackson, who is known for his work on epic productions like “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “King Kong,” “District 9” falls into the same vein of film that made his prior works popular: big with a touch of strange.

“District 9” tells the story of the interactions between humans and a group of aliens whose spaceship has been damaged, leaving them stranded in Johannesburg, South Africa. Drawing corollaries with apartheid, the government deems the aliens too strange to cohabitate with humans because of their differences (they are a bug-like species who are nicknamed “prawns” for their resemblance to crickets or shrimp).

As such, the aliens are placed in a refugee camp known as District 9, where they are contained by the corporate arms contractor Multi-National United. The movie begins like a documentary, showing the arrival of the aliens 28 years in the past and detailing how humans and prawns come to interact.

They are seen as bottom feeders, violent, unintelligent and obsessed with canned cat food. The prawns are far more physically powerful than humans, and they have advanced weaponry that humans cannot operate (they only turn on when they detect prawn DNA).

Only sheer numbers keep the balance of power in human favor. After the first 20 minutes or so, the style changes to a present-day setting in first-person narrative, circling around Wikus Van de Merwe, an MNU employee who is tasked with the operation of moving all the aliens to a new refugee camp (District 10) farther away from Johannesburg.

This is where the movie really begins to accelerate, as Van de Merwe encounters hidden genetic technology that enables him to operate prawn weaponry. The film does a great job illustrating just how similar the aliens and humans are by showing the brutality both races exact on each other through the course of events.

Humans commit genocide on alien children, making jokes about how their eggs pop when they torch them with a flamethrower. The prawns aren’t slouches either, casually ripping limbs off humans who refuse to give them cat food. Action abounds when alien weaponry gets involved, including guns that superheat people until they explode and magnetic shields that absorb bullets and shoot them back.

If you aren’t able to stand seeing gruesome deaths on both sides, you will not enjoy this movie. In short, “District 9” is one part politics and three parts mutilation. Director Neill Blomkamp really shines when he makes the audience think about the social implications of two species crossing paths, but the wanton violence makes it hard for audience members to feel the depth of characters.

You are terrified when someone is vaporized, not just because it is gross but also because the scenario is so extreme you would likely behave similarly if you were in the same position. Perhaps the awkwardness of the characters was an effort by Blomkamp to keep people from identifying too much with the cruelty in the film, but if you feel the acting is authentic, by the end you might feel alienated by humanity itself.

I give “District 9” two noodly appendages up, but two thumbs down. Don’t make the mistake of seeing it with your significant other (like I did) unless you know they’re into bugs and guts.