Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #333 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-12-28
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Hindi
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 112 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
A provocative science fiction drama, District 9 boasts an original story that gets a little lost in blow-'em-up mayhem. Set in Johannesburg, South Africa, District 9 begins as a mock documentary about the imminent eviction of extraterrestrials from a pathetic shantytown (called District 9). The creatures, it turns out, have been on Earth for years, having arrived sickly and starving. Initially received by humans with compassion and care, the aliens are now mired in blighted conditions typical of long-term refugee camps unwanted by a hostile, host society. With the creatures' care contracted out to a for-profit corporation, the shantytown has become a violent slum. The aliens sift through massive piles of junk while their minders secretly research weapons technology that arrived on the visitors' spacecraft. Against this backdrop is a more personal story about a bureaucrat named Wikus (Sharlto Copley) who is accidentally exposed to a DNA-altering substance. As he begins metamorphosing into one of the creatures, Wikus goes on the run from scientists who want to harvest his evolving, new parts and aliens who see him as a threat. When he pairs up with an extraterrestrial secretly planning an escape from Earth, however, what should be a fascinating relationship story becomes a series of firefights and explosions. Nuance is lost to numbing violence, and the more interesting potential of the film is obscured. Yet, for a while District 9 is a powerful movie with a unique tale to tell. Seamless special effects alone are worth seeing: the (often brutal) exchanges between alien and human are breathtaking. --Tom Keogh

Synopsis
Over twenty years ago, aliens made first contact with Earth. Humans waited for the hostile attack, or the giant advances in technology. Neither came. Instead, the aliens were refugees from their home world. The creatures were set up in a makeshift home in South Africa’s District 9 as the world’s nations argued over what to do with them.

Now, patience over the alien situation has run out. Control over the aliens has been contracted out to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company uninterested in the aliens’ welfare. MNU will receive tremendous profits if they can make the aliens’ powerful weaponry work. So far, they have failed; activation of the weaponry requires alien DNA.

The tension between the aliens and the humans comes to a head when MNU begins evicting the non-humans from District 9, with MNU field agents responsible for moving them to a new camp. One of the MNU field operatives, Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), contracts an alien virus that begins changing his DNA. Wikus quickly becomes the most hunted man in the world, as well as the most valuable – he is the key to unlocking the secrets of alien technology. Ostracised and friendless, there is only one place left for him to hide: District 9.

Stills from District 9 (click for larger image)

Customer Reviews

District 9 - Great Movie
I went to see this after having heard it was meant to be very good. And it really was. I won't cover the story in this review as it has been covered many times in the others, but I will comment on some of the things mentioned by the other reviews.

First of all, the CGI is really very good, it actually looks like men in suits, which is the whole point. It is there to add the characters, rather then the reason for the whole movie, like someone else said.

Someone mentioned the South African accents are very bad, and hard to understand. I for one had no trouble understanding them. But the film is set In Johanesbourg (poor spelling I know), and if they all had American accents in the film, I'm sure these same people would be complaining about that as well.

The ending isn't quite the usual happy ending, and is a little open to viewer interpretation, and maybe a sequel, but I like it.

Another reviewer said they didn't really like the lead actor, and would have prefered someone more well know or a better actor. But I think that seeing as not everybody in real life is a super hero or can handle disasters without crumbling, I think, the fact that the main actor seems just like your average government office worker, coupled with the fact that the start is in a documentary style, it makes sense that hes just a regular joe, trying to do the best job he can, in an ever worsening situation.

It's one of those films that I didn't want to end. I kept thinking that this has been on for ages and it's bound to end soon. This was the polar opposite to Transformers 2. Now as much as I loved the first Transformers film, when I was watching the second one, I kept glancing at my watch, wondering how much was left.

Also, I really like films that give you some sort of emotional responce. The final battle at the end, showed the main character really struggling, and coupled with how epic the on-screen action was, it actually brought a tear to my eye.

Overall it's a film well worth watching, and I will be a day one purchase for me on Blu-Ray, especially as the cinema I watched it at had a blurry and shakey image, but I digress.

Definetley worth watching and worth buying.

Brilliant!
In District 9, Alien refugees have landed on Earth in South Africa, when they have been segregated into a slum in Johannesburg. Because this has led to friction with the city's human residents, Multi-National United have been given the task of moving them to District 10, further away from the city. But MNU have their own agenda - performing secret genetic experiments on kidnapped 'prawns', as the aliens are known, hoping to make their DNA-encoded weapons work for humans & make a killing (in both senses of the phrase) by selling them on.

Such a bold premise covers many contemporary political themes, such as Apartheid, the attitude towards war refugees such as the Kurds & Albanians, & the underhand practices of multinationals in Africa. Early on, it seems that director Neill Blomkamp is heading towards tackling these difficult themes but as the film progresses, the documentery elements are gradually phased out & the plot becomes a more traditional Hollywood narrative, albeit one with some quirky new touches.

However, this did not detract from my enjoyment. For one thing, the parallels with real-world events, combined with shakey camerawork & outstanding CGI make it utterly convincing. As such, District 9 is far more satisfying & (ironically) human than dispassionate blockbusters like Independence Day. Leading man Sharlto Copley plays a flawed character but his charismatic performance meant I still warmed to him much more than if he'd been played by some A-list Hollywood actor in a ripped vest, with a love interest on one arm, a machine gun on the other & a comedy sidekick tagging along.

Despite my feeling that the concept behind District 9 had more potential to veer away from mainstream than was used, it was still an enjoyable, touching & charismatic movie which I thoroughly recommend.

Close to home
I am African, and resonated quite positively with this story. It could have literlly been a documentary of african events. The voodoo type inclusion of the Nigerians was a bit OTT, but overall it was a brilliant and touching story, for the first time, alien contact was not in America, but one of the most unexpected parts of the world, With this film, you will be entertained.
Could there be a sequel?