Alive in Joburg: Neill Blomkamp’s original idea that spawned District 9
There’s a lot of secrets in District 9, and apparently at least one Easter egg.
This is “Alive in Joburg”, Neill Blomkamp’s 2005 short film about a race of alien refugees living in Johannesburg. In it you can see his sensibilities and unique vision shine through, and also catch a glimpse of some of the creative changes made to create the feature-length version, not the least of which is taking away the Prawns’ somewhat threatening presence and turning them into the imbicilic creatures of District 9.
Definitely worth the watch.
.
Compared to any other Hollywood blockbuster, District 9 was pretty good. By any reasonable standard, however, in which things like a sensible plot, subtle characterisations, and non-ploddingly-obvious allegorical touches are valued, District 9 is quite awful. Stunk up the screen, in fact.
For example, why wasn’t there anyone in that ship? They just left it sitting empty up there for 20 years after breaking into it? They tried their fingers on a few triggers and concluded, ‘Nope! Guess this is a derelict, now everybody abandon the most important artifact ever discovered and leave it hanging in the sky like an abandoned warehouse, waiting to be recommandeered by its original inhabitants whenever they get around it.’
On a science fiction level, the movie is awful. On a characterisation level, the movie is awful. The main character is a complete git for which I have zero sympathy. Which might be okay if he were the anti-hero of a wonderful bit of irony, but the message of this film is so heavy-handed that there is really no room for subtlety whatsoever.
The only level on which this movie is impressive is the special effects, and that just isn’t good enough anymore.