2.5 stars out of 5
District 9 was my 7th-favorite movie of 2009. It was raw sci-fi mixed with humor and much political subtext, particularly to apartheid-era South Africa. The film referenced earlier classics while creating something totally new. So what if we gave writer/director Neill Blomkamp a bigger budget and a couple of top Hollywood stars? I found the result to be mostly entertaining… but also incredibly muddled and stupid.
It’s a shame, because the basic idea of the movie is pretty freaking cool. It’s 2154, we’ve polluted and overpopulated the planet (no shock there), so the 1% have fled to a floating space-ring oasis known as Elysium. I wanted to know so much more about this place, and contrast it with the post-apocalyptic hellhole that Earth has become. And you’ve got Matt Damon signed on! Who better to play an average Joe dreaming of a better life up there? The guy bought a zoo, fer crissakes!
Instead, there’s a lot of mini-Transformers, and Damon gets fitted with some kind of Robocop exoskeleton, and there are guns and knives and punching and spaceships and explosions. Maybe Jodie Foster can add some class to the proceedings? Nope, she’s saddled with the worst accent of her career, and a thankless role as the Al Haig of Elysium. OK, how about Sharlto Copley, who was so great as the lead in District 9? Here, he’s Jodie Foster’s muscle back on mother Earth, a super-creepy dude. He’s the comic relief this time, and with his zany accent he does get a few laughs in, but it’s such a cruel character that I had a hard time enjoying him.
The plot is so… plotty (oh yeah, there’s a sick little girl who needs to be saved too) that Blomkamp’s social agenda—class equality, immigration reform, universal healthcare—really feels tacked on this time.
And I don’t even want to talk about what IMAX costs now in Manhattan.
Jack Silbert, curator