DISTRICT 9 @ 15

After an alien mothership appears in the sky above Johannesburg, the insect-like inhabitants are taken in with a humanitarian perspective. Soon, their rehousing solution turns into a shanty town and a project to move them into more constrictive quarters, further away from sight is underway. At its head, the responsible department boss puts his son in law to see the transition through, with the idea that he might klutz it and disappear from family life altogether. The film picks up as Wikus starts his supervisory role with the zeal of the new boy, getting his hands smudged at the ghetto itself. He comes across a tube that has been developed by the aliens and panics when it splashes all over his face. That's what it takes. After a few tests he is told that he is transitioning to an alien.

Neill Blomkamp's 2009 action satire looks like it was made before the CGI was properly dried and suffers from more pacing problems than it should but it rings as true today as it did then, especially after a nine year run of bad government and a decay in the perception of helping the needy here in Australia. If the racial groups of South Africa could reconcile after over a century of eye popping oppression by one of the others, having a new other on the block just sends them down the same crushingly depressing path.

But District 9 has more on its plate than this ever repeating scenario. The aliens (called Prawns by the humans, and not pleasantly) have weapons genetically matched to their species. When they discover that Wikus can use them with his mutated arm the mission changes to harness the power of the new devastating guns and set to work on finding a path to military mutation. While this seemed like empty commerce as a target of satire in 2009, it feels all too horrifying now. The martinet soldier despatched to recapture the now escaped Wikus who has increasingly sided with the aliens, is a two dimensional bad guy but this is completely necessary for this plot. This is a character who would intentionally render himself without complicating sides to his own let alone an enemy.

Wikus' character journey from everyday bigot to committed anti-authoritarian fighter is largely made through his increasing acquaintance with the alien called Paul and Paul's son. Walk a mile, indeed. This might be deemed a little too sermon-like but Blomkamp's Peter Jackson like fervour for gore, action and sheer cheek add too much for that to stick. Sharlto Copely measures his performance into credible portions until his change feels natural and the meaning of the final shot gains its gravity.

Fiction doesn't change governments nor can it stop international aggression but if audiences can leave films like this, feeling as though they have shared a change of mind as it happened as they witnessed it, a gentle effect is legitimate as a greater one is untenable. When Tim Burton made Mars Attacks as a kind of cancelling tone to the oafish Independence Day he presented all he could, which is to say, he made a goofy comedy whose theme of tolerance was easily lost among the gags. District 9 is the better riposte.