Neill Blomkamp originally shot a movie called ‘Alive in Joburg’ (scroll down to watch it) a surprisingly accomplished film made on a shoestring budget that did enough to attract the attention of Peter Jackson who produces the developed film.

The move follows Wikus Van De Merwe an employee of Multi National United (MNU) charged with evicting a population of aliens from a township on the outskirts of Johannesburg to a refugee camp even further outside the city.

The serving of eviction notices, accompanied by raids on shacks and plenty of oppressive unprovoked violence makes comparisons with apartheid South Africa obvious, District 9 mirrors the events of real evictions conducted in similar ways in townships surrounding Johannesburg. In fact the entire alien township of District 9 was filmed in a real township that was in the process of being evicted as filming took place.

A documentary team films the evictions and so also capture the moment that Wikus is inadvertently sprayed with alien fluid that begins to slowly metamorphose him into an alien. This makes the hapless Wikus suddenly desirable to various factions including MNU and local black market players in District 9. He find help amongst the alien community, although perhaps not in the format that he expected . . .

The aliens are fantastically well realised and the CGI is seamlessly integrated into the movie in a way that should make anyone involved with The Phantom Menace hang their heads in shame (assuming they weren’t already doing that). The so-called prawns are slimy, organic and filthy but still convey a personality that is extremely well realised.

Peter Jackson’s influence can be seen in moments of graphic and gooey violence (from his Brain Dead days, rather than LOTR), but handled in such a way that you’re more likely to laugh or groan than be repulsed.

In fact one of the issues with the comedic haplessness of Wikus, the excellently managed awkwardness of the aliens themselves and the casual bloody mayhem is that it undermines the few attempts the movie makes to be sentimental completely. Of course, if you’re a science fiction fan who wants alien weapons, explosions and cool spaceships, this presents should present very few problems.

District 9 lives up to all the careful marketing that has been conducted over the passed few weeks and does so because its premise is so interesting that any amount of action can be laid over the top of it without feeling overdone, even when peoples heads are exploded with lasers.

Watch ‘Alive in Joburg’, the short film on which District 9 is based.