It's been a scifi week... District 9 and the most recent Star Trek.

Star Trek

I've never been very involved with the Star Trek universe. I never watched the show (well anything more than the occasional episode at a friend's house), or saw any of the previous movies except I think a bit of one involving the borg years and years ago. I was a Trek newbie going into this film. I think that's probably a good thing as this latest effort manages to be intriguing without being dry, doesn't treat the technology as something that has to be explained all the time and basically moves things along at a nice brisk pace.

You get a nice sense of worlds and alternate cultures, the characters are solid with good performances and visually it's a treat. My one issue with the whole thing is that the villain isn't really all that strong, he stomps around, he's grumpy, we are told he has a reason to be all these things, but we never see it happen. Off screen back story to villains is tricky and I feel they somewhat missed the mark here. That didn't make a huge difference to my entertainment, but means that I'm less likely to put the DVD in the player again in the near future. It's a fun romp, a good ride, but little more than skin deep. Still it's very shiny and shiny can be a whole lot of fun.

District 9

The opposite of shiny. That would be this film. Gritty, dark, downright nasty in places, District 9 is everything I like to see in scifi. The story is very, very solid here and has some interesting ideas about biomechanics thrown in. The real shining star in the whole thing for me are two elements - the documentary style that seamlessly (at least for me) blends with the more traditional narrative style later in the film and the lead performance. Sharlto Copely is one hell of a good actor. It's nice to see he's managed to land a decent part in the upcoming A-Team film. He hold the whole picture together, providing a realistic performance that is both funny, believable and deeply tragic.

I'd hesitate to give away too much of the plot, but the film had me surprised and completely tense as the plot unwound. I can't deny it draws on some classic scifi films in certain elements but overall the concept and execution seemed very original to me. 

Of course I should probably mention how amazing this all is given the low budget of the film (how they got CGI that good for the price is a bit of a brain teaser), but I don't think the budget really matters. This was a good story with a good lead performance. You can do that with a million dollars, you can do it with five. In the end District 9 is an amazing piece of work because of the story, the acting and the direction, not because it was produced by Peter Jackson and didn't cost a fortune. I eagerly await more work from all involved.