District 9 - The Anti-Avatar

For a movie that calls to mind in various ways so many other movies, District 9 is somehow, surprisingly, an original - both a comic-book horror story with lots of video-game attack graphics, but also a political allegory in some way (could it have been made anywhere by S.Africa?) that inevitably forces us to think about Apartheid, the homeland settlements, the African slums (cf The Constant Gardener), and even the West Bank. But most of all it's a horror film in which the horror, the "monster," is an infection from the inside - Alien being the classic version of this, but more recently The Fly (the closest in mood to D 9), Iron Man (the hero becomes repulsive but superpowerful). And above all - it's the "anti-Avatar" - in this case earth (J-Burg) is "Pandoro," invaded by repulsive aliens, who live in an encampment. A human ventures in among them and becomes one of them, against his will - but here it's a horror story whereas in Avatar the Pandorans are attractive and wise, and the hero chooses to stay among them. The use of fast-paced news video at the outset reminded me of that Australian Romeo & Juliet of some years back, set in Mexico, and the whole mood, of the planet teetering on the brink, much like Children of Men. Obviously, it touches a lot of themes, and is a kind of avatar in and of itself - speaking to so many of our contemporary anxieties about changes in our planet, vulnerability to disease, contact with other civilizations. The battle scene, as almost always happens, went on far too long and was hard to follow (there's obviously a huge market for this), but otherwise a smart and disturbing movie.