The second pleasant science fiction surprise of the year (after Moon) is District 9, a movie that goes beyond its superficial alien bug hunt appearance to tell a story of discrimination, prejudice, justice and injustice, and the commercialization of the military. Sharlto Copley plays Wikus Van De Merwe in his first acting job. The movie was written and directed by Neill Blomkamp whose previous experience was primarily doing special effects work. Peter Jackson saw something he liked and helped make District 9 a reality. Copley, a friend of Blomkamp’s from school, does an impressively convincing job as a bureaucratic schlub working for a commercial military outfit (think Blackwater) charged with relocating nearly 2 million aliens from one shanty town to a tent city that is a more comfortable distance from Johannesburg South Africa.

As Wikus (pronounced Vikkus) makes his clumsy way through District 9 issuing eviction notices to the “prawns” he becomes infected. His company immediately seizes him as a potential weapons asset. The movie then follows his struggle to reclaim his life while some aliens try to find a way to get their giant floating mother ship functioning again. The aliens are made to be as repugnant as possible. Calling them prawns is an insult to the appearance of shellfish everywhere. They have disgusting eating habits. When they are not scavenging for hunks of meat in garbage piles, they are bartering for their favorite delicacy: cat food. The brilliance of the movie lies in not going for the easy stereotypes. It is easy to root for E.T. against the military. The prawns are less obvious heroes.

Wikus, as an everyman thrust into the middle of the oppression of 2 million aliens, is forced to confront his own prejudices. The moral story is a backdrop to an exciting chase story. The movie has a raw, documentary style. The slums of Johannesburg make District 9 realistic, even though it is overrun with oversized talking insects.