District 9 is a sci-fi, visceral action film that’s undeniably exciting to experience, but leaves many questions upon further thought. The film’s main focus concerns a mysterious mother ship of aliens that appears on Earth and a race of extraterrestrial aliens who are then kept in a refugee ghetto in Johannesburg, South Africa. Why these aliens choose South Africa and not the US, Asia or Europe is never quite logically clear.

These seemingly weak lizard-like aliens are initially captured by the white South African officials and contained in these townships, where they are referred to as “prawns”. After alien uprisings, a private security firm is sent to manage the alien resettlement. A completely inept Wikus Van De Merwe,(Sharito Copley) a minor bureaucrat, is placed in charge of the camp cleaning, which leads to a plethora of video game violence and splashing red matter.

Convoluting the plot further is Van De Merwe’s infection by an alien virus, which leads to him growing an alien claw. Novice director Neil Blomkamp, who co-wrote this tale with Terri Tatchell, seems to have just too many elements on his plate that eventually nothing is made clear. With the visual flare of a television documentary, the action packed tension of a fast paced video adventure and the serious allegorical depiction of man’s inhumanity toward other creatures, there isn’t enough time in under two hours to make any one point clear. For many that won’t matter, because the immediate impact of viewing District 9 is so engaging.