Director: Neil Blomkamp
Cast: Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, David James, Vanessa Haywood
Have I Seen it Before: Sure. It’s been a while, probably since it was first released.
Did I Like It: Reactions to some movies will be forever altered by these first few years of the 2020s. Even in its time, this was a great throwback to the sci-fi films of previous decades, which could eschew entirely becoming an action movie by default and still having some kind of intriguing notion at its core. That quaintness has only become more pronounced in the decade-plus since its initial release.
But really, I can’t help but think as I watch this now that if Wikus (Copley) had just bothered to wear his mask (at the risk of appearing, as he so helpfully puts, like a pansy), then none of this would have ever happened.
And that’s where the movie begins to unravel, and indeed, Blomkamp’s entire output takes on a failure-to-launch quality about it. The film is desperately trying to tell two different stories, that of the Prawn’s escape attempt from Earth and Wikus’ transformation from human to alien. The former would have happened without the latter, and the latter has not so much as a conclusion as a stopping point. It might be a wrenching tragedy, but there’s always the hope that the return of Christopher (Cope) might offer him deliverance, or that he may be better off as a Prawn than he was as a human.
This struggle with a dual nature is present throughout the film. Is it a straightforward aliens-on-earth story, or an attempt to forge the found footage/mockumentary genre together where others might have blanched at their fusion? The film honestly seems unsure of which one it wants to be at any given moment. I’m tempted to give the film credit, and say that this disjointed quality thematically echoes its protagonist.
But that might be giving Blomkamp credit for more than he’s actually striving.