Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/2965
T he word "Oscar" buzzed around the surprise sci-fi hit District 9 within days of its opening. Filmed in South Africa with postproduction in New Zealand and British Columbia, the low-budget TriStar feature fl ew to number one at the box offi ce on opening weekend. Critics loved it, too, giving it an average 88 percent approval rating at the Rotten Tomatoes Web site, a rarity for a fi lm starring aliens. e consensus: "technically brilliant and emotionally wrenching." David Edelstein of New York Magazine stated, "To call this the best shrimp-from-outer-space South African apartheid allegory ever made does not begin to do it justice. But it's a start." AO Scott of e New York Times wrote, "In the midst of it all, you almost take for granted the carefully rendered details of the setting, the tightness of the editing, and the inventiveness of the special eff ects." Steven Rea, critic with the Philadelphia Inquirer, agreed: "What is absolutely impressive are the visual eff ects: the hordes of aliens, the mother ship, the seamless blending of the real with the fantastic." High praise for any visual eff ects fi lm. Outstanding for one made with a $30 million budget. Remarkable for a low-budget movie starring three CG characters and hundreds of CG second- ary characters. e CG characters are the aliens, disgusting creatures that look like a cross between a seven-foot-tall grasshopper and a lobster. ey speak alienese, clicks and clacks that the South Africans un- derstand and that the audience sees translated into subtitles. e hero aliens are a father and son, Christopher Johnson and little CJ, and Christopher's friend Paul. Image Engine, a relatively small visual eff ects studio in Vancou- ver, British Columbia, created all the aliens, which are always CG. e Embassy, also in Vancouver, created an exo-suit that plays a big role in the fi lm's climax. Weta Digital in Wellington, New Zea- land, created the spaceships. Based on writer/director Neill Blomkamp's short fi lm "Alive in Joburg," District 9 is the fi rst feature the 29-year-old had directed. Blomkamp, an award-winning visual eff ects supervisor, was raised in South Africa and graduated from the Vancouver Film School's 3D Animation and Visual Eff ects program in 1998. He created District 9 using a blend of invented documentary, corporate video, television news coverage, and live-action footage shot as if by a camera operator on the run. Image Engine inserted its CG aliens into it all. e fi lm begins as a mockumentary, with talking heads analyz- ing and video footage documenting the arrival of an alien spaceship 28 years prior. We learn that when the ship arrived, it hovered over Johannesburg because it ran out of gas. When the South Africans became brave enough to pry open a door, they discovered thou- sands of starving, sick, half-dead aliens. ey segregated them into September 2009 24 ■ ■ ■ ■ CG Creatures Image Engine, Weta Digital, and The Embassy help director Neill Blomkamp create a startlingly original sci-fi feature By Barbara Robertson