Astonishing alien film that brings huge intelligence and empathy to its subject.
A vast alien spaceship arrives and hovers over Johannesburg. The aliens on board (given the derogatory name “prawns” by humans) are herded up and forced to live in a fortified slum.
When, years later, Multinational United (MNU) begin aggressively relocating the aliens outside the city, the foolish Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley) becomes infected by a fluid that begins to turn him into one of them. But rather than care for him, the authorities realise his huge value because his altered DNA means that he can now activate the aliens’ superior weapons. He therefore has the potential to unlock a huge leap forwards in military technology...
The film is presented in fake-documentary style that makes it seem incredibly real.
It’s pretty clear that the treatment of aliens as inferior beings is an allegory of South Africa’s Apartheid.
A lesser treatment could have quickly dissolved into a tacky aliens vs. humans shoot-’em-up, but while this is indeed violent it never takes the obvious or gratuitous path. And it’s a clever twist that the only kindness on display is interspecies as the fugitive human and persecuted aliens start to help each other.
