An extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth suddenly finds a kindred spirit in a government agent who is exposed to their biotechnology.
20 years ago, an alien species crash landed on our planet near Johannesburg, South Africa. Since then, they've been "integrated" by MNU (multi-national united) and live inside a reserve along side rebel Nigerians. They are Called Prawns ,they understand English and are obsessed with cat food, which they will often Trade for weapons.
Multi-National United puts up a humanitarian front, but secretly covets their weapons and is trying to designate them for human use. To that end, they have decided to evict the Prawns and have been confiscating whatever weaponry and tech they may find. Placed in charge of overseeing the evictions, Wikus Van De Merwe, comes across a capsule and is summarily infected with alien DNA. After being infected he slowly turns into one and is then hunted by the MNU, who are attempting to kill him and extract his DNA as they've done with a few aliens previously. On the run, befriends another alien and is told that he can be cured on the Alien Mothership which hovers high above the city. With MNU hot on their trail, they race towards the ship with the hope of both finding a cure and saving the Earthbound Aliens.
I thought it was tremendously over-hyped when it was first released, upon second watching i guess I can see it. A South African film with no budget essentially created a Hollywood blockbuster. The story was coherent, the special effects were great and the acting held its own. Don't misunderstand, I still think it overhyped, but I will openly acknowledge it as a well put together film.
Out of Ten? 7
The film tanked towards the end, but It's still a decent film.
Enjoyable, just terribly over-hyped.
Violence? Yes
Explosions? Yes
Nudity? No
