Welshrogue

People are raping and murder, or rather all the evidence points to these random people committing these crimes. Lincoln Rhyme starts believing that one man is responsible for all these crimes. A man with the power to know everything about anyone, and also with the ability to alter the information for his own plans. But how do you find a man who knows everything? At the heart of the story is the subject of information. Information about a person and how much is stored and how it is used. Clever identity theft, databases of information ranging from cell phone records to education, all twisted by one man using it for his own private needs.

As usual with a Jeffery Deaver story, there are false leads twisting off in various directions along the way, just helping the reader sit on the edge of their seat before getting down to the nub of the plot. The main cast of characters are the same from previous books, with Lincoln Rhyme leading the way again from his disabled body via phone, computer, wit and sometimes whiskey.

This is a well paced story that doesn’t rush the reader other than to draw false conclusions. Its well put togeather, and feels as if Mr Deaver has researched well and long into the night to make sure that everything is right. While not a stand out compared to the previous Lincoln Rhyme books, it is at as high a standard as the rest which is no bad thing!

20 years ago, an alien mother-ship appeared above Johannesburg. In the proceeding years, the settlement camp named District 9 has become more of a detention camp and the population has grown. The power that be have decided to move the aliens to another, newer camp. This is what happens.

This is a movie without movie stars. There is no Hollywood in this movie. It feels like a documentary, aided by shaky cam and out of focus shots. It is pretty transparent that this is a  movie about apartheid and what we see is not nice. Derogatory comments, racial slurs and abuse are common on this aliens and it can be pretty offensive.

The main character of District 9 is Sharlto Copley, a newcomer to acting who starts out like the majority of the humans we see in the movie. Soon it is apparent that things are affecting him as he goes about his business evicting aliens.

For a movie that is pretty grim at times, there is humour which at times is needed to keep the movie from becoming too dark.  Its a fine balance that is achieved by the mixture of heavy and light.

As a movie produced by the bearded one, Peter Jackson, the effects, of course done by WETA, are outstanding and their work helps give the aliens, for lack of a better word, humanity.

The movie uses a mixture of English, Nyanja and the alien language consisting of clicks so there are a lot of sub-titles but nothing distracting from the story telling.

District 9 is a very good science fiction movie, no big space battles as Hollywood would have made, and in many ways a personal tale within a bigger story, and its a better movie for it.