Review of District 9 (2009) by Paul R — 23 Aug 2013

The Sci-Fi genre is full of average films churning out the same old dross using the same old stories and ideas... but in a worse way. Fortunately District 9 is nothing like that. Yes it does pull numerous ideas from a number of Sci-Fi greats but it manages to do this in a fresh way proving there is still room in the genre yet.

Director Neil Blomkamp must have been very frustrated when the Halo film was sidelined but he certainly put the 30 million budget he was given for this film to good use. The CGI is ultra realistic and we witness seamlessly integrated aliens into our world, there is never a moment it faltered or failed. It still has some of the best effects that I've ever seen. The action scenes spew obvious talent and the combination of filming styles works really well.

District 9 follows Sharlto Copley's character - Wikus - the nervous, wet-behind-the-ears yet dedicated MNU agent with the task of coordinating the eviction and relocation of over a million aliens from the rather nasty gang ridden slum known as District 9. His performance is astonishing particularly after I found out that not only is this his first major roll but a hell of a lot of his dialogue was improvised. The film starts off with documentary style, shakey cam footage which works very well to force realism and credibility to the story which does soon change back to standard cinema which although sometimes noticeable doesn't stop District 9 standing tall as one of 2009's great Sci-Fi films along side Moon and Watchmen. Watch this.