District 9

Fabulous. I have been waiting to see this film since I first saw the preview about 6 months ago. Usually that is an indication of over-hype and ends up with a disappointing viewing. Not in this case. The premise goes something like this: An alien space ship came to earth sometime in the 80's and stopped over Johannesburg, the aliens came to settle (be settled) in a slum directly below their ship, humans are trying to relocate the aliens (now over a million of them) to the outskirts of the city, the director of relocation has an accident and we begin to see a different side of the aliens. The filming is a mixture of flashback documentary and live action which helps us piece together what is going on and it is done well. Perhaps one thing that is exciting about this film is the fact that it is original science fiction. Not based on a prior story, cartoon, film, etc. Some of the brilliance is in how it deals matter of factly with the alien presence. There are no universal translators. Instead, since the aliens have been on earth for 20 years, some humans can understand the language, albeit in bits and pieces. The nods to current events (Nigerians are running a scam in the camp) and the irony (comparisons to apartheid are subtle but real) make this fun to watch. Granted, it is not for everybody since there is lots of blood and killing. On the other hand, most of the killing involves instantaneous explosion of entire bodies, so you do not have detailed visuals. Even so, I will take a stand and say that the 4 month old that was sitting with her mother next to me, and the 5 year old a few rows behind were not necessarily the right audience. But I was the right audience and I may even need to see this again to catch the fun pieces I am sure I missed.
4 stars (out of 5)