Andrew Shaw (deadmansshoes)

An alien mothership appears over Johannesburg, a monumental moment in human history, the likes of which we as an audience have seen depicted onscreen before, but still no less awe inspiring/terrifying than it would be for the people seeing it happen right above their heads.

For 3 months nothing happens - the ship just hovers there, the blue balls would be immense, can you imagine people still camping out on top of skyscrapers in Independence Day if they knew they had to wait 3 months to get any action? On breaking into the mothership Earth Authorities discover the alien inhabitants are sick, malnourished and living in squalor, hardly the auspicious surroundings of their Close Encounters of the Third Kind counterparts.

The aliens (derogatively referred to as "prawns" due to their anthropoid appearance) are moved from the ship and into slums within the city limits of Jo'burg, where for the next 20+ years they are segregated from human society and become a burden on resources; money and space are pooled into keeping the prawns secure in their own personal ghetto. Human/Alien relations steadily deteriorate with frequent rioting among both populaces, not to mention organized crime creeping in to take advantage of these weakened, disenfranchised creatures; stealing their weaponry, extorting them for cat food (which is a drug to the prawn's unique biology) and even murdering them for witchcraft rituals (the PC can whine about this, but it is a pervading factor of African culture to this day, the things some supersticious Africans do in order to stave off AIDS alone makes the actions in District 9 seem casual. Also, to the critics who say Nigerians are being depicted as cannibals - it isn't cannibalism when it's another species, numbnuts).

As District 9 begins, multinational taskforce MNU are moving the alien refugees from District 9 into District 10, a new camp far from the city limits. MNU's primary interest is in harvesting the advanced alien technology, the weaponry of which is unusable by human's because it only reacts to prawn DNA.

Opening with faux-documentary footage, we are appraised of the situation regarding District 9 and the Prawns and meet our protagonist, MNU agent Wikus Van De Merwe (played by South African newcomer Sharlto Copley). Van De Merwe is something of a joke nickname in South African culture, used as the butt of it's own brand of jokes, much like Britain's "Englishman, Irishman & Scotsman" jokes. Van De Merwe is shorthand for bumbling idiot, and it's no coincidence that Wikus shares that surname, he's the epitome of "nice but dim". An idiot, a nuisance, getting under everyone's skin and not even realizing it. Wikus is given a promotion to oversee the eviction of Prawns from District 9, entirely because his father-in-law is the head of MNU. Immediately he is pissing people off and becoming a figure of ridicule. The film makes no attempt to endear us to Wikus early on, he engages in illegal/immoral acts (engaging in illegal evictions, performing "abortions" on Prawn egg sacs) and displays almost unaware specism, casually joking about the sound Prawn babies make when they're burned ("It's like popcorn!"). Wikus is a rather unpleasant man, but it is a testament to the deft touch of writer/director Neil Blomkamp and the amazing abilities of Copley, that we are soon on Wikus' side for the entire film and feel real, raw empathy for him.

Things go wrong for Wikus, and continue to spiral downwards, when he is exposed to alien nanofluid extracted from prawn tech by "Christopher", one of the prawns who is attempting to salvage enough nanofluid to power their technology and get back home. The nanofluid alters Wikus' DNA and soon he is turning into a prawn. This makes him both a problem and an asset to his masters at MNU, and as he descends into a body-horror hell that would make Seth Brundle nod his head in sympathy, his sinister bosses are experimenting on him to get a full understanding of the alien technology they hope to mass produce for profit. The cruelty that he suffers at their hands is devastating, thanks to Copley's brilliant performance. He wins audience sympathy quickly and effortlessly.

On escaping his captors, Wikus, teaming up with Christopher, has to escape from MNU operatives and Nigerian gangsters, who all want to capture Wikus for their own ends, in order to gather the nanofluid and help Christopher and his little boy get back to the mothership - where they will then help turn Wikus back into a human.

What follows is an immense, genuine, scifi action spectacle that confidently stands next to Robocop as a bona fide genre classic.

There is intelligent, truthful social commentary which attacks both corporate greed and immorality as well as the almost inate flaw of prejudice that humanity as a whole suffers from, this is not supposed to be a 1:1 allegory for apartheid, the prawns are not synonymous with black people, they are merely here to explore how the majority treat "others" in society. We struggle to treat our own kind with anything resembling humanity, yet we are expected to believe we would greet alien life with kindness? No. Blomkamp's vision of alien integration into earth society is horrifying in that it is entirely realistic, almost too realistic for some audience members to accept, perhaps.

And, like Robocop, there is a genuine humanity hiding beneath the grand scifi concepts and ultraviolence (and, yes, there is plenty of ultraviolence on offer in District 9: it doesn't hold a candle to Robocop, but it's close enough); Not only does Wikus' suffering carry great emotional weight, right up to the final shot which is both haunting and absolutely heartbreaking, but in the coverage of the prawns we begin to see some of the most empathetic CGI creations since Gollum. They are shot as if they were real actors, this gives the film a realistic tone that makes the special effects blend into their surroundings and feel less "special" and more like a real component of the film, as real and as vital as the sets or the extras. There is a soul in their eyes which makes it painful to watch as they suffer in poverty and from the cruelty of their humans "superiors". It is among the best effects work this year because it imbues heart and soul into that which shouldn't have either. And that such amazing visuals are achieved at a fraction of the cost of heartless, soulless crap like Transformers 2 is another marvel that this film achieves.

This is intelligent, thought provoking, socially-conscious science fiction on par with the likes of Children of Men. It also finds time to kick unholy amounts of ass, with copious gore and stripped-down action sequences that may not have a 100 million dollar pricetag but they carry an emotional weight that makes them that much more exciting than a pricier, more elaborate scene in a movie with no heart.

If this is the level of action and scope that Blomkamp can achieve on a relative shoestring budget, I can only imagine what he could pull off on a LOTR-level production (obviously complete with the freedom that Jackson felt had during that production, devoid of the micromanagement that cripples most big budget films). I almost hope they make a sequel, just to spend more time in this brilliantly realized world, but I also feel this would be a hard experience to top, but whatever Blomkamp does next, he's a talent to follow.

Smart, exciting and involving. This is what science fiction entertainment should be like, and this is a genuine classic in the making.

I am tiring of Jesse Eisenberg narrating every film he stars in, he's got a great manner and voice for delivering dialogue but it seems clumsy and uncomfortable when condensed into monologue form.

A fairly enjoyable film with some good acting on display, but the story sputters along, struggling to find a point and half-heartedly leading us towards a conclusion it lacks the fortitude to pay off in any significant way. The film builds towards a tense climax, but for a film that didn't shy away from violence for it's entire, it pulls too many punches in the final scene, not even a cut lip to show for itself, which robs the violence and the resolution of a sense of finality to what it's been building to this entire time.

A solid supporting performance from Jason Ritter keeps the film compelling enough to follow, but ultimately this coming-of-age drama fails to go anywhere or say anything meaningful.