I was able to watch District 9 at midnight the day it came out, the theater was not completely packed, yet it was not empty, I would say it was approximately 85% full. I went into this movie not expecting too much, obviously I was expecting a decent movie, but nothing amazing. Well, I have to say this movie completely blew my mind. It has to be the best science fiction movie of the year, it blows Transformers 2 out of the water. I think this movie may go down as one of the greats in the science fiction genre.
Although there was really nothing new in the movie compared to older alien movies, except for the apartheid references, more on that in a bit. The aliens were like massive bugs, just like in older alien movies, yet the aliens were not the bad guys, the directors and screen writers, did a phenomenal job making the aliens almost human, other than their strange addiction to cat food, and slight cultural differences, most of the aliens were just like normal people. This is something that I haven’t seen in yet.
The special effects were outstanding, but again, none of the actual concepts were new, but some how this movie was very compelling, the old electric beams/tesla coil type deal is pretty old, and massive ship hovering over a city deal is pretty old, but this movie in every way shape or form defies description.
The apartheid like situation of the aliens was a new twist, on alien/ science fiction movies, I would have maybe expected such a movie with something more human, maybe vampires or something (i know a stretch) but with prawns (what they call the aliens in the movie) was weird in a good kind of way. Once you get over the plot, which is very compelling and fresh, the action remains fairly stale, its been done a hundred times, but yet, this is a movie where the execution of the action scenes, really shines.
In a summer filled with mega budget mediocrities, this is a movie that really shone, it was the modestly budgeted, blockbuster, I found this movie to be extremely well written and directed, the cinematography in this movie was nothing short of amazing. I would highly suggest that everyone into science fiction movies goes and watches this movie.
Definitely worth my $7.00.
Photo Credits: Lucius Kwok via [Flickr]
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