District 9

8/16/2016

This was an outstanding debut by the New Zealander Blomkamp. Consistently enthralling and keeping one at the edge of his seat. THIS is a recent film, like 'Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World', that should have spawned sequels. Much better than his follow-up, 'Elysium' (I haven't watched any others he's made since; hope he doesn't end up a cinematic one-trick pony like M. Night Shyamalan...).

7/19/2020

Great watch, will watch again, and highly recommended. This has a wonderfully exciting premise: alien refugees on Terra, how Terrans react and how the aliens react. The premise, as delivered, has some odd holes in though: it's specified that all of the crew have died, mysteriously, and no one knows how to operate the ship, but it's been in the air for some time. The idea of gravity alone should have motivated Johannesburg to evacuate, but their government interaction seems decidedly weak. The advantage of setting the story in South Africa, for an American audience, is that it's a very capitalistic society where they speak chiefly English: it's very similar to being set in Mexico and using Mexican Cartels instead of Nigerian gangs. So if we accept that we haven't been able to ext

1/15/2022

A gritty and original story that is as entertaining as thought-provoking, combining xenophobic satire and political allegory with raucous action. 8/10

10/22/2023

**For a low-budget film, it's a good effort.** I'm not a big fan of films about aliens, so the film won't be my cup of tea at all. However, that didn't stop me from seeing it, and appreciating what's good about it. Without a colossal budget or a powerful studio, director Neill Blomkamp gives us an intelligent and technically impactful film. In fact, it is in the most technical details that I felt impressed by the film: we have extraordinary cinematography, with magnificent light and colors. The effects and CGI used are very good and prove that you don't need an endless bag of money to get a good result. The ship is strange enough and the aliens are credible enough, with a bizarre but elaborate and well-made appearance, and the way they speak is, at the same time, expressive and enigm

6/20/2025

The first twenty minutes or so of this is presented as if it were a documentary and with information whizzing about all over the place and tiny onscreen graphics attempting to set the scene, I found it really quite annoying. I was tempted to just give up, but gladly I didn’t because once it gets going it’s really quite good. Perhaps aliens have been watching the telly over the years so this time they have decided to skip the expected military welcome they’ve always received in the USA and gone to South Africa. Their mother ship parks itself above Johannesburg bearing a cargo of critters (they bear quite a resemblance to Arnie’s pals in “Predator”) who are looking for somewhere to live. The solution? Well that’s the favela-style shanty town called “District 9” where they are left in an almo