Over twenty years ago, aliens made first contact with Earth. Humans waited for the hostile attack, or the giant advances in technology. Neither came. Instead, the aliens were refugees from their home world. The creatures were set up in a makeshift home in South Africa's District 9 as the world's nations argued over what to do with them. Now, patience over the alien situation has run out. Control over the aliens has been contracted out to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company uninterested in the aliens' welfare. MNU will receive tremendous profits if they can make the aliens' powerful weaponry work. So far, they have failed; activation of the weaponry requires alien DNA. The tension between the aliens and the humans comes to a head when MNU begins evicting the non-humans from District 9, with MNU field agents responsible for moving them to a new camp. One of the MNU field operatives, Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), contracts an alien virus that begins changing his DNA. Wikus quickly becomes the most hunted man in the world, as well as the most valuable—he is the key to unlocking the secrets of alien technology. Ostracized and friendless, there is only one place left for him to hide: District 9.

There is that rare movie that comes along every couple of years or so and just simply blows your mind for a myriad of reasons. It might be because you have never seen anything like it before or it might be because it has taken a concept over used and over done and make it something new and something different. The first category is very hard to pull off now days as most ideas have been done and over done but the second category is something that is very viable and something if done right can become a masterpiece and a film that you remember for a long time. District 9 falls into that second category because action/adventure/horror/alien films have been done a hundred times over but some how District 9 finds away to make it fresh and new and simply amazing all over again.

I didn’t know what to expect entering District 9 and the trailers for the film didn’t really give you a lot to go by but I was expecting your everyday average alien film mixed with the some political messages and the first half of the film was very much like this. The aliens land and our governments deal with the problem like they deal with every other problem by classifying it and trying to make it follow their rules and their guidelines. But it is when the film switches gears and turns into a high paced action adventure with a human face in Wikus that I was totally blown away. Wikus combines both species with his humanity that is being threatened and in his endeavors to not be a government guinea pig he turns the film into one of the most pleasurable film fights seen in recent memory. A fight that goes on for the better part of an hour all the while still intertwining the story with humanity and the struggle to be free by both Wikus and the Prawns. It was this last hour of the film that left me speechless and blown away and awe inspired of the film and its filmmakers.

Ever since the Blair Witch Project many filmmakers have attempted the handheld pseudo documentary feel that has become ever so popular as an artistic forum. I am not a fan of this handheld nausea inducing tactic and am glad that District 9 for the most part left it out. The film does have its moments where it uses that artistic from but the camera doesn’t waver and shake and your stomach doesn’t do flip flops because of it. So District 9 managed to capture that pseudo documentary feel that makes you think this could have all happened even though you know it didn’t but at the same time it doesn’t make you want to vomit into your popcorn bucket because of the camera work. District 9 is what films like Cloverfield wish they could have been and is a far superior film in almost every aspect.

There are no big names in this film with the exception of Peter Jackson who produced the film. And I must say I like Peter Jackson more as a producer than a director because the film still had that grand epic feel that Jackson is suck a master of without feeling like it needed an hour of editing like King Kong did. The film is epic but it doesn’t drag along and seem bloated like some of Jackson’s recent work. I was also impressed by the performance of Sharlto Copley who is a native South African and gives a masterful performance. The aliens are also pulled off in a gritty very real and disturbing way at times and gives the film just another element of grandeur. District 9 is easily one of my favorite films of the year and a must see.

Grade: A