District 9

I’ll say up front that it's a better 4 stars, because I'm still a bit bleary eyed. It was there, what people are like. There was action. There were powerful weapons. There were interesting aliens. It was cool X-D I'm so freaked out about it. It's definitely worth a movie ticket. It really was beautifully believable, the documentary style didn't hurt it, at all. Watch it again? Why not. Well, the best part was the use of the "dusting" gun anyway. I guess I'm a weirdo for liking it... In short: I have such a hard-to-describe feeling about this movie, but my cheeks are burning, which means it was good and that I paid maximum attention. (2009-09-16)

One of the smartest movies of the year. It's not so much the idea, but rather the way Blomkamp updated the genre. District 9 has everything one can ask for from dejected offshoots, moreover in a completely sophisticated package. And the idea of using a documentary not only as an authenticating component, but above all as a means of explaining abbreviations, simply deserves recognition. (2009-09-23)

Definitely the surprise of the year. I really didn’t expect D9 to be this good. The original approach of the guy who I’d almost written off during the test shots for Halo blew my mind. Blomkamp knows his stuff. He’s good at provoking mixed feelings, where you don’t know whether to laugh or be disgusted. The whole movie is supported by an amazing performance from the unknown Sharlto Copley and his Wikus is everything but a good-guy main lead. Regardless everything he does at the beginning, the viewer still can be on board with him. Most of the people and the prawns, are bastards anyway. When I think about it, the only actual good guy was Chris. :-) It’s the best sci-fi so far this year (but this will probably be beaten by Avatar which comes out December 17th). This year’s Terminator can go take a walk. - Should I shoot the little bastard? - , you can’t shoot it now, it’s illegal to do that. (2009-11-14)

The prawns would probably love Whiskas, but personally I would prefer to pay entrance for a movie that had it clear in its head whether it wants to be a sloppy B sci-fi where the worse it is the better, or E.T., Transformers, Children of Men or War with Newts. I’m not saying that it can’t be combined into one whole, but certainly not by forcibly changing genre every quarter of an hour, forgetting about everything that has come before and shaking a stolen closed circuit camera around like a maniac. I followed the trend presented by Blomkamp and within fifteen minutes I forgot that I had ever seen this movie. (2009-09-21)

In a word: Amazing. In more words: The way that District 9 rubs shoulders with all the recent sci-fi "sensations" like Transformers, Terminator Salvation and, ultimately, Avatar is astounding. I haven't seen such an original film, full of fresh ideas, engagingly shot and, as far as the main character is concerned, superbly acted in a long, long time. It takes more than ordinary talent to make a sci-fi action spectacle that also contains a deep, topical and a very pressing idea. And Neill Blomkamp seems to have plenty of it (Jackson knows who to put his money into). To all this I add the exotic South African setting, the music, the flawlessly made aliens and the documentary style that really draws you into the story... This amounts to five honest, 100% stars. (2010-08-18)