District 9

Just came back from the San Diego Comic Con (SDCC).

Saw an advance screening of District 9.

Peter Jackson introduced the film along with the director, Neill Blomkamp, and the star of the film, Sharlto Copley, who plays Wikus van der Merwe (It was sooo cool seeing Peter Jackson in person as I love Lord Of The Rings. I am one of those people who has the extended dvd edition for all three movies and has watched all the extras and listened to all the director audio commentary for all three films.).

I've viewed other reviews for the film which were overall positive and agree with what was said about the movie. So some of their comments are cobbled together with my own when I agree with what they say. I'll list the sites I used at the bottom of my post.

If you've seen the trailers, the movie is not what you'll expect, but in a good way. I was expecting a generic action alien movie, but was given an alien action movie with heart (i.e. I thought it was orignal.). Lead actor Sharlto Copley brings a dynamic human performance to the role while going through an extremely satisfying character arc. And in a sci-fi movie to boot. Wikus, the main character, is not you're average hero and even at the end of the movie I'm not sure I even liked him, but I did respect him for his courage. The action is amazing. The aliens aren't cheezy and appear realistic. Other CGI images (humans getting shot, shots of the alien ship, etc.) are also excellent.

The movie starts out SLOW in a documentary style of shooting and transitions into a traditional style as things start to go wrong for the main character, Wikus.

Plot (Taken from Sci-fi Squad.com):

Back in the 1980s, a massive spaceship hovers over Johannesburg, Independence Day-style. While the city braces for an attack ... nothing ever happens. Eventually military forces cut their way into the ship, and they find a million aliens inside in deplorable conditions, sickly and dying. They're brought down to the city and housed in a slum (District 9), and the ship continues to hover over the city.

During the raid on the ship, a vast array of alien weaponry is found, but none of the guns work in human hands despite the best efforts of the government. Flash forward to 20 years later, where the government and the people have grown increasingly uncomfortable with District 9, which continues to swell in size. Like any slum, it has its own black market dealing in alien weaponry, despite its inability to fire, and aliens trade with humans for food, raw meat, and sexual favors. They decide to relocate the aliens to a new center filled with tents and surrounded by barbed wire, 20 kilometers outside the city.

This effort is spearheaded by the Multinational United (MNU) arm of the government, with newly appointed and nebbishy Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) in charge of the eviction and relocation. Although the aliens are presented as animals at first, the audience definitely empathizes with them through the second half of the film.

Don't watch G.I. Joe Watch DISTRICT 9.
If you haven't watched Transformers 2 watch District 9 first.

P.S. Sharlto Copley is much better looking as himself.

But who cares?

Opinions and words were mostly taken from:

http://www.scifisquad.com/2009/07/24/sdcc-first-impressions-peter-jackson-and-neil-blomkamps-distr/