District 9 Review

I didn't really know about it much before I saw it. I heard some DJs spouting about it on the radio, and I decided it was going to be different than what I thought it would be. And it was even different from that. I think it was a Alien Nation meets Starship Troopers; Alien Nation due to the race trying to live with humans. Starship Troopers due to the total mayhem of guns, explosions and humans popping like meat balloons. But in a fun way. I'd see it again, but I wouldn't pay over $5 for it - so in a 'second' theater or if it comes out on DVD, I might NetFlix it. I probably wouldn't buy it on DVD, but I wouldn't throw it away if I got it as a gift.

But, I digress. The movie was produced by Lord of the Rings director, Peter Jackson. And the movie is an extended version of a short film made by the director, Neill Blomkamp.

I liked it because of the political / social commentary. And the first few blood bag meat explosions. There was some witty comments and dialog, but my favorite part was the mech scene. When you see it, you'll know what I am talking about. Much like something out of a Japanese anime, but not Japanese, and not anime. The mech was well done, as was all of the CGI, and they did the scene justice all the way through to the end. It was long enough to get the maximum out of the mech, without it getting campy or overdone. And more blood bag meat explosions.

This movie had the best CGI I've seen in a while. I do think the aliens were a little over-detailed - but they were still damn good. I am very glad I saw it on the big screen. Some movies I've wished I would have seen on the big screen, and others I bummed shelling out $10 per ticket (or$7.50, as we tend to go to daytime showings as much as possible when we go).

There was a lot of 'hand camera' shots which made one of my movie-going buddies annoyed - he hated it to the point that he will never see it again. This style was made popular by the BSG TV series that just wrapped up. This info I got from my woman who is an addict to scifiwire - she reads it daily on her iPod Touch. The movie starts out as a documentary style, and I think it worked out OK, and I wasn't as sensitive, so I didn't really mind the camerawork. I thought it did add some 'realism' to the scenes due to people running with the camera and whatnot.

Overall, I'd rate it 4 out of 5. It was very entertaining, had some good social commentary / message, and additionally was very fun. The explosions were amusing (did I mention it has blood bag meat explosions in it?) but the action scenes really didn't add much to the movie for me. Except the mech scene - awesome.