District 9

District 9

We (the MovieHuman review crew) went into the theater tonight with very high expectations for this film, based on the people involved and its glowing reviews from other critics. Our expectations were met.

District 9 brings the almost flawless blend of action (with an abundance of terrific violence to go along with its unpredictable and therefore heart-pounding storyline) and commentary that the science fiction genre has largely been lacking at the box office lately. It is difficult to describe or summarize the plot, but suffice it to say that the movie basically mixes aliens with an apartheid-esque situation. The special effects, which these days seem to have exhausted most options of impressing us with anything new, delve into new realms of cool and even newer realms of violence. The script is sound and the alien race is perfectly revolting, making it almost as difficult for the audience to sympathize as it is for the “racist” (is this the right word?) characters in the movie. What comes out of all this production goodness is theatrical gold, largely helped by the extreme sense of unpredictability that one has when watching the film. As was true in The Hurt Locker, the viewer is never sure where the uncompromising story will go next, who will die, who will live, simply because of the film’s sheer originality. In the final third of the movie, the commentary gives way to awesome action, which overwhelms the occasional deus ex machina storyline fixes that come when the film’s more cerebral element is cast off in favor of explosions and blood–but it is still a great and thrilling finale. It is certainly a science fiction flick, but that doesn’t stop it from running the gamut with drama, love, comedy, and lots of bullets, and it makes for a great show.