One of the best films I've seen in a long time

Rating: 9/10 (20 March 2010)

Aliens. Eviction notices. Transformations. Romance. Cat food. These things, plus much more, made the Sci-Fi action film District 9 one of the best films I have seen. Definitely Oscar worthy, and in my opinion the true winner, this film took the audience on a journey into a parallel universe.
This film was done extremely well, sound, directing, acting and all. There was none of that mainstream acting either, all of the people were relatively or completely unknown individuals who did an amazing job capturing the story. The main character, Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is in strife between his personal life and the government. His performance not only makes the story believable, but he forms a hero that you want to succeed. You are happy when he is, sad when he is, and scared when he is. His character progression in the story is some of the best I have ever seen in any movie. His transformation into a pompous nerdy jerk into a true hero and protagonist is extremely well done. Slowly you begin to like this character more and more as time goes on.
Aside from the acting, the directing and camera work was incredible, this new director definitely got it right in his vision and created a riveting story that my eyes were super-glued to. Even though the electric ray gun was, in my opinion, very fake looking, that didn't matter. The collective pieces of the film itself were so captivating I barely even noticed it. The progression from documentary to film was something great that I had never seen before. It gave the story believability that the life they lived was true and actually real. Every shot made the story more interesting, and amazingly, it never dragged for a moment.
The story was something of its own. I thought it was based on the WWII Asian-American camps, where the United states held these people and often relocated them out of their already terrible and crappy tents. Not only is there Sharlto whom we want to succeed, but there is also the alien father as well. The story allows for two protagonists, one of whom is human and one of which is prawn, but there is never a confusing or conflicting moment. And, when they get together to defeat the bad guys, its all the more satisfying. *SPOILER* At the end of the film, when all the action is done and sadly our hero does not make it. We still get the sense of his care and love for his wife when he makes the flower out of metal for her. This was the most beautiful moment in the film for me and left me with an unremarkable feeling. The last shot is him as a Prawn (which even though I knew it was coming, still was very emotional) and even though he is in that state, he still shows the love for his wife. Action packed, beautiful, out of this world. District 9 is one of the best films I have seen in a long time.