Setting human-prawn relations back by several centuries

Rating: 4/10 (23 August 2009)

Much hype (too much hype) has gone before, and unfortunately this film fails to deliver.
Yes, the CGI is quite good (really, with Wiki-wiki-wild-wild Weta and PJ involved, what do you expect?).
Yes, the action scenes are sometimes compelling.
But sadly, there is also 2 hours of footage, which feels more like 4. Because, let's face it, the story is just not very interesting.
Oooooh, let's have a clever commentary on racism. Let's use aliens instead of an actual suppressed group of people, because that will make it more original. It'll be ground-breaking sci-fi... No, wait. This all sounds strangely familiar! Worst of all, although this movie appears to be trying to make a statement about racism (and most reviews actually buy into this!) it manages to include its very own racist overtones. As Blomkamp goes out of his way to show us again and again, Nigerians are either gangsters or hookers. And no matter which of these two professions they may be pursuing, they are universally uneducated and superstitious, believing that by consuming their enemies, they can absorb their power.
Even the supposed hero is racist (although apparently he is more strongly biased against aliens than Nigerians), and blatantly so at the start of the movie. Sadly, he never grows to overcomes his views, only finally working with some aliens because of self-interest, rather than any sort of recognition that his prejudices might have been founded on ignorance and closed-mindedness.
All in all, this movie wasn't utterly awful, but it was rather boring and misguided. I wish I'd bought myself a prawn cocktail instead. And I don't even like prawns.