Half-baked hybrid...

Rating: 2/10 (7 January 2010)

The first trailer I saw for DISTRICT 9 I totally ignored: I thought it was just another in the seemingly endless stream of TV ads for video games. Come to find out, I wasn't far off in my assessment. Ripping off everything from ALIEN NATION to THE FLY (the David Cronenberg version), DISTRICT 9 is nothing more than a disjointed jumble of hyperactive cgi. The easily-pleased are awestruck by the video game cgi; viewers looking for something even marginally original, however, are left wanting. As this is being written, James Cameron's AVATAR is wowing videots the world over. They marvel at the fx, but bemoan the "stupid storyline." Thanks to movies like STAR WARS, American filmmakers have been banking on the fx guys to carry the burden for decades. (No reason to stop now.) It's just disturbing to see that the trend is now, apparently, worldwide...