Better than you'd expect

Rating: 10/10 (16 September 2009)

District 9 (15) - ***** I had read rave reviews on this film so I expected a decent film. It was not what I expect, it was better.
The basic plot is that 20 years ago a huge alien ship had hovered and stopped over Johannesburg, South Africa, in the ship there ends up being refugees from another planet. They are then taken in by the MNU who give them an area to live in called District 9. 20 years on, District 9 has become a slum full of crime and fraud; this is when an MNU field operative named Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) has been given the task of moving over 1.8 million aliens to a new area. While he is doing this something happens which puts him under extraordinary circumstances, as the MNU may not end up wanting to help the refugees after all.
To tell any more would ruin the film, but the story and the script is top notch. It is good in the fact that it is very realistic even with a very unrealistic plot, the aliens aren't all powerful and has very human qualities and the main character reacts incredibly realistically to every situation he is in.
The CGI is brilliant and makes the aliens look almost real, even with the surprisingly cheap budget for the film.
It is made by the little known director Neill Blomkamp and is based on a short he had made earlier, also as the company which made the film quite small Blomkamp was aloud to choose a little known actor like Sharlto Copley. Who did an amazing job with very realistic reactions throughout the film; he also improvised for parts of the film which most likely help with the realism.
As I've go on about this film is very realistic, it makes think if there were alien refugees this is how'd they'd be treated. I don't see this film as a film about alien refugees coming to earth; I see it as a film about how one man copes with extraordinary circumstances.
I loved this film and I'd say it is defiantly the best film of the year so far and probably the best film I've seen since The Dark Knight. Go and see this film.