How to make a great action movie with a relatively small budget

Rating: 9/10 (18 December 2009)

District 9 takes place in South Africa, and the story centers around a government worker assigned to help relocate the first aliens to ever land on Earth. The massive ship they came in has broken down, and they have nowhere to go. The aliens live in the giant shanty town of District 9 and live off of garbage; clearly they are undignified creatures. But they are not stupid. They have advanced weaponry that only they can use, because it responds only to alien DNA.
The main character, Wikus, played by the excellent Sharlto Copley, becomes infected by a strange liquid while inspecting an alien dwelling, and begins a hideous transformation. Now having partial alien DNA, he has to hide from the government goons who want to sell his parts for astronomical amounts of money, as well as local gangs who want him for his ability to use the aliens weapons.
The story is highly original and quite compelling. Wikus is a guy you can cheer for the whole way through, and his character is developed brilliantly. He sort of reminded me of Lionel from Braindead: a quiet, dorkish man who ends up becoming a total badass through sheer determination to live. On a side note, Jed Brophy (Void from Braindead) makes an appearance in the film, although I'm not quite sure when. Having Peter Jackson as producer clearly helped the film immensely, and his WETA digital team helped make amazing CGI shots for a budget of only $30 million. Take that, Michael Bay!
One of the aliens becomes a main character partway through the movie, and maybe it was just me, but it was hard to care about a hideous CGI prawn alien and his son, probably because it's hard for their personalities to come through the tentacles and whatnot. As a result, the story of him and his son trying to return to the mother-ship ends up being the weakest part of the movie for me, and the story gets slightly overpowered by the visuals. This is a minor complaint however, and the strong social themes throughout the film make it a fairly edifying experience.
The trailer made this look like a small budget sci-fi film with a little bit of action. Let me tell you, this movie has bigger and better action than most movies with 3 times the budget. The last half hour is a gory, bullet riddled extravaganza like nothing you've ever seen. The cinematography is brilliant, putting the viewer right in the middle of the action, and the visual effects of the weaponry, the ships, and an amazing, near-indestructible mech suit are nothing short of mind blowing.
There will no doubt be a sequel to this, as the ending leaves many things open. Although it is not quite a masterpiece, District 9 is one of the most entertaining and unique films of the year.