Independence day + Signs + Clouse encounters + clichés = "District 9"

Rating: 9/10 (16 July 2013)

The Aliens franchises of films in recent years proved too repetitive: or they were an apocalypse with a huge alien invasion on our planet; or the good aliens arrive on earth and are unwelcome. Neill Blomkamp and Peter Jackson finally managed to bring back the old spirit of the original Aliens movies with "District 9".
"District 9" unlike other Alien films, scraped together all sorts of Alien clichés, ranging from big cockroaches to super-intelligent beings who can be peaceful and dangerous at the same time, and have a super ultra-pack laser guns ... cool right?! Well, let's start with the story. "District 9" begins in 1982 when a massive alien ship (on "Independence day" style) begins to fly over Johannesburg, South Africa (yeah, it's not New York or Washington ... finally!). That ship was carrying an entire population of strange creatures (giant super smart cockroaches) called "The Prawns". Humans put and housed the aliens in a huge military area called District 9, where "the prawns" could live peacefully with humans. But 28 years later, the entire area was damaged into a massive slum with African militias bribing and terrorizing "the prawns". In 2010 the multinational weapons enterprise "MNU" (Multi-National United), that spent years researching the use of the weapons aliens that were also transported on the ship, was hired to transfer all the aliens to another military district called District 10 (UOL , I didn't expect that). To this they put in charge of the operation the employee Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley)... but like any Aliens films things did not turn out very well, especially for Wikus that after being infected by a strange alien virus, begins a furious fight for his life.
As said before Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell (Peter Jackson worked as a producer this time) put together in a beautiful script all kinds of Aliens clichés in a masterly and original fashion (mainly because the entire movie take's place in Johannesburg and not in a American capital). But while with the clichés, they showed a great originality in two aspects: the first is the fact that almost the entire film is presented as a documentary (this thing has never been done in aliens movies); and also the fact that they present a huge society critic soon after the incident with Wikus.
Wikus who was a huge prejudice towards the "Prawns" begins to depend on them when he gets infected and starts to turn into one of them. Everything he had from friends and family begin to treat him like an animal. We begin to feel their pain and rejection, not only because the film has a good realistic touch but also because of the connection we make with the character (thanks to his good sense of humor).
Not only in humanity and philosophical aspects that the film is impressive, but as said before this is a aliens movie, there couldn't be only a drama as "Signs". District 9 brings a good set of action with laser guns, thanks to good reality of the film, we can even see the reaction of a human body when it receives a shot of a laser gun (don't let fragile kids watch the movie).
"District 9" can be one of the best (if not the best after "Close Encounters of the Third Kind") Aliens movies ever made. Along with a great mix of clichés and a good human philosophy, maintaining a good line of entertainment with spectacular action scenes and superb visual effects, is a film to be seen at least once in your lives.