Exhilarating !!!

Rating: 9/10 (1 December 2009)

Exhilarating!! I think this is the only word I can think of for describing this movie.
For those who have not yet seen 'District 9' this is a Science Fiction Action Adventure directed by Neill Blomkamp and produced by Peter Jackson.
As far as I know this was Neill's first project. Without any prior information on this movie, I think I decided to give this movie a shot when I saw that Peter Jackson was also involved. Any way I was not at all thwarted.
To tell the story in a nutshell, we are told that some time back in the '80s a massive alien ship appeared over Johannesburg, SA & it looked to be marooned as its command module got separated some how (which we are not told how) and fell to earth. After sometime the people from earth formed a probing team who discovers a million unhealthy extraterrestrial species, which are later given refuge on earth. However in a matter of time the initial welcome gets washed out from human community as some of these aliens called as "Prawns" (As they resembled the exoskeleton of prawns) gets involved into unlawful activities. The asylum camp where these aliens were located was called as 'District 9'. After some time a militarized Private Company called MNU (Multi National United) is given contract to evict the population to a new place. While the on going story we are introduced to the protagonist Wikus Van De Merwe who acts as the operative in charge for eviction. Somehow during the process he gets accidentally infected to one alien chemical component which leads to mutation. The story ultimately revolves around the MNU's exploitation on Wikus' newly infection in order to accelerate alien weapon system, which they had been working on for some time, without much success. Side by side we are shown the dark side of the human & Wikus' flight to escape from this new nightmare.
Wikus character is intensely performed by Sharlto Copley; I think I will not be forgetting this very soon. Considering the budget to be less than 40 million I think the special effects and the Alien design was simply brilliant. After a long time we are provided with story which has a soul in a literal sense.
This movie is prepared in the way to give it a documentary look, but it never goes beyond overdo. Neill succeeds in steadily converting the light hearted nature of this movie to a fast paced dark action narrative, which is definitely praise worthy. I think every one should see this once to make their on conclusion. Overall I think this is a nice production which might fall under the scanner of the Academy Awardsif not for the 'Best Picture'may be for the Visual Effects.