A very competently made piece of sci-fi (contains spoilers).

Rating: 8/10 (8 October 2009)

I really enjoyed this film.
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The main protagonist was brilliantly 'written' (he ad libbed his lines) and portrayed. I found the technique produced a very realistic and engaging character who was very human and reacted to each situation like an average, slightly cowardly worker drone would.
There was no leap from human to super killing machine as there usually with this plot type (The Matrix, Star Wars, etc..), what we see is a highly flawed man being thrust into a fantastical situation and stumbling through it with his negative traits flaring and dictating his behaviour. The only reason he manages to pull off what he does is his ability to use the vastly superior alien tech, and even then he uses it ineptly and frustratingly just like an untrained person would.
(and before anyone gets on this, the aliens were so easily subdued because they lacked the intelligence to use the tech efficiently. Christopher and his son were anomalies.)
I really liked that it took the entire film for the protagonist to realise the flaws in his ideals and opinions regarding the Prawns, and that the only real reason this occurred was due to his transformation and subsequent ostracism from his fellow man. The kind of prejudices he held before would only ever be broken by something so drastic.
That my emotions towards Wikus flitted between sympathy, support, and disgust, only cemented my opinion that the character was portrayed effectively and realistically.
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The relationship between Wikus and his family and friends didn't need to be portrayed any deeper. We were given all we needed to make the human connection with him at the start. A director doesn't need to spoon feed the audience to achieve this, he just needs to be efficient and I believe, in this case, he was.
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The Sci-fi elements were perfectly done. I was satisfied with the explanations and techno-speak. I honestly see any criticism here to be highly pedantic and pretentious.
Also, the argument that humanoid aliens who can breath our atmosphere is lazy is a ridiculous one. It's as much of an assumption that alien life would differ from us so as it is that it would share similarities. Again, pedantic and pointless.
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I've read that some people believe the film to be racist toward Nigerians. Bullshit. The film portrayed HUMANS as intolerant, greedy, malicious, etc... That we have a group of Nigerian militia in a country that is rife with such groups was as realistic and fair as the rest of it.
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The action here was 100% better than the over-blown trash that Mr Bay produced earlier in the year. It was clear, humorous. awkward (a good representation of the ineptness of the protagonist), and the effects were stupendous.
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The ending: I love how open they left it, and I don't believe it was done to leave room for a sequel. It felt much more like the director wanted his audience to go away with mixed emotions and aspirations for the characters and events and letting them fill in the rest for themselves. I love it when film-makers do this effectively, which is very rare.
Of course, if there is a sequel I won't be disappointed unless I'm disappointed. :p
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My main criticism of the film is the over-use of Wikus' hesitance and awkwardness to produce tension. Even though I consider it realistic in keeping with his character, the frustration I felt toward him at times (taking far too long to get into the mech-suit, running from the highly inferior human soldiers while using the mech suit, etc..) was quite off- putting.
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So, yeh, I enjoyed the film. It was a very competently directed, acted, and written piece of science-fiction that took clichÃ©d themes and added human elements that are very rare to the genre.
Highly recommended to all sci-fi fans.