You are not welcome here.

Rating: 8/10 (14 August 2009)

Just like last year's CLOVERFIELD, TriStar Pictures have surprisingly managed to avoid giving away too much of the film in the trailers and TV spots. This is fortunate, because this is one of those films that is better the less you know about it, like ORPHAN, A PERFECT GETAWAY, and KNOWING. To continue this trend, I'll try to give little to no information about the movie in this review. The movie is about an extraterrestrial race being forced to live in slum conditions in District 9. That may give you a very vague idea of what's in this film and that's all I'll reveal.
I must also add that this is nothing like CLOVERFIELD nor BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. The film is shot documentary style for most of the first few minutes of the film, but, overall, it's a straightforward narrative. What makes this such a great film is that it's fresh and original in its approach. It's an effects-heavy flick, yes, but it has a heart and soul. It's not a dumb action flick like TRANSFORMERS 2 or G.I. JOE and, on top of that, it deals with themes like prejudice, apartheid, greed, and several others that is too numerous to list here.
However, if you're not that kind of a person who likes themes or allegory in their action movies, the film can be seen as an entertaining action flick with a plot and characters. Newcomer Sharlto Copley certainly does a swell job playing a quite multi-layered character. He's our protagonist in this film. The visual effects are surprisingly seamless, considering the fact that it has a relatively low budget ($30 million to be exact). I also liked the unique design of the aliens.
The length for this review is shorter than most of my other's because I want you to walk into this movie with a clean slate. This is one of the most inventive movies I've ever seen this year and it's a fresh and unique take with aliens coming to Earth. After all, they didn't land in New York. The film is carried by a strong performance by Copley as well as a fantastic directorial debut by Neill Blomkamp. It also deals with some heavy subject matter, unusual for a summer flick, but it also has all the action that will satisfy your needs.