Great original sci-fi

Rating: 8/10 (10 May 2014)

In 1982 a spaceship appears over Johannesburg, South Africa. They find an alien population of "Prawns" and put them in a concentration camp called District 9. After 20 years, the local population has had enough of the aliens and plan to relocate the aliens to a location far away. Wikus van der Merwe is a meek bureaucrat who is given charge to organize the relocation plan by private corporation MNU. District 9 has become a vast lawless place with alien technologies. While rounding up the Prawns and getting signatures on paperwork, Wikus is infected with something that is slowly morphing him into the alien.
What an amazing debut effort from director/writer Neill Blomkamp. It is richly original and so very human. It uses the documentary style to elevate its realism. The CGI Prawns are brilliantly grotesque without being a ridiculous horror. Wikus is such a wonderful comedic character. It is a scathing indictment of the treatment of the disenfranchised. The movie works on so many different levels. It is audacious beyond anything a big Hollywood blockbuster should be.