Skip the first 30 mins

Rating: 8/10 (1 January 2010)

I'd heard and read nothing but rave reviews for District 9, even from a stranger standing behind me in the Red Box line who whispered "great pick, you'll love it!". But within the first five minutes we were convinced that once again, we were completely out of sync with the general movie viewer's tastes. First of all, I don't find documentary style movies particularly enthralling, and secondly, the ghettos of Johannesburg hardly makes for interesting or beautiful cinematography. Add an entire cast of total unknowns with sometimes difficult accents to understand, and we thought are they (people in general) kidding? But for some reason we kept watching, and just as I was about to hit 'stop' on the DVD player (about the half hr. mark), the documentary thing ended and an actual movie with characters and a plot kicked into gear. From there it took off and held us on the edge of our seats throughout the entire rest of the movie. We actually cared and rooted for these insect looking aliens and the interesting relationship with the human(s) that developed. District 9 really is an amazing accomplishment for such a small budget and really deserves the big budget treatment for the inevitable sequel.