"When dealing with aliens, try to be polite, but firm. And always remember that a smile is cheaper than a bullet."

Rating: 10/10 (16 March 2017)

Sci-fi movies are my favorite. They fill me with such mysterious and the idea that we are not really alone out there and that we are being watched. The idea of alien invasion has been adapted by many films. Although they try to be different, they all end up feeling the same. Neil Blomkamp takes the idea of alien invasion in a way I have never seen it before. This film presents aliens as the "poor" and humans as the "rich" , and to be honest, it is extremely refreshing and makes District 9 of if not my favorite sci-fi film and it feels like a one of a kind movies.
The movie takes place Johannesburg (where you guessed it) aliens come down and instead of killing every human like the typical alien movie, these aliens are weak. They are sick, and don't have the ability to take off and go back to their home planet. So the humans decide to build them a camp and have them live there. The camp is getting old and rundown, so they try to get the aliens to go the new camp, but with the uprising of human gangs in the alien district that have possession of alien weapons it isn't so easy. We follow Wikus Merwe portrayed by Sharlto Copley as he is tries along with many members of the Multi- National United (MNU) to try to move all the aliens to this better camp. I can see why Blomkamp has Copley in all of his movies he basically became his character. It was so easy to understand his emotions that it almost seemed like he was portraying a real character. His best moments are with Jason Cope who voices the main alien Christopher Johnson. It is very hard to give a whole lot of character depth in a role like this, but Cope does a amazing job. He makes the alien seem like more of hero than the main character. Although they are supported by a decent supporting cast they aren't really that big of a part of the film which makes me a little disappointed because there could be such amazing development with the rest of the cast.
Although the acting and story are superb the real star of this film is the screenplay. Although a screenplay for a movie like this is very hard to make Blomkamp couldn't of done it better. All the events flow so well together, from moments with Johnson and Merwe talking to heart pumping action scenes, this film feels like everything is just placed perfectly together and personally makes this one of my favorite screenplay.
I should talk about the fantastic cinematography and editing, but instead I am going to talk about the action scenes. Of course this is a sci-fi film with aliens that have destructive weapons, so there has be some cool actions scenes and this movie delivers on that front. Although there isn't a ton of action scenes ,the ones that the film has are amazing and they are all made better by the kick ass special effects and all the weapons are great and well designed. When I mean the weapons are great I mean they are fantastic, some of the best weapons I have ever seen in a film. From a electric gun that explodes people on contact to a giant mech with mini guns and the ability to stop enemy bullets and throw them back at its attacker, this movie feels like a big action movie except with less actions and a amazing story.
Overall District 9 will be remembered in history for not only being one of the best debut feature film ever, but for being one of the most clever, brilliant and one of the best sci-fi movies in history. This movie makes me feel the right emotions at the right time just because of how well it all flow together it almost seems like the movie was meant to be great, the second the screenplay was done. The bottom line is this. Whether you like sci-fi films or no, you can not deny the effect it has had on sci-fi films. I know that Blomkamp isn't at the best point of his career right now but, I still have faith and firmly believe that we will being getting a film just as good as district 9 in the near future..