It belongs in District 9 of IMDb

Rating: 9/10 (8 September 2009)

I remember seeing Alive in Joburg three years ago, after I found out that Neill Blomkamp was going to direct the movie adaptation of Halo. I was impressed by the idea and hoped to, one day, see it adapted to the big screen.
A year later, I was pleased to find out District 9 was in the making. For the next couple of years, I followed news of the movie with great interest. Finally, I got to see it last week. Disappointment?
No, it was...awesome.
I figured that I may have hyped myself out for this one or that the old "i-hate-it-because-it's-popular-now" beast was going to shed my skin; but District 9 delivered.
It very much is a movie of many sides with the main themes being:

Documentary - Action - Alien - Human

I was so impressed by the way that these four sides integrated into the movie. It's amazing how it moves from alien documentary, to human documentary, to human drama/action and, finally, to the alien story.
The main character was great. A completely human anti-hero rather than an over-the-top marine hero or something. His physical changes are mirrored by his changes in perception of how things are; it's great character development. Also, he's very well-acted by Sharlto Copley - while the Academy may snub him, I think he is Oscar worthy in the eyes of many others.
Blomkamp's experience with directing CGI really shows in this movie. He's at absolute ease with this kind of stuff and it's all rather believable - that's coming from someone who usually dislikes CGI in movies.
My only main criticism was with the intro. I feel it could have been done a lot better as it felt a bit jarring. But, it was still vital to the movie in terms of scene-setting.
This movie has much more to it than I have written, but I'll just leave it at that and recommend you see District 9. 9/10