Good action movie, disappointing drama

Rating: 5/10 (21 August 2009)

Oh, what lofty expectations I had for this movie. I had watched the short "Alive in Joberg" on which the movie is based. I had seen the high ratings IMDb users gave the movie. Maybe we would we see how the world reacts to aliens. Maybe we would we see how we learn from them, communicate with them and try to reach others from their planet. An intellectual discourse on what would be the most massive discovery ever, that aliens exist.
And then it turned out to be just yet another action movie with a very flimsy plot. Aliens were trivialized and we are led to believe they are treated how say a million of North Koreans seeking asylum in South Africa would be. There are stock characters in the movie. A stereotypical 'bad guy' who of course has a final climactic encounter with the hero. A random Nigerian warlord who is allowed to freely live with the aliens and profit from them. Really? Is the international community so disinterested in aliens? The most puzzling thing of all is how can these extremely intelligent aliens with literally weapons of mass destruction let themselves be bullied by humans. Put that aside as well. The humans want them out. The aliens want to get out. The aliens and humans can communicate. FFS, cant they just ask the humans to shuttle them to the mothership and get the hell out?
OK, forget an intellectual discourse for the moment. Lets make the whole thing very narrow in scope. What do we have? The initial half of the movie is actually quite well done. It is a documentary style description of the events starting from the alien landing. After that it is all downhill when the hero vs. humans battle begins. Peter Jackson and Blomkamp run out of original ideas. It's one movie cliché after another. One could be forgiven for imagining they are watching Iron Man reprise at one point. But hey, we are a generation hooked on comic book movies so here's another one for the collection.
Great premise destroyed by a poor storyline.