District 9 - Aliens Among Us

Rating: 6/10 (14 September 2009)

I gave the movie an 8/10, but my wife only thinks it was a 3. She did not like it at all, it was too gross apparently. To me that's an added touch of realism that made it worth while. I tried to explain to her also that the movie was real, that it had actually all happened here on earth during the 20th century, and much of it there in S. Africa oddly enough. Interesting choice of locations for the story.
Of course, the scenario didn't actually happen with aliens, but what happened was called "Apartheid." In Hitler's Germany we called it the Holocaust. I make the argument that all of these things really did happen between one group of humans and another, so in that light the story is completely believable. Thus, the writers didn't need to look too far or have too much imagination to come up with the idea for this story.
I argued with my wife for the point that this made the film better than a "B" movie, but she wouldn't be convinced. So, there you have it. It's interesting that she has seen Schindler's List and The Hiding Place and other film versions about the Holocaust and agrees those are both great films and great stories. Putting it in terms of an alien race and adding all the glitzy special effects (even though they were good, and probably deserving of an Oscar) just didn't make it for her.
It's a decent movie, and I did notice the change over in mid film from pure documentary style to an action film, where it became essential to have extended knowledge of the main character and his soon to be allies. It's a memorable film, one that took a bit of an unexpected turn, I liked that aspect of the movie. Still, I find it hard to believe that an alien race that was so advanced could have found themselves "out of gas" and stranded on a place like earth. In some respects, that was a flaw in the basic premise of the movie plot I thought.
I thought it was a good effort from Peter Jackson and his team.