Excellent First Movie for a Terrific Director

Rating: 10/10 (23 March 2011)

Walking out of the theater I felt like I had watched The Terminator or Jaws for the first time in my life. It is a movie that will be loved for decades from now. People will look back at Neill Blomkamp's career and still remember this fondly. I felt very lucky in the theaters for the start of this director's what will be wonderful career.
While the story is none too subtle it is quite entertaining. It was a great story of social commentary that works even if you know nothing about the history of South Africa outside of Lethal Weapon 2.
The effects are spectacular. Excellent use of CGI. Not overdone but enough to create the world around them.
What really strikes me is that this is Blomkamp's first turn as a director. Most director's first movies are, while entertaining, still flawed in some way. Even the greatest of directors have some flaws in their early movies, usually that are overlooked by the quality of the rest. District 9 appears like it was made by a veteran director of forty movies.
In the coming years people will look at Blomkamp's career and think about how wonderfully he has made his movies. And it all started with a little movie called District 9.