Quite good , despite bad writing

Rating: 7/10 (26 August 2014)

The best thing about "District 9" are obviously the special effects. They are VERY impressive and help you forget that your just watching a movie. The idea for this movie isn't exactly new ("Alien nation" from the 80's was first) , but still makes for an interesting and quite original movie . The action scenes are done well and entertaining. The acting is decent.
The movie is obvious allegory for apartheid /racism. We see peoples lack of empathy , ignorance and sometimes pure cruelty (the scene with burning house with alien eggs). It's even quite frightening to see black people being hostile towards aliens. The vision of humanity's reaction to aliens is pessimistic , but unfortunately realistic one. This is no "Independence day" or "Close encounters of third kind". The movie works best when it concentrates on human's nature. It's too bad that "District 9" very quickly concentrates on special effects and action. It too easily becomes another "innocent man on the run" movie , only with aliens. More depth , less action please.
The screenplay is rather mediocre. The story is really simple and after 5 minutes you can easily guess what will happen and who will be important. The characters are terribly thin . The main hero is one-dimensional unlikable asshole . His change of heart isn't one bit convincing. We have also awfully cliché characters like evil father in law , evil soldier/mercenary (who is strong and stupid) or evil gang lord. Even the main alien characters are lame – kid alien is basically a sweet child , while the big alien is 100% boy scout.
What is worse there is some stupidity here . The main hero doesn't seem to understand what "hiding in plain sight" means and is acting VERY irresponsible . Anybody with half of brain wouldn't make the same stupid mistakes he did. There is also one quite big plot hole involving entering the city.
"District 9" is quite good movie , but overrated. The idea begs for something more complicated than simple action movie. It begs for something like "Blade runner" or "Brazil". The authors of this movie had good idea , but in my opinion they wasted it a little bit. It's a good movie , but could have been a LOT better. I give it 7/10.