District 9

Rating: 8/10 (2 June 2011)

When I first saw District 9 back in 2009 at the theater, I was satisfied, it was the first time in a long time that I felt satisfied by a Sci-Fi movie, since The Matrix maybe. I must admit that these last 2 or 3 years have been great for the Sci-Fi genre. Though most of the recent Sci-Fi flicks are as elegant and well crafted as District 9.
On the same year we had Avatar, Star Trek, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and District 9, all of them visually impressive, yes, all of them good, almost. Avatar is a visual masterpiece that manages to stay entertaining for two and a half hours and Star Trek gave us such an interesting shift to the usual sluggish pace of the Star Trek movies, without losing content nor sense. Transformers: ROTF on the other hand is a trashy movie that does not deserve to share the same genre as the 2 before mentioned movies.
And last but of course not least, the movie I am reviewing, District 9, it avoids the convetionalisms of trashy, cheesy Sci-Fi, by not giving us an attractive male lead with a perfect body and smile and flooding with altruism, instead we get a complex anti-hero, that is cruel at times, ignorant and even coward, that most of the time is looking for his own well being without thinking about others, it also avoids the conventionalism of having trashy, stupid, repetitive humor as well as a ''well known'' background location, like New York, Los Angeles, etc. It is decidedly original, from the background, to the lead character, to the premise and story, which are by far the best and strongest elements from the movie. For those who have already seen the movie, you know what I am talking about, but for those who haven't seen it, I won't spoil it, because, just as it pleasantly surprised me, I want you to be surprised by the freshness and originality of this film. Granted, some will say it was already been done, but not like this, not with this setting, not with these characters, not with such a coherent and well crafted script. You'll get the action and suspense we all appreciate from Sci-Fi, but you will also get a complex, realistic character development study, you'll find plenty of smart, interesting allegories and clever and even funny dialog and even very sweet romance if you are willing to understand.
I've compared the movie to the contemporary Sci-Fi movies, because it is the easiest way to demonstrate that this is truly the Sci-Fi masterpiece of our times. Just one year later we got a Sci-Fi pretentious, overrated, incoherent movie by Christopher Nolan that claims to be a masterpiece, please avoid it, don't waste your money nor 2 and a half hours of your time, when you can enjoy of a true masterpiece with District 9, if you are a lover of clever, creative and original Sci-Fi, do yourself a favor and rent District 9, it is worth it.
10/10 Superb acting, direction, photography, sound, visuals.