Minor quibbles aside, still the best Sci-Fi movie I've ever seen

Rating: 10/10 (10 February 2020)

I can't think of any Sci-Fi movie that I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot, including all the famous one) that I'd rate as highly as "District 9". It has a perverse, twisty, original, and unpredictable plot that made the nearly two hours fly by. Obviously its budget was only decent, not blockbuster level, which actually enhanced the emotional effect. The plot is layered with philosophical, moral, and political complexity--pretty blatantly, at least in my opinion, successfully riffing off apartheid, Nazi medical experiments, the ongoing slaughter of albinos in Africa for witchcraft purposes, African politics, and more. My only significant quibbles are that the overall body plan of the aliens was too humanoid, as was too much of their behavior (although these two factors were probably intentional and part of a larger point that was trying to be made about "different" people), and, after showing a reasonable amount of restraint throughout the film, it almost appears as if they called in Michael Bay to produce the grand finale. Still, all things considered, these issues to me were only minor, and this film is my personal new high-water mark for Sci-Fi.