All hype... juvenile... no classic sci-fi here...

Rating: 3/10 (20 August 2009)

Maybe it's because I'm not a computer gamer, but I just don't get all the praise about this movie. The herky-jerky, documentary style camera work got old really fast. There was no need for it once the cameraman was obviously not in the scene. And then there were a few times when the camera actually was locked down -way too few- so what gives with that ? I couldn't sympathize with any of the characters, alien or human... no connection, no empathy, nothing to move me whatsoever. And the constant F bombs -hey, I'm no puritan, but it's like the movie was targeting 14 year old Beavis & But-heads. The lead character was more irritating than Jar Jar Binks. I didn't find any suspense, surprises -it was all pretty predictable. And definitely no human drama. And was there really any science ? This might have made a decent Outer Limits but, c'mon, some liquid gets sprayed on a guy and his arm mutates into a giant shrimp arm ? The deal with the weapons having to be operated by the alien race -that's old school Star Trek stuff. This was no sci-fi masterpiece. Movies like "Contact", "Alien", "Aliens", "Dark City", "Gattica", "Close Encounters", even "Solaris"... these are so much better. District 9 must be a setup for a shooter computer game. All I know is, District 10 will be rental only, at least for me. But then, I still remember the first "Day the Earth Stood Still" and "Forbidden Planet" ! You know... I'd have given it 8 stars if it was totally produced independently on a shoestring budget. But this had Peter Jackson's stamp on it...