The Best Sci-Fi of 2013

Rating: 9/10 (9 August 2013)

Directed and written by Neil Blomkamp, the guy who is behind one of the greatest sci-fi and alien film of the past decade, District 9 (D9). This was my most anticipated movie of the summer, and surely I'm not disappointed by it.
The core of the story is health care and how awful the situation is in 2154. I love the fact Blomkamp puts a message in his films while he entertains you, he doesn't try to create a change or make a direction for a change, but he brings awareness to these social issues and problems and shows how unpleasant and horrifying it can get. This helps to realism of the film's tone, which brings me to the next point I love about his films, the sci-fi aspects; it looks and feels real and believable, he doesn't make cartoonish environment, the science and technology are not too far from the realistic world. It also comes from using less green screens and performing actual stunts, but another plus in his films are the visual effects, it is astonishing, especially in some of the fight scenes, it looks so sharp and awesome. So besides the solid story, the pacing is well done, it doesn't slow down at all, the movie just keeps moving and building up without wasting a second – I totally didn't realize how fast the 100 minutes went by. The soundtrack is also perfect for this film, either if it's an emotional moment or a fight sequence, the score is there to support and add an extra element to it; Blomkamp definitely knows whom to hire to score his films, well done sir. Regarding the performances, Matt Damon surprisingly is his first sci-fi action, he brings a solid performance (I guess Dogma can be counted as sci-fi, but it wasn't as big as this, and he's done a great job here); Jodie Foster, first I need to mention that she has a really sexy, dynamic ass that I had never realized (maybe because of the Imax screens, but she surely looks sexy here), and she does a fine job here, however some might find her accent and dialogue strange and not like it, same with William Fichtner (one of the most underrated actors of the present time), but keep in mind this strange futuristic dialogue is there to show the difference between the poor class and the rich class; the best performance definitely goes to Sharlto Copley, he owns every scenes he appears on the screen, to me he's even better in here than in D9 – I found it very interesting that a lot of people didn't know he's in the movie until yesterday since he was on Reddit or just someone told them after the movie. Although with all these positive sides, I have a few problems with the film, first one is the cam shakes in some of the fight scenes, to me they're very unnecessary, especially the fact movie is R rated for the violence and the language of Copley's character - maybe at some points they considered having it in PG 13, which I'm glad they didn't because it would ruin Copley's character, and then it would destroy the whole film. The other problem is Jodi Foster's character, she's supposed to be a family oriented person, but the audience won't find that in her character at all, I guess showing more of her character would slow down the movie a little bit, and they just avoided that. Also one thing you really need to consider, this is NOT an action packed movie, there are fight and action sequences, but the film is not filled with all of it, so do NOT expect and raise your expectations based on that. I also think there are two signatures to other classic sci-fi's; a bonsai tree next to Jodi Foster, Bladerunner, and the year 2154, Avatar's year.
In conclusion, this is the best sci-fi of the year, indeed, it's better than Man of Steel, Pacific Rim, Ironman 3, and even Star Trek Into Darkness, and yet it's not better than D9, but it' still enjoyable and very entertaining, definitely check it out in real IMAX if you can, I give it 8.8/10.