District 9
by Gavin
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posted Nov 2 2011 7:19PM
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 Hey creators of "Transformers 2," I hope you pay attention to this movie and learn a thing or two from it. It was an independent film, produced by Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings trilogy) for only $20 million and it's absolutely superb!!! It's rare that I will beg people to go see a movie because I get the impression that that's annoying. The last movie that I begged people to go see was "The Dark Knight." "District 9" is just as good, if not better, and I'm BEGGING you to go see it. If South African director Neill Blomkamp came to me years ago and said that he wanted to make a science fiction movie that was about aliens coming to Earth that was loaded with thrilling action, achingly-real emotion, comedy in the right places AND have it be a powerful and important statement about human rights and apartheid, I would've said it will never even be made, let alone be any good. It just sounds too ambitious. He pulled it off though...big time! However, this movie is not for the squeamish. The violence is stylized but it's plentiful and graphic, yet creative. See, the movie begins and ends as a mock-documentary as to set up the backstory. Then it seamlessly changes into a regular movie without ever feeling like a separate film. But added touches such as hand-held camera shots and blood splattered on the camera lens helps remind you that this could still be documentary footage and adds to the realism. That's crucial to get the point across that even though this is about aliens, humans are treated like this in refugee camps every day. The special effects are amazingly lifelike considering the film's modest budget. My guess is that Blomkamp learned some tricks from the FX King, Jackson. Also adding to the realism is that there are no Hollywood sets involved and the entire film was shot where the story takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa with all South African actors. The star of those actors is a man named Sharlto Copley. Learn that name because he's gonna be a star. The man seems to know how to make you laugh, cry, cheer and wince in under two hours. I really don't have one bad thing to say about this film. I don't think we'll be seeing it up for any Oscars because the Academy can't seem to bring itself to nominating a movie that has a CGI alien as a co-star. But if enough people see it and start talking about it, it just might get the credit it deserves. So please go see it...I'm begging you.
District 9 (Rated R)
Gavin Grade: A+
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