District 9

There was a loophole in Hollywood, and a guy who is no stranger to the word "compromise" slipped into the A-list mainstream. I’m glad Peter Jackson gave Neill Blomkamp the chance to make an incredibly engrossing and captivating sci-fi for a ridiculous thirty million. The film squeezes out the subject matter to the last drop, and then there are the special effects sequences. The feeling of "this is how it might actually happen..." beats the viewer over the head in every scene, and yet it doesn't falter in its pace. Objectively, I could ask several "why and how?" questions, but subjectively, I was ecstatic the whole time. If Blomkamp really does make a "Halo" movie, I want to see "Hal-Life" from him too, the guy’s got what it takes! I hope he succeeds. (20/09/2009)

The prawns would probably love Whiskas, but personally I would prefer to pay entrance for a movie that had it clear in its head whether it wants to be a sloppy B sci-fi where the worse it is the better, or E.T., Transformers, Children of Men or War with Newts. I’m not saying that it can’t be combined into one whole, but certainly not by forcibly changing genre every quarter of an hour, forgetting about everything that has come before and shaking a stolen closed circuit camera around like a maniac. I followed the trend presented by Blomkamp and within fifteen minutes I forgot that I had ever seen this movie. (22/09/2009)

Definitely the surprise of the year. I really didn’t expect D9 to be this good. The original approach of the guy who I’d almost written off during the test shots for Halo blew my mind. Blomkamp knows his stuff. He’s good at provoking mixed feelings, where you don’t know whether to laugh or be disgusted. The whole movie is supported by an amazing performance from the unknown Sharlto Copley and his Wikus is everything but a good-guy main lead. Regardless everything he does at the beginning, the viewer still can be on board with him. Most of the people and the prawns, are bastards anyway. When I think about it, the only actual good guy was Chris. :-) It’s the best sci-fi so far this year (but this will probably be beaten by Avatar which comes out December 17th). This year’s Terminator can go take a walk. - Should I shoot the little bastard? - , you can’t shoot it now, it’s illegal to do that. (15/11/2009)

Documentary preview spoiled by senseless perspectives "outside", bizarre exaggeration of side lines and glaring logical absurdities. Plus one solid action scene. This script simply hit a wall after ten minutes, as it unfolded into pig soldiers, insane scientists, and ritual-thinking Nigerians. Additionally, the only likable character is the backgrounded alien Christopher, who outshines the selfish Wikus in almost everything. Every battle clash must be accompanied by some bloody effect, prostitutes sleep with aliens (??), and Blomkamp clearly hits the taste of the audience and critical majority, who applaud him for the gritty atmosphere. But it does nothing for me, so for those few solid (although quickly drowned) ideas, just like this. (07/11/2009)

I’ll say up front that it's a better 4 stars, because I'm still a bit bleary eyed. It was there, what people are like. There was action. There were powerful weapons. There were interesting aliens. It was cool X-D I'm so freaked out about it. It's definitely worth a movie ticket. It really was beautifully believable, the documentary style didn't hurt it, at all. Watch it again? Why not. Well, the best part was the use of the "dusting" gun anyway. I guess I'm a weirdo for liking it... In short: I have such a hard-to-describe feeling about this movie, but my cheeks are burning, which means it was good and that I paid maximum attention. (17/09/2009)