Even if you would never consider watching a Sci-fi I strongly recommend that you to go watch 'District 9' and quickly whilst its still showing at the cinema!
If someone asked me "What do you think of Science-fiction films?" I'd ponder for a while and think about films of this genre that had made a good enough impression to stay in my memory. They merely consist of 'Ghost busters', 'Independence Day' and 'Mars Attacks'- not really the serious sort of stuff one might consider to fall under this genre and ones which would probably lead to me to say "they're OK but I'm not a great fan". There have been others, its just that I clearly got distracted when watching them because that's the sort of impatient git that I am.
However I can now say that I have watched a brilliant Sci-fi film which had so many layers that I was deeply engrossed from the very beginning until the very end!
'District 9' has everything you could ever want from a film and more. Firstly it's not shot in the USA!! We don't have to listen to the screams of the White House or of any annoying American civilians- hurrah! It is, in fact, shot in Johannesburg which is an instantly refreshing change from the Hollywood scene.
Instead of conforming to the stereotypical narrative of humans VS aliens this is a tale of refugee aliens arriving on Earth and then being segregated off in a shanty town by the government. They have to deal with being treated as the lowest of the low and are derogatively dubbed as "prawns" as they are bottom-feeding scavengers who root around for food. The movie highlights many of the socio political issues that surrounds the modern day South Africa such as xenophobia, racism and segregation and also depicts the nasty side of capitalism.
'District 9' is partly shot in a faux-documentary style featuring fake interviews, CCTV and video footage from news networks throughout which cleverly adds a sense of realism to it. The CGI is fantastic and the aliens look extremely realistic.
All in all this film is full of action, gore and will take you on an emotional roller coaster ride that you never thought possible from a film about aliens!
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