I just watched District 9 and I have almost nothing negative to say about it. This surely has to be the best movie of the year, if not one of the best. Here are some things I thought about the movie. (Be warned, spoilers after the jump)

1. Real Fiction

One of the things I liked best about the movie is that it is truly believable. For nearly 2 hours the audience is held in a state of suspended disbelief, and I never felt like I was watching just “another science fiction flick”. You don’t see Humans treating the aliens like gods, nor are these aliens a benevolent all-knowing species. Instead you see humans abuse and mistreat their wards, while the aliens scavenge and steal whatever they can get. The main protagonist isn’t a hero of some sort, and it is easy to relate to him emotionally. In the end, you truly feel that the events you see in the movie could very well be reality, if aliens do arrive on Earth.

2. It’s not perfect

The plot suffers a little at some points, though these are just some minor pickings. There is not much explanation from the aliens’ point of view; where did they come from, why did they arrive on Earth and so on. Early in the story it appears that the aliens were unable to depart from Earth, due to some unfortunate incident (for example, the loss of a command module which turned out to be a small flying craft instead). However, at the conclusion of the film, an alien manages to pilot the Mothership out of the planet without much trouble. I cannot find any possible explanation for this, and as such, this seems to be a gaping plot hole. Furthermore, there is not much explanation about how the humans and aliens are able to communicate at all, though that seems to be one of those things which would be too troublesome to explain.

3. It’s pretty graphic

The film is definitely not one for the kids. Dismembered body parts, mutilated corpses, and exploding bodies feature prominently throughout the movie.

4. It’s pretty too

District 9 has very nice special effects too. While on a meager budget of $30 million, a major proportion of it seems to have gone into the special effects department. However, the effects never seem over the top and you aren’t bombarded with pretty lights at every turn. Exploding body parts are always enjoying to watch, and the weapons feel alien yet realistic at the same time.

5. Don’t make a sequel.

I do not have high hopes for a sequel. For such a story, where much of the background plot is left to the viewer’s imagination, a sequel leads to a temptation to explain away gaping plot holes left by the first film. Furthermore, it is hard to present the same message from the same source material without the whole thing feeling like its all happened before. The documentary style story-telling would not work again, for sure. For District 9, the best ending is the one invented by ourselves.

Did you like the movie, or do you think it was pretentious? Would you like to see a sequel, and what do you think will happen in it? What do you think about the plot holes? Are they left by Neil for us to fill in the blanks, or are they just oversights in the writing department?

All your comments are welcome!

Update: dear reader Dim suggested I put the trailer in this post. Here it is!