The first thing that comes to mind is that I'm surprised, when I started watching District 9 I didn't quite know what to expect. I knew it was a sci-fi movie with aliens on earth but I was expecting the Hollywood cliché routine with humans owning some evil aliens. Instead I got an exciting ride with superb effects and production values, solid acting and a very fresh take on a sci-fi genre that seems to be losing more and more of it's soul as the production costs have gone up.
The movie starts off with the new and trendy documentary-style of telling the story through interviews and I wasn't really impressed and became worried that the whole movie was going to be done in this now overused style of film-making, but thankfully the interviews end and the movie focuses on Wikus. During the film we get to follow Wikus' transformation from a selfish yuppie to an anti-hero that you can really relate to, largely due to him being such an unlikely action hero.
With Wikus in focus the movie makes one quality leap after another, minute for minute. It's exciting and uncomfortable with obvious references to apartheid. The brilliant decision to set it in Johannesburg South Africa only reinforces these references to racism. It also does wonders to set the movie apart from your usual New York, Washington and L.A. being under alien attack storyline found in many sci-fi movies from Hollywood. The movies is not that subtle with it's themes but they are well thought out and executed.
