Mini Review #79: District 9 (2009) (Patreon)

I was hoping for great things going into this movie as I had heard a lot about it. Turns out I should have been expecting amazing things because this movie RULED. Using aliens as the backdrop, the movie focuses on the concept of refugees and how humans would treat aliens if they became stranded on Earth. It was a really interesting comparison to real world refugees who are forced into horrible conditions and who are treated as 'others'. The status of 'alien' is even a term that can be given to someone. Besides this conversation that the movie is trying to have though, it as also an insanely well made action movie with incredible effects and a great score. The effects put modern 300 million dollar blockbusters to shame. With a budget of only $30 million, it is crazy at just how real the aliens look. Everything from the way they move to the texture of their skin has so much realness to it. There was never really a moment where I felt like they were CGI creatures. The set of District 9 itself was really cool and the weapons the alines brought over were even cooler. I never got tired of seeing someone blow up by getting zapped by a bolt of lightning. The camera work was also interesting as it started off as a documentary type movie but slowly dissolved into a regular movie type camera work. I have thoughts on why that may be the case but none that are coherent enough for a review. Never-the-less it is interesting.

If you love Sci-Fi in any way and haven't seen this, I would HIGHLY recommend checking this out.