Sometimes the very best films are the ones that slip under your radar. With no warning, a teaser trailer comes your way, and you do every bit of research you absolutely can to learn every single facet possible. Its a double edged sword, a curse at times when one is such a film enthusiast and the movie you've waited so long for ends up chugging more cock than a Thai prostitute entertaining a bunch of henchmen before they get blown away by something much worse. I think Stallone has been the end result before, but I digress. Thankfully, once again, I have been pleased. I only wish my track record in console games were as consistent.

I will do my best in this review of District 9 to avoid spoilers, as I would wish the same respect paid upon me. However, my enthusiasm towards this film and anxiety to write a review may get the best of me. So, consider this your warning, if you read past this paragraph, you have signed the waiver, and all responsibilities on our part will have been exhausted.

Moving on.

The premise of the film begins with a psuedo-documentary within the film, explaining in detail the arrival of an alien spacecraft in 1982. Media and military keep tabs on the craft until it ends up literally parking itself above Johannesburg, South Africa. The country waits with baited breath for some, any kind of response, be it hostile or otherwise. Approximately four months pass and its decided to actually find a way into the craft to try and find answers.

Engineer teams literally cut a hole into the hull of the ship and find a colony of extraterrestrial beings. Worker ants to the ant hive, but they are without any sort of leadership or visible heirachy. They are sickly, malnourished, confused, and as it would seem stranded.

Such beings the play on social classes. Think apartheid but with E.T. These creatures are not cute and cuddly. Hundreds of thousands of these creatures are transported from the ship and put into makeshift refugee camps within the city. An act which over time causes dissent in the human community. Eventually various governments tire or deciding what to do with an entire population they have no place for, and control over the aliens is put over to a corporation known as Multi-National United, or MNU for short.

Thus District 9 is created, a living space for the aliens. Not that it is much of a living. The entire area of District 9 is ultimately no more than a large shanty town, a slum for these beings. Where one might imagine a poor community in Somalia, with poorly constructed shacks and awful living conditions, the same applies to these aliens.

And naturally, humanity isn't humanity without assigning them their own racial slur. "Prawns" is the common nomenclature for them because of their appearance. The Prawns are bipedal, but almost insect like in appearance. Antennae, multiple limbs, the face of a shrimp, they're not the most pleasant looking individuals.

As the film continues, you see the effects that their arrival has had on people. Many of the South African citizens dislike or even so far as to hate the Prawns. File footage is shown where acts of violence against Prawn and human alike has incited riots, and there are multiple instances of proganda within the city itself designating where Prawns are illegal to travel. Essentially, if you're a Prawn, you stay in District 9, or you have the hammer brought down on you. Hard.

Private military contractors, cold and calculated, act as a police force to try and keep the Prawns in check. Its a bit ambiguous whether such an tight security is the cause of more problems than not. I wouldn't say the PMC's that are contracted are out for blood, but its safe to say they don't mind getting their hands dirty.

The tragic aspect behind it all is rather simple. These aliens don't want to be here. Many seem to be accepting of the fact that they're stuck, that this is their fate, but one of the major reasons for their interment is because of their technology.

Weapons. Advanced weapons. Powerful fuck all weapons. Powerful fuck all weapons that years of reseach by MNU and who knows who else have yielded no success.

The Prawns technology is DNA based. Meaning that if you had a Prawn assault rifle that could disintegrate a man in one blast, only a Prawn itself could use it. A normal human would pull the trigger and nothing would happen whatsoever.

And this is MNU's primary interest. On the surface, they act as if the aliens' welfare is their primary concern, but in the end, its all about getting that big fuck all rifle and everything else to work without a Prawn on the other end.

With so much civil unrest, a plan is put underway to move the nearly two million Prawns to an area many miles away from Johannesburg. District 10. Its an act to appease the public and on the surface further hide MNU's own agenda.

An MNU employee by the name of Wikus van der Merwe is given the task of going from door to door, shack to shack, and for the camera's sake, having each Prawn sign an eviction notice and to move to District 10. Wikus is a friendly man, a dedicated husband, who wants to prove himself with the opportunity that's been given to him by one of the head superiors of MNU who just happens to be his wife Tania's father.

Much like watching a live news feed, the camera follows Wikus and his armed escorts as they go through hundreds of Prawn homes to serve this eviction notice. Many of the Prawn don't understand what's happening, others are scared, a few even become downright fucking violent. Shantys are searched and contraband such as weapons, human and alien alike are confiscated. Even cans of cat food are needed to be used to keep some of the Prawns at bay.

Yes, you read that right. For reasons that aren't explained, I imagine moreso because the film itself doesn't know, Prawns love cat food. They crave not to unlike a drug. Its so sought after in fact that many gang members exploit this fact. Cans of cat food are sold to desperate Prawn for ridiculous prices. In fact, the local crime lord of the area has Prawn manufacture weaponry for him for a few cases of yummy kitty dinner. Regardless of the fact the armaments can't be used.

After many hours of this "humane" alien eviction notice, Wikus, while inspecting the chanty of a Prawn dubbed "Christopher" finds a cylinder with decidedly alien markings. He tells the cameraman that he doesn't think its a weapon, and it poses no threat. Its then, he gets sprayed right in the face with it.

Such ends my overview of the plot, as I feel its much better to experience the rest of the film on your own. Its that good, and that important to me that I don't describe further. This point forward I'll be going over some more of the visual and technical aspects of the film.

Visual effects, by far some of the best visual effects I've seen in any film. Ever. There are multiple camera shots throughout the city where you can see the Prawn spaceship in the background, and never once does it look like a special effect. It applies itself perfectly into the background. A gigantic floating prescence, almost ominous above the city. Particularly at night. No matter where you are, if you're outside, you can see it.

Then comes the effects for the Prawns themselves. Fucking beautifully done. There were very few moments, whether the creatures were static or in motion that I thought "that looks fake."

How is it, that a film such as this, which cost around thirty million dollars, can have better creature effects, both CGI and live action, that looks better than many other films that have cost five times as much? Or more than that even?

I Am Legend. I am looking right at you motherfucker. I like that film quite a bit, but fucking terrible looking creatures. Terrible!

Much of the believability of the Prawns comes from the way the film is directed. Most of the film in the beginning is handheld. Think Cloverfield but with no where near the amount of crazy ass shaking. The movement of the camera helps the Prawn seemlessly blend into the real world. Even close up and lingering shots, I had a hard time telling what could have been real on set work and CGI. The lighting, the interaction with the world, it was done so smoothly. I'm hard pressed to think of a film that has integrated a CGI otherworldly thing so well. Jar Jar Binks this is fucking not.

Transformers, both of those films, from a technical standpoint, did a fine job of making me think, "Yeah, those big fucking robots look and seem like they're really there for the most part", but the Prawn are often not much bigger than a human, and its that similarity in size and scale that makes it so much more plausible.

Also adding to the psuedo-realism are the many camera angles, often black and white, that are taken from multiple security cameras in District 9. Static angles, most always high up, grainy film quality. All good stuff.

District 9 is Neil Blomkamp's first major directorial effort, and what a driving force it ended up being. I remember scratching my head a few years back when I heard that he was up for the director's seat for the 'Halo' feature film, back when it was on track.

I was skeptical to say the least, as I'd never heard of him before and his background almost exclusively involved special effects work. He was responsible for a six minute short film called "Halo - Landfall" which came out as a sort of advertising piece before the much hyped release of 'Halo 3'.

It was quite impressive. And possibly the closest and only celluloid representation we may ever see of the Halo universe. The special effects were done by Weta Digital, the effects studio firm created by Peter Jackson. Very much like District 9, Landfall was a blend of live action and CGI. And while some of the Brutes looked a bit sketchy, considering the size and scope of the short film put against the small amount of money behind it, I was impressed. I thought, this guy could put together a fine Halo film.

Studio politics and budget disputes put Halo in that ever hungry development Hell however. 20th Century Fox, Universal, and Microsoft couldn't agree on many things that have never been fully addressed and Blomkamp was left with no film to do ultimately.

Peter Jackson felt he owed it to Neill though to round up the financial backing and support for another film for him to direct. The decision was made to make a full length version of another short film Neill Blomkamp did in 2005 called Alive In Joburg. That film was a six minute documentary that went over the same concept of refugee aliens is South Africa. District 9 takes the same idea and expands it greatly.

There are two other attributes to District 9 that holds it together and demand its attention. Number one is the performance of Shalto Copley as Wikus. Again, without going too much more into the plot of the film, he delivers an excellent performance. Wikus is the most fleshed out character of the movie, and rightfully so, and you see an interesting character arc. One that involves a very eager and almost impish man who through vicious and sad circumstances turns into a survivalist. I was reminded of Jeff Goldblum in David Cronenberg's remake of The Fly. Once you see the film, you'll understand the connection. His performance stands out against most of the others perhaps because more than a couple actors in it had roles in the way of one-dimensional, but that makes Shalto's acting all the better.

And number two, the R-rating. Its not the goriest film I've ever seen, but it also doesn't pussy out when it comes to violence. People get vaporized, blown up, shot to pieces, eviscerated. It was refreshing to see a film that didn't try to compromise its storytelling or impact for the sake of a wider audience.

Terminator Salvation. I'm looking at you. I liked you, more than I thought I would. But PG-13 really hurt. You know I'm right.

I'm not saying District 13 would've been unenjoyable had it been less graphic, but it wouldn't have had nearly the sense of realism to it.

To touch upon my final statement of the film, is the overall tone. Very little of the film is played for laughs, or even tongue in cheek. There's a few moments of humor in the film, at least what one would consider conventional humor. I'm a twisted son of a bitch and I find mercenaries getting blown to fucking hell until there's nothing left but a gooey remnant funny. That's just me.

And that's that. This film was the first since 2003 when I saw 28 Days Later for the first time that I felt so involved. And while that was a different genre altogether, District 9 does for the science fiction side of me what 28 Days Later did for the horror side.

It took itself seriously, it was unsettling, and it painted a very plausible picture of what first contact with another race might be like.

Plus it had a mech suit in it, the best mech suit I've seen on film, even if its the only one I can think of seeing in a movie. I can speak no more of the suit.

Just see it. For me. For the sake of good taste. There's no racist autobots in it. Just racist people in it. And I for one, side with the fucking aliens. Even if it doesn't make four hundred million dollars domestic.