District 9 (2009) ****

Refugees on boats are replaced with refugees in a mothership that ends up hovering above Johannesburg, which we all know is the beacon of equality. District 9 is the area that the refugee aliens known as "prawns", are ushered into after a split second of humanity ends up being a police state. Of course, that old George Carlin bit about NIMBY (not in my back yard) takes hold with the demand for their removal pressures a private corporation into evicting the aliens from their shacks in District 9 to their new tents in District 10. These aliens are social outcasts because they don't know earthbound norms and look like a 6 foot cross between a crawfish and a grass hopper. Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) heads the eviction process, which spirals out of control when he is infected by an alien liquid, putting him on the other side of the fence.

This is a rare item today. A movie with amazing visuals, effects, AND a good story. The film is basically a documentary that book ends 72+ hours of Wikus' life. Obviously, there are parallels between District 9 and apartheid, posing as a history lesson into what was policy in South Africa twenty years ago. It's hard to get an alien to show emotion and even harder to get a digital alien to show emotion. District 9 achieves this with it's main alien being a single parent trying to get his child out of the hell that is District 9. As the movie progresses, his reasoning changes for wanting to leave this planet and return to wherever home may be. It's a nicely written film that is full of action and doesn't disappoint the viewer. Sure it has a message, but it's able to make that pill go down smoother and not be as preachy as other films.

Seeing how the film plays out and some major plot points that come up, there will be a sequel to District 9. It's inevitable and will also be an interesting picture as the prawn population grows and the human races begins to make payments on the sins they have committed.