by Benjamin Haines » Mon Aug 17, 2009 5:56 pm
Superb in every way. The best movie of the year so far.
This movie is what I would call real horror. It doesn't rely on cheap scare moments and it's not gratuitously gory, it's just genuinely horrifying. The idea of a population of aliens becoming stranded on Earth and being subjected to segregation and other atrocities by humans is both horrific and very believable.
I really like how this movie just goes for the jugular without going overboard, and in doing so ends up being all the more effective. It doesn't bend over backwards to be "ZOMG DARK," but it's very bleak in a realistic way, and it works. There is a lot of action, especially toward the end, but it never comes close to a generic Hollywood action movie because the characters are so well developed and they earn the emotional investment of the viewer.
Time will tell if Neill Blomkamp ends up becoming the next Steven Spielberg, but as for right now, I'd go as far as to say that District 9 is his Jaws. It's an absolutely fantastic movie that clicks in every way. It shocks, thrills, horrifies and keeps you sucked in from beginning to end. This movie deserves to become recognized as a classic among sci-fi.
