District 9

An alien spaceship comes to halt over the city of Johannesburg. The inhabitants of the ship cant seem to operate the ship anymore, so they are housed in a separate colony called District 9 in the city – which soon becomes a slum. Twenty years into the future, the aliens – nicknamed prawns for their appearance – have become unpopular with the Johannesburg residents and are to be moved to a new colony 200 km out of the city. The multi-national giant MNU is given the task of evicting and transporting the prawns to their new home.

Even though it seems like a perfect setup for a massive aliens vs. humans battle, its anything but that. The story will continually surprise you as you follow a MNU officer Wikus Van De Merwe serving eviction notices to the prawns. The movie begins with the documentary format and there are lot of sound-bytes style commentary throughout the movie which enhance the realism of the movie. The cinematography is equally gritty and you just don’t get the feeling that you are watching fiction.

And that is the movie’s biggest achievement. It presents the fictional tale of aliens co-existing with humans in such a realistic way – you soon forget that whatever if happening on the screen is improbable. The story is immersive, engrossing and you are completely involved in what happens to Wikus, as he does his best to survive in the face of really adverse circumstances.

If I had one word to describe the movie I would call it exhilarating !! Really crisp editing and an awesome script make it a taut thriller set in a sci-fi environment. There is no overdose of CGI, as the movie is shot mainly in Soweto township in Johannesburg – full of tin shelters and strong African heat. The prawns thankfully are not caricatures - there are some well rounded characters, especially Christopher and his son. The battle sequences are fabulous as well and I honestly cannot think of anything out of place in this movie.

Brilliant effort, balancing an intelligent story with cool visual effects gets it top rating. Plain Awesome !!



PS - The movie is produced by Peter Jackson (Lord of The Rings).
And its already ranked #49 in IMDB all-time high list