Variety
"[T]his grossly engrossing speculative fiction bears Jackson's blood-spattered fingerprints but also heralds first-time feature director Neill Blomkamp as a nimble talent to watch."Box Office
3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[The filmmakers] have stealthily laid the artifacts of these dark days beneath the guise of an Alien invasion movie that is intense, graphically novelistic and just funny enough to keep thoroughly entertained, even while the subtext is of a very serious nature." 07/29/2009 Hollywood Reporter
"[I]t's a helluva movie. No true fan of science fiction -- or, for that matter, cinema -- can help but thrill to the action, high stakes and suspense built around a very original chase movie." 07/28/2009 Rolling Stone
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "You'll be wowed by Copley. His heart-rending tour de force deserves comparison to Jeff Goldblum's in THE FLY." 08/20/2009 A.V. Club
"DISTRICT 9 fuses science fiction mayhem and biting social commentary as well as any film since STARSHIP TROOPERS. It's the rare alien invasion story that has the aliens running scared." 08/13/2009 Entertainment Weekly
"A thinking person's sci-fie movie from an inventive director...DISTRICT 9 revels in the fun of mashing up narrative styles..." -- Grade: A 08/21/2009 USA Today
3.5 stars out of 4 -- ?With its clever faux documentary style, this is the most imaginative science-fiction movie to come along in years.? 08/14/2009 Los Angeles Times
"DISTRICT 9 is very smart sci-fi, but that's just the beginning; it's also a scathing social satire hidden inside a terrific action thriller....It's a blast..." 08/14/2009 Chicago Sun-Times
3 stars out of 4 -- "[A] seamless merger of the mockumentary and special effects. And there's a harsh parable here about the alienation and treatment of refugees." 08/13/2009 Wall Street Journal
"[O]ften inventive....DISTRICT 9 begins in cinéma vérité style with a collection of talking heads..." 08/14/2009 New York Times
"[The filmmakers] embed their ideas in an ingenious, propulsive and suspenseful genre entertainment, one that respects your intelligence even as it makes your eyes pop..." 08/14/2009 Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- ?[A] fascinating sci-fi specimen....The historical resonances only enhance the film?s blazing neo-realism, as does the dizzying, docu-style camerawork...? 10/01/2009 ReelViews 9 of 10
It is universally acknowledged (at least by those who don't play with Transformers toys) that the best science fiction stories are those that use the devices of aliens, robots, and space ships to illustrate some greater truth. Star Trek (the TV series in its various incarnations and, to a lesser degree, the movies) understood this, and that's one reason it has become revered in some circles despite frequent lapses into dubious science. District 9, the eye-opening feature debut from South African filmmaker Neill Blomkamp, recognizes this as well and, in order to avoid the possibility of his message being overlooked, he abandons subtlety. Anyone who watches District 9 and doesn't think of Apartheid, Nazis, and Josef Mengele needs to spend some time reading a few history books...District 9 expands upon the ideas explored in Blomkamp's 2005 short, Alive in Joburg (which one assumes will be included on the DVD). Peter Jackson produced the movie, adding an internationally revered name to the credits that will doubtless help in marketing. (Jackson had originally intended for Blomkamp to direct the movie adaptation of Halo, but when that deal fell apart, District 9 became Plan B.) However, although Jackson's moniker may help to get warm bodies into theater seats, the Lord of the Rings director is not needed to keep them there. Nor is the lack of an established actor (Sharlto Copley, the lead, and only human with significant screen time, acquits himself admirably, but is an unkown) a drawback. District 9 speaks with a loud, clear voice and by defying as many science fiction conventions as it embraces, it becomes a singular movie-going experience. For fans of the genre, the summer of 2009 truly has been the best of times and the worst of times. Sure, there have been the likes of Transformers 2 and G.I. Joe, but this has also been the season of Moon and now District 9...District 9 ends in a way that is both satisfying and unsettling. Although the story is told, there are untilled ground and unanswered questions - not the least of which is what will happen in three years. A sequel, if one is warranted, is effectively set up, but is not mandatory. The strongest afterimage left by the film is the one provided by gazing through the dark lens of District 9 at human nature. I, for one, hope the inhabitants of Earth never encounter visitors from another planet because the reality of how we might interact with them could be close to what is depicted here, and that's a depressing thought. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
I suppose there's no reason the first alien race to reach the Earth shouldn't look like what the cat threw up. After all, they love to eat cat food. The alien beings in District 9, nicknamed "prawns" because they look like a cross between lobsters and grasshoppers, arrive in a space ship that hovers over Johannesburg. Found inside, huddled together and starving to death, are the aliens, who benefit from a humanitarian impulse to relocate them to a location on the ground...Who are these aliens? Where did they come from? How did their ship apparently run out of power (except what's necessary to levitate its massive tonnage?). No one asks: They're here, we don't like them, get them out of town. There doesn't seem to be a lot to like. In appearance, they're loathsome, in behavior disgusting and evoke so little sympathy that killing one is like -- why, like dropping a 7-foot lobster into boiling water...The film's South African setting brings up inescapable parallels with its now-defunct apartheid system of racial segregation. Many of them are obvious, such as the action to move a race out of the city and to a remote location. Others will be more pointed in South Africa. The title District 9 evokes Cape Town's historic District 6, where Cape Coloureds (as they were called then) owned homes and businesses for many years before being bulldozed out and relocated. The hero's name, van der Merwe, is not only a common name for Afrikaners, the white South Africans of Dutch descent, but also the name of the protagonist of van der Merwe jokes, of which the point is that the hero is stupid. Nor would it escape a South African ear that the alien language incorporates clicking sounds, just as Bantu, the language of a large group of African apartheid targets...I'll be interested to see if general audiences go for these aliens. I said they're loathsome and disgusting, and I don't think that's just me. The movie mentions Nigerian prostitutes servicing the aliens, but wisely refrains from entertaining us with this spectacle. - Roger Ebert
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