Warning: There may be spoilers below!

Yes, I’m a slacker and should have my geek card taken away for taking so long to go see “District 9.” It took me 3 tries to finally get there. @cariephoto and I managed to make it to the 7:50 showing at Knoxville Center last night to see the movie. We were in luck and it wasn’t crowded. Bonus! But enough of that.

The plot of “District 9″ is fairly simple to explain. A stellar vehicle manages to land on earth (actually it stations itself in a very low orbit inside our atmosphere) and the inhabitants are rescued by humans in what started out to be a humanitarian effort. Then after 20 years the dark underbelly of the human race comes out and the aliens are treated to some of our nicer qualities such as bigotry, hatred and greed. During an attempt to evict the aliens from the slum shanties in Johannesburg one of the movie’s reluctant heroes Wikus Van De Merwe (pronounced Vicus) becomes exposed to some alien super DNA and has to fight for his life and the life of an alien (Christopher) and his son. The movie was directed by Neill Blomkamp and produced by Peter Jackson.

None of the alien’s technology will work for the humans because it is encoded to their DNA. Now that Wikus has been exposed to the DNA and is actually turning into an alien the evil government/corporation (MNU) wants to use his body for the alien DNA and get control of the technology.

So here’s what great about District 9:

Wikus is a broken man. reminds me a lot of William Foster (played by Michael Douglas) in “Falling Down.” His family is there to help tear him apart when the time comes. At the beginning of the movie he’s just as despicable as the rest of the corporate agents. He even goes as far as to “abort” alien eggs and laughs about it while the building burns. As time goes by and he starts to evolve more into one of the aliens, he also becomes more of a man. Not as broken and not as ugly.

The CGI is fantastic. Part of the reason the CGI is fantasticalness of the CGI is that it is not in your face saying “Hey here I am! Look how good I am, my programmers are the bomb! Look at what we can do now!” It’s subdued, but it makes the movie.

Usually foreign acting has a different taste to American tongues. The timing is a little different and the delivery is sometimes stronger than an American actor would give. It can turn some people off of foreign films which is a shame. “District 9″ is a good example of acting that is universal. Acting that is perfect for the setting and the feel of the movie.

The social commentary cannot be missed in “District 9.” Many people have mentioned the correlation of the movie to Apartheid and Nelson Mandela. Perhaps some of that is the fact that the aliens landed in Johannesburg. But the sentiment is definitely there. As cruel as we are to other humans, how cruel will we be to our first extra-terrestrial visitors? Especially if they are in a position of need.

“District 9″ flows well and there are not any real discernible slow spots in the movie that leave you waiting for something to happen. If you have not seen the movie yet. It’s time to get your ass in a theater chair and do so. Whether you like Sci-Fi movies or not. This is one of those movies that will be cross-generational, cross-genre and remembered for years to come.

Here’s the original short film by Neill Blomkamp that D9 was based on.

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