I’ve always been a sucker for alien movies. They just intrigue me. I always believed there to be something out there, so they spoke to me. With that said, there isn’t a whole lot of substance when it comes to alien movies. A few classics, but a good majority of them are duds.
The best movie I’ve seen in 2009 so far is District 9. It follows a man named Wikus (Sharlto Copley) who is leading MNU through a movement of aliens from District 9 into District 10, which is smaller and has less roomy homes. The aliens just want to go home, but Earth-dwellers won’t let them leave.
The story is well-thought out. It goes back and forth between a faux-documentary and a standard, fictionalized story, and it works shockingly well. The characters are all well-thought out and make perfect sense.
Sharlto Copley has never acted in a film, with the exception of the short film District 9 was based on, but he does a phenomenal job as Wikus. The evolution his character completes and is forced into is remarkable, and he plays it perfectly. He doesn’t overdo the naivety and loveable idiocy that is portrayed at the beginning, and he isn't exactly the ultimate badass at the end. It's a believe arc.
District 9 is well-written, well-acted, and well-directed. This is going to be on many people’s top 10 lists at the end of the year, and likely somewhere high.