District 9 - explosions, gore and even some heart...what more could you ask for?

When I first saw the previews for "District 9" about a month a half ago, I really thought it looked like a lame movie, mostly because I could never really tell what it was supposed to be about in the previews. The first time I saw a preview for it, I remember thinking it was supposed to be a comedy about aliens...obviously I was wrong about that. After seeing more previews, I thought it looked like any other stupid sci-fi, let's blow up the aliens more. And now that I have actually seen it, I was quite wrong with that assumption also.

The movie starts out with a slight comedic tone, showing Multi-National United (MNU) field operative Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) being interviewed about his roll in controlling and patrolling the citizens of District 9 (the aliens). Merwe's air-head responses to questions and his complete absent-mindedness as he strolls though the "prawns" neighborhood, attempting to serve each one an eviction notice, is pretty funny.

The movie then takes a more serious turn when the viewer is shown the more violent side of the prawns, and the killing begins. For those who like some good explosions (and I don't just mean building or car explosions, I'm talking about heads exploding, whole bodies exploding, etc.) will really enjoy this movie. The alien weapontry, which cannot be fired by human hands, creates a violent, gore-filled explosion movie.

After this long bout of violence, the movie turns slightly soft, showing that some of these prawns do have feelings and showing the growing friendship between Merwe and a prawn by the name of Christopher Johnson. One thing I did not expect from this movie was the feel sadness for Merwe and his prawn friend, but that is definetly the emotion I was felt as the movie ended.

Although there are no well-known actors or actresses in the movies, and although it does not take place where most top box-office movies do (New York, L.A., etc.), it is totally a movie worth seeing.

To see more reviews on District 9 and other movies, go to Rotten Tomatoes Web site.

Here is the discription of District 9 taken off Yahoo.com:


Thirty years ago, aliens made first contact with Earth. Humans waited for the hostile attack, or the giant advances in technology. Neither came. Instead, the aliens were refugees, the last survivors of their home world. The creatures were set up in a makeshift home in South Africa's District 9 as the world's nations argued over what to do with them.Now, patience over the alien situation has run out. Control over the aliens has been contracted out to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company uninterested in the aliens' welfare -- they will receive tremendous profits if they can make the aliens' awesome weaponry work. So far, they have failed; activation of the weaponry requires alien DNA.The tension between the aliens and the humans comes to a head when an MNU field operative, Wikus van der Merwe, contracts a mysterious virus that begins changing his DNA. Wikus quickly becomes the most hunted man in the world, as well as the most valuable -- he is the key to unlocking the secrets of alien technology. Ostracized and friendless, there is only one place left for him to hide: District 9.