Last night I was lucky enough to see District 9. As a big Science Fiction fan, I enjoy scifi that doesn’t tread the same old ground, and District 9 certainly lived up to that.
At times it’s gory, that’s for sure, but at no point does it try to be a thriller or horror. This is a movie with real pathos, with real heart, with a real story. Being produced and filmed in South Africa, one could argue that the story is just a thin allegory of apartheid, but it goes so much deeper than that, and confronts the audience with the very simple yet profound question of how we define our own humanity.
It’s rare that I come out of a movie and say that it’s equally the best I’ve seen in quite a long time. Yet to me, it was up there with The Dark Knight in terms of quality and story. If you’re looking for a couple of hours well spent in a deep movie that entertains as well as confronts, make sure to buy a couple of tickets, take a friend along with you, and enjoy the ride.