District 9.

After all the viral marketing, phoneboxes, cinemas, etc marked "Humans only", District 9 has arrived (I managed to avoid using the word landed).But is it worth the hype it has garnered over the summer?

Easily.

As many will already know, this film breaks sci-fi convention by featuring an alien craft landing in South Africa as opposed to a bustling American metropolis. Many other conventions are broken throughout the film; some of the aliens are main characters; there is no large scale action; and most importantly, plot and character are far more important than the effects. The plot is relatively low-scale; there's no threat to mankind, it starts off as a mockumentary recounting the arrival of aliens in 1982; 28 years before the film's setting of 2010. It carries on as a mockumentary for a good half of the film, following a government unit, MNU, in the process of evicting all aliens from their shanty-town of Distric 9 to newer units in District 10. This is a clear allegory to mass evictions in countries such as South Africa, along with obvious allusions to racism and xenophobia with the humans (of all races), referring to aliens as "prawns", and in interviews making derogatory statements regarding them. These themes are not overplayed in an attempt to make a righteous message, but at the same time, a message is very easy to pick out. To explain the rest of the plot beyond the basic set-up would create spoilers to the many twists that are taken. Due to the unconventional premise, very little of the film is predictable.

Effects are at times excellent, and at times good. Much more so the former, and no scenes have glaring errors that detract from the experience. As this was shot on a small budget (in terms of a two-hour sci-fi movie), the effects are far better than they ought to be, with full CGI aliens featuring in at least 80% of shots, displaying a range of emotions and interacting with real-life objects and people. Close-up shots of the aliens' faces are particularly good, allowing you to truly connect with the two main aliens features in the plot.

The acting from the main human character is excellent, with the rest of the cast really being supporting character, but all doing an excellent job nonetheless. Right down to brief interviews, everyone is believable. I think that is what makes the film so good; it is all believable.

Overall, my only real problem is the odd sub-par efects shot, but that cannot distract me from a truly original film that is pulled off excellently, marking the first feature film from Neill Blomkamp. 10/10.