Go See District 9

This is arguably the best movie of the summer.

I’m serious. It flew under the radar until a recent unveiling at ComicCon (smart marketing move, or hedging their bets?), where hype built up to hellish proportions. I went in to the theater expecting a solid movie, but I didn’t expect to be impressed on so many levels.

District 9 is a science fiction story in the best tradition of the genre. It has unique philosophical underpinnings that speak to the nature of humanity–the good, the bad, and the ugly. We follow a mid-level civil servant throughout the entire narrative in what amounts to a first person point of view, interrupted only by documentary-style interviews with “experts” on the events of the movie. I can’t really talk about the plot without revealing too much of what happens, but several science fiction tropes are well-represented.

What elevates this story is the emotion that the director wrings from the audience at every step. You will be alternately horrifed, ecstatic, disgusted, and uplifted at different points in the film. None of the scenes are rendered for sheer gratuity. The action sequences rival the many-times more expensive Transformers sequel (a movie that I personally loved). The special effects are absolutely seamless. The aliens themselves are rendered such that I couldn’t tell if they were CG, actors in body suits, or a hybrid with motion capture technology.

There are some weak points in the science of the story, but these are gracefully put aside by the director in the service of the tale. I never found myself lingering on these questions for very long, simply because there were too many other interesting things to ponder.