The answer to that my friends, is F*CKING HELL YES!
Now, I have been looking forward to this movie for a while now, and I had extremely high expectations. I was worried that this movie would turn out to be the Cloverfield of 2009, where the buzz and reviews hyped the movie to great heights for me, but the film itself was a disappointment. Thankfully, that is not the case here at all.
The film begins by recapping the events that led up to this time, with a gigantic alien ship suddenly appearing over Johannesburg, South Africa 28 years ago, but surprisingly, nothing happened. Until humans broke into the ship to find the aliens unhealthy, dirty, etc. The aliens were placed into a designated area for them called District 9. However, as the years go on, the humans have grown tired of the aliens and want them out. Multi-National-United, or MNU for short, is in charge with evicting the aliens and sending them into District 10, a new area far outside the city and it's human population. The man leading the operation is Wikus Van Der Merwe, played by Sharlto Copley. Something unexpected happens to Wikus as he is investigating one of the alien homes, and things go way down hill from there.
Let me say this, Sharlto Copley, as Wikus, turned in a phenomenal performance. Simply phenomenal. He made Wikus likeable, even though he is shown as somewhat of an unsympathetic character at first. And by the film's closing moments, you can't help but feel sorry for the guy. Also, the performances generated by the Prawns (a derogatory name for the aliens), especially 2 in particular, were breathtaking to behold. The Prawns are imbued with such character and emotion that it reminded me of the consensus on Wall-E from last year. The film makes you care deeply for particularly 2 Prawns who become major characters in the story about mid-way through the film.
The CGI in the film is nothing short of groundbreaking. It makes you feel like the aliens are actually there in real life, right before your eyes. Nowhere in the film was a moment where the CGI came off as fake or cheap. And the film looks like it was made on a $100 million budget, but in reality the budget was a mere $30 million. Neill Blomkamp needs to direct the Halo movie based on what he has accomplished here.
This film has some of the best action I have seen in a long time. The 3rd act of the film is essentially just action, action, and action. Not only are these action sequences original, but they are so intense and heart pounding that my jaw dropped numerous times. District 9 also has it's fair share of wow moments, and plenty of cringing (in a good way) moments. A certain scene where Wikus is lying on a table, and he and a doctor make a startling discovery made me jump in my seat.
Overall, this may be my favorite film of 2009 so far, maybe even better than Watchmen. It is for sure one of my favorite movies of all time, right up there with the likes of Fight Club, the Dark Knight, etc. This has everything you want in a movie; brilliant special effects, intense action, raw, powerful emotion, and outstanding characters and performances, not just from human characters. This film gets a 9.5/10 from me. Go see it, and if you have already, go see it again. Thanks for reading.