"District 9" was an interesting sci-fi film that excelled on some levels but was held back by flaws that took away from the film, at least for me.

Stranded on earth, millions of aliens are forced into an area known as District 9 in which they are forced to stay out of the human population and live like refugees. During a planned eviction and moment of the aliens, Wikus who is running the operation comes in contact with a odd substance that causes him to take on alien features. MNU, an organization set up to control the alien population takes him captive for experiments because this change allows him to do something that they have been trying to achieve, and that is control the alien technology and more importantly their weapons. Wikus escapes and must avoid recapture while also searching for a way to stop his transformation. In doing this he pairs up with an intelligent alien who is trying to find a way to get home.

I'll start with the acting. I know this wasn't some huge Hollywood film and the director went mainly with unknown actors, but it still bugged me. The acting by a majority of the cast was just so annoying at times, especially from the main character. I'm sorry but I just could not stand him especially the way he talked and his dialogue, it just didn't sound right half the time. The characters were uninteresting as well; I think the only interesting people in the film were a few of the aliens and that Colonel. I don't know, maybe it was meant to be that way, to make all the human characters so bland and unlikable in order to make you feel more for the aliens.

The film is set up in a few parts. The first half begins like a documentary leading up to Wikus's exposure and then switching over to him being held captive and his escape. This was in my opinion the best part of the film. I felt the second half was just too chaotic, too fast paced and too much happened in so little a time.

The film also had some unexplained things and plot holes that I did not like. Some of which I will not go into to avoid spoilers. I just wish some things had more explanation and I did not like how the film had no real back story of explanation for why the aliens were there in the first place and why they couldnt get home.

I liked the action which was intense at points and entertaining to watch. There was a lot of gore which I didn't mind but I absolutely hated when blood of body matter hit the camera.

The political commentary was great. The way it reflected upon South Africa and apartheid as well as current situations around the world was very well done. The way they depicted the aliens was so interesting. This was by far the films strongest point. It makes you wonder what would happen if aliens actually came to earth as they did in the film. You also couldn't help but feel for them, at least for Christopher and his child. One of the films greatest moments came when he and Wikus were in the lab and he saw what was happening to his fellow aliens.

I thought the film was shot very well although there were some odd things it seemed like the director was playing around with. For example there were a few moments in which it seemed as if they had a camera attached to the soldier's weapons when they were trying to find Wikus at the MNU facility. I just felt like this was unnecessary and random. The CGI was good and it felt very real.

Although when you read this review it does seem mostly negative I did like the film. I think the reason why all these problems didn't totally kill the film was just my own admiration for what was achieved. The more I think about the film the more I admire it.

Overall I thought it was a good film but not great, there were just far too many flaws that just took away from the film. Some can over look them but for me they actually took away from my viewing experience. I will give it an 8/10, most of which comes from my admiration of the film and I do think I owe it another viewing.