Lack of good storyline.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

I think the only reason I watched this the first time is because I was in high school and it was popular. I just turned it off 30 mins in because Sharlto Copley's character did something way too dumb to forgive.The entire first act is A) unbearable to watch due to the camera action (and I enjoyed Cloverfield) and B) unbearable to watch due to Sharlto's awful South African accent. If you make it past there, you get into a story trying to make you like someone who is taking joy in evicting residents who are unwillingly stuck in a country, city, planet that doesn't want them there. I had to turn it off this time because our "hero" finds an unknown device of alien origin with alien markings filled with an alien goo and inexplicably opens it and it sprays him in the face, catalyzing act 3. From here, what I remember is fuzzy but I know it makes no sense that fuel would morph another species into your species. It's literally like if we poured gasoline on a shrimp and it sprouted arms, legs, etc. And, yes, I know that this is a metaphor for apartheid. I want to like this movie because interspecies politics can be entertaining and eye-opening, but this is very poorly written.

There are an inordinate number of glowing reviews on here, that just don't match the actual quality in the movie...did Blomkamp hire every South African to run right over and provide these reviews??? I don't know, but there can't be that many degenerates in the IMDb world, to account for those glowing ones, heh heh...to be honest, there are some good CGI moments sprinkled throughout District 9, but the story itself is entirely Apartheid...but this time it isn't Blacks who are the underdogs, it is a spaceship full of insects, who spend most of their time vomiting or stealing, or just trying to be annoyingly gross...Sorry folks, but this was a rude, crude, under the top movie direct from South Africa...And it should have stayed there...

War of the Worlds (2005) and the Transformers franchise are in my top favorite films, so adding this little combo to create this film, I did have high expectations going in. Those expectations were satisfied! Many of my friends thought this wouldn't work, some did based on the trailer. I avoided this trailer at all costs, even changing channels when the trailer came on TV. So going in blind, I was pleasantly surprised! This is a well executed and directed script with amazing cinematography and VFX. It's a winner from me and a well deserved 9/10!

This film shows quite clearly what the writer of the story thought about apartheid, an idea of a time he could have no clue about. First of all Neill Blomkamp was born near the end of apartheid and was too young to have seen any of the "unfairness". Then he also immigrated to Canada at the age of 18, meaning that he was from a strong financial family. To top things off he attended Vancouver University, a feat that no upper middle-class family could dream to achieve. So I want to know, what on earth made him an "expert" on apartheid and what on earth was he thinking bringing aliens into it all?!The film is basically an ANC propaganda film, with Wikus playing the part of FW De Klerk and Christopher playing the role of Nelson Mandela. Two different species (races) uniting for the freedom of the majority. It is a film about a smart alien race who endured space for years with technology that would destroy anything we can throw at them yet they were too "stupid" to use this tech for some reason??!! Was it because Neill sees black south africans as stupid? The main character Wikus was a prawn hater turned prawn lover without reason or premise. My review might not be the best worded, but it's because too many angry thoughts are going through my head, this was horrible and a waste of money making it so high budget just to spread more false south African propaganda. The only reason this film isn't getting a 1/10 from me is because as a south African I feel the need to give higher rating for our films, but this is with a very heavy heart