Day 10: "There's a lot of secrets in District 9"

I had delayed, for a long time, seeing Neill Blomkamp's District 9 because I was on the fence about what it was going to be.  Was it an alien invasion movie?  Was it a "we aliens just want to go home" movie?  After debating the topic with myself, I decided that now was the time to see it.  Boy, did I waste a lot of time in debates.  I was completely drawn into this movie from the first 5 minutes.  Shot (initially) in a documentary style similar to The Blair Witch Project (only with more professional cameramen) it follows the story of Wikus van der Merwe, a mid level management type, in his job to relocate the aliens from their current slums to a new relocation camp elsewhere in the country.  As the story progresses, the film begins to follow a more standard narrative, with documentary style bits placed for further exposition.  I didn't even notice the transition until I watched it a second time.

The actors do a great job telling this story as well.  The aliens, or "Prawns" as they are most commonly referred as, were CGI, and the actors react to them in realistic and honest ways.  Blomkamp must have had amazing reference actors for the mains to play against.  Not once did I notice any actor looking in the general direction of the "prawn" they were interacting with.  They looked them straight in the eyes when talking to them.  The special effects team did it's job extraordinarily well.  The "prawns" were magnificent CGI creations, each having its own personality and physical traits.  You could tell which was which in terms of character.  It was bizarre feeling more for these creatures than for some protagonists in other movies I've seen.

District 9 was an absolute treat.  I had so much fun watching this.  Be warned, though, it does earn it's R rating, as the violence is extremely graphic and f-bombs drop quite a bit (if any of you might have wanted the whole family to watch).  I will be putting this one in the permanent collection.  9.25/10.

Tomorrow's movie: Ghost Rider plays with a different kind of magic in The Sorcerer's Apprentice.  See you tomorrow and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!