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Reviews Counted:238
Fresh:215
Rotten:23
Average Rating:7.8/10
Consensus: Technically brilliant and emotionally wrenching, District 9 has action, imagination, and all the elements of a thoroughly entertaining science-fiction classic.
Australian Theatrical Release:
Aug 13, 2009 Wide
US Box Office: $115,646,235
Synopsis: Director Neill Blomkamp teams with producer Peter Jackson for this tale of extraterrestrial refugees stuck in contemporary South Africa. It's been 28 years since the aliens made first contact, but... [More]
Starring: Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, David James, Mandla Gaduka
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Copley's wild-eyed performance as the luckless Wikus has a lot going for it. The fact that he's so ridiculous -- and so dogged -- adds to the pathos, for it's patently clear Blomkamp has no taste for easy endings.
Top CriticIt's a fascinating hybrid of a film, an anti-Hollywood movie which incorporates a great deal of contemporary big-budget elements ... but with a tart, subversive sense of humour that leavens the violence and mayhem.
Top CriticAs an action director, Blomkamp is no John Carpenter. Parts of the story are not dramatised but narrated direct-to-camera by supposed interview subjects -- a lazy device that reduces immediacy and momentum.
Top CriticAn engaging sci-fi parable rooted in both universal themes and a specific setting that often takes you by surprise with both its smarts and intensity
Top CriticIt’s always exhilarating seeing something refreshingly new on screen, and even though we’ve seen horror before, and aliens before, and the dirty deeds of capitalism before, it’s never been quite like this.
Top CriticThe world Blomkamp has created in this original creature feature is at once familiar and distinctive.
Top CriticNeill Blomkamp's career-making debut film District 9 mixes alien contact with apartheid politics, deftly creating one of the best sci-fi films in recent memory.
Top CriticDistrict 9 is a brave, intelligent and exciting film. Some of its story beats fall into the "unlikely" category, but the central idea, the design, and the acting are so strong that you'll likely go with it and have a damn good time doing so.
Top CriticCompletely absorbing and intense. As audiences are compelled early in the film to "learn from what has happened", Blomkamp uses District 9 to quietly remind us that it's too late for some.
Top CriticTechnically superb, District 9 is a feast of seamless digital work fused to live action, as it is also a smart fusion of documentary format with narrative fiction.
Top CriticWhile Blomkamp's disturbing thriller does have a semi-revelatory ending, the real secret is that District 9, for all its pomp and circumstance, is no more than a decent but scrappy science fiction flick.
The disconnect between the first and second half of the movie shows you how great District 9 could have been, if Jackson and his financial backers had allowed it, instead of what it is, exciting, but with nothing lingering in the mind after it was over.
Science fiction as it was meant to be: intelligent and challenging.
full review at Movies for the Masses
Since the metaphor itself is pretty clear, Blomkamp goes for the visceral quality of the images and situations.
The film persuades us to look beneath the aliens' chitinous exterior, and slowly eats at us as the images of racism, subjugation and internment become familiar and prod our conscience.
"One of the most intelligent science fiction entries in the last ten years..."
Un entretenido ejercicio de ciencia ficción que es también toda una alegoría sobre la condición racista y discriminadora del hombre.
Um presente inesperado para todos os fãs de uma boa e inteligente ficção-científica.
Le film de Neill Blomkamp brille de par son audace et la pertinence de son propos.
December 31, 2009:
RT on DVD: District 9, Ponyo, Young Victoria
More...
December 21, 2009:
RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: District 9 and (500) Days of Summer
One would think that the week of Christmas would bring with it a plethora of new releases in home video, but such is unfortunately not quite the case. Though there are a... More...
December 07, 2009:
Help Us Choose the Community Golden Tomato Award
If you're a regular RT reader, then you're probably familiar with our end-of-year Golden Tomato Awards. The long and short of it is that we compile a list of the films released... More...
October 23, 2009:
Blomkamp Gets to Work on District 9 Follow-Up 
Few details are known about the project, but director Neill Blomkamp has signed a deal that will give him creative control over his untitled follow-up to "District 9." More...
Get all the latest review updates, movie news and features here.
We're giving away the Audrey Tautou-starring fashion pic on DVD.
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