District 9

District 9 is an instant sci fi classic. A loosely disguised parable of apartheid the story concerns aliens who are stranded on Earth (in Johannesburg) and simply herded into a detention camp and sequestered from humanity. Director Neill Blomkamp expanded a 2005 short film (Alive in Joburg) that basically makes up the first half reel or so of District 9. Excellent special effects, both physical puppetry and CGI, are wholly integrated into the film in a practically flawless manner.
District 9 unwinds in different modes. One one level it's a mockumentary, portraying the events as if they are unfolding on cable news casts and first-person handheld camera teams who are assisting in the relocation of the aliens to another quarantined camp. District 9 also brims with sci fi energy, just revealing enough of an extraterrestrial intelligence and weaponry to keep the viewer glued to the screen right up to its balls out finale. Lastly District 9 gives us characters, both other worldly and all too human, that we care about. In fact some of the situations will remind knowledgeable viewers of the late 50s film The Defiant Ones, where Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier are two convicts chained to each other who escape from imprisonment. Despite their mutual hatred the two cons learn to trust and respect each other.
There are moments in District 9 that keep you on the edge of your seat. One such sequence involves the film's reluctant hero (Sharlto Copley providing a career sustaining performance) and his calcitrant alien doppelganger breaking into a high security complex to steal a substance that will enable both of them to achieve certain goals. In the alien's case completing a scientific formula that will propel its stranded spacecraft away from our hostile planet. In Copley's case he needs the alien's help to reverse a process that has infected his DNA causing him to mutate into one of the aliens.
District 9 will certainly wow science fiction fans, but the film's resonance with topical issues guarantee an expanding fan base that will only continue to grow.