District 9 just goes to prove that you can make a sci-fi film that is both good food for thought as well as plain old entertainment. There's plenty doses of each to satisfy both types of audiences, and strikes the balance well without it feeling like two separate movie's fighting for screen time. There was a lot of skepticism around first-time director Neill Blomkamp, but any doubts anyone had about the man can now be officially wiped away. Blomkamp has created one of the best début movies I've ever seen.
A mysterious alien ship appears in the sky, hovering over Johannesburg, South Africa, with no apparent reason for doing so. People are obviously puzzled by this, but after much deliberation humans forcefully make their way onto the alien spacecraft only to uncover a population of aliens inside. The humans decide to ferry them down to earth, and keep them in a "temporary" area ghetto-like area. Now, 20 years later, the humans no longer welcome the aliens (nicknamed "The Prawns" because of their distinct appearance), with the ghetto area now like a slum and referred to as "District 9."
A government organization called MNU (Multi-National United) is contracted to move The Prawns to a "better" type of camp. Sent into District 9 to serve eviction notices to the aliens is Wikus Van Der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), who receives a less than welcome answer from them. While searching The Prawns' shelter's, Wikus is accidentally exposed to some sort of alien chemical, and soon he begins to feel the bodily effects of it.
District 9 works on several levels: There's the obvious political and humanistic angles dealing with refugees, segregation, mistreatment of civilians, discrimination and any other number of things. For those looking for a bit of meat to go with their dessert, District 9 very much provides that. This isn't just mindless entertainment to pass a couple of hours, this is a film that actually has something to say, and it just so happens to be within a genre normally associated with full-on action, done by the likes of Ridley Scott or even Michael Bay.
However, the film also works on a pure entertainment level. There's plenty of gunfire, explosions and chasing (both car and foot) going on to satisfy anyone who may have sought out the movie based on the advertisements which (understandably) play up those aspects. But this isn't Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen where everything else is sacrificed just so that a giant robot can destroy a car or punch a fellow robot. As stated, there's much more than that going on here, but nonetheless it still doesn't lack in the action department.
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