District 9 (2009)

This review contains minor plot spoilers, but you probably knew about them

Image via Wikipedia

already.
Story
Most people call this 'the alien apartheid movie', or 'a documentary'. I've known a number of people who refused to see the film on these grounds, but it goes deeper than this.
The film starts out as a mockumentary: what if aliens landed in 1982, but they weren't manevolent: they were refugees? It documents what happened when the aliens (never really named in the film, but apparently they're called poleepkwa) arrived and how the humans meant (?) to do them well but ended up abusing them until their situation pretty much mirrored that of apartheid South Africa.
As the story continues, however, it branches into a drama and then a full-on science fiction/action film in the climax, before ending with bits of everything.

Trivia
The film was produced by Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, with the money that was going to be used for the flopped Halo film project. You can see some similarities between the poleepkwa and the aliens of the Halo series, especially in the climax.

Characters
The film begins by focussing on an employee of the MLU, a military force assigned to 'keep order' in South Africa and study the alien weapons. Although he's pretty lovable, its more due to his obscenely happy personality and ridiculous South African accent. Once he gets into District 9 we see he's a bit of an arsehole and that kind of undermines our sympathy for him. As the film goes on however, we're more encouraged to feel sympathetic towards him as his situation continues to worsen and everyone who he once trusted turns against him due to his 'condition' which has developed (I won't spoil what it is just in case).

Pretty much every other human character is not particularly likeable, to the point that it's incredibly obvious that everyone is lying through their teeth and/or a heartless bastard.

The only other remotely interesting characters are both poleepkwa, and they probably have more life in them than any human character in the entire film. That's not saying that they're unlively, in fact the aliens are so emotional and interesting that you really stop caring about the humans. Is this a good thing?

Visuals and Cinematography

District 9 has some of the best CGI yet seen in film. Everything looks incredibly realistic and fits in perfectly with the real settings. You will be awestruck during the climax as the alien weapons turn people into gibs (if only because of the computer effects).

The cinematography during the mockumentary sections is interesting, and does look realistic, although it cuts to alternate viewpoints so often it's difficult to really get a sense of the surroundings. During action sequences the camera manages not to flail around too much, which is nice, but during van de Merwe's interrogation sequence it's a bit hard to see what's going on thanks to the uncomfortable extreme closeup. Otherwise, handled quite well.

Soundtrack

District 9 features a fully orchestrated soundtrack undercurrented with traditional African music where needed. It's nice to hear world music in a big-budget film and is definitely a change. It works well but the traditional music is often done away with during the action sequences, although you probably won't notice.

Realism

Some of the things the government does is a bit silly (who cuts into a spaceship?) and the story is overly cynical in regards to all humans being complete jerks (some of the special features indicate that the humans make horribly wrong assumptions about the aliens and their culture which then are incorporated into the common 'knowledge', making them seem a lot less, well, human than they really are).
Since we haven't encountered aliens yet, we're not sure whether this is what we'd actually do to them, so I can't really comment on that. Otherwise, a highly believable film - if the apartheid comparison isn't too obvious.

Blu-Ray extras
The Blu-Ray edition of District 9 includes a plethora of deleted scenes mostly composing extra expository content, an interactive map of Joburg (much like that availiable on the official District 9 website), director's commentary, and the usual documentaries about the making of and the special effects. It's compatible with movieIQ, which connects you to the internet to access trivia and information on the cast and setting.
A new edition recently published also comes with a demo of the upcoming game God of War III, for use in Playstation 3 consoles.

Overall
A brilliant, well-constructed film - but I wouldn't have expected less from Peter Jackson. If you aren't a fan of documentaries or arthouse, you may not like this one.
9/10