District 9

Sci-Fi movies (the good ones at any rate) generally oscillate between mundane action and metaphysics. Rare is a movie that combines genuine dystopia with high-octane action, stark realism of modern cities and socio-political challenges. The only other movie that comes to mind is Alfonso Curaon's Children of Men. For once, thankfully, the aliens of District 9 don't land in the US, but in a post-apartheid Johannesburg.

Neil Blomkamp's aliens of District 9 are not particularly smart, they have no aim or purpose on earth and live as scavengers. As it happens so often in such cases, they are rounded up in a slum and forced to live among crime, poverty and deplorable conditions. To write more of the story, would be to give away too much. I'd rather delve into the film's directorial prowess.

Blomkamp's docu-drama like realism of a grimy, claustrophobic slum populated by aliens, crime addicted gangsters and an economy of simple scavenging is remniscent of Slumdog Millionaire and City of God. But the director's real genius is not his portrayal of a slum, but his ability to transcend this reality and look into socio-political issues like the world of private armies and governments conceding administrative space to large private organization and the simple impunity that "Us versus Them" offers. Blomkamp doesn't stop there, he even delves into the human emotions of Kafka-esque Metamorphosis.

The movie runs with a feverish pace even while keeping the big picture in sight. You don't have to be a Sci-Fi enthusiast to enjoy District 9, you just have to appreciate good movies.