Twenty-eight years ago, aliens landed on the planet. Despite the fact that they mean us no harm, no advancements in technology could be produced, mainly because their weapons were DNA locked to their race.

Stranded on Earth with nowhere to go and no leadership to guide them, the aliens were rounded together and forced into the slum known as District 9 in South Africa. Now, things are beginning to get worse as alien crime increases and the people of Johannesburg want them gone.

While on the massive task of serving the aliens eviction notices, Multi-National United (MNU) field operative Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) comes across a new form of alien technology. After accidentally being sprayed with the mysterious liquid inside, Wikus begins to transform into the unimaginable. Now he is alone, rejected by both species and must find a way to reverse the effects before it’s too late.

The film is shot in a documentary style with interviews and made to seem that everything going on was in fact, real. Peter Jackson and the rest of the crew did an excellent job at portraying these aliens, referred to as Prawns, as almost human. They are not your typical monster movie aliens. They interact and communicate with the humans and actually are given rights, however few they may be. There is only a fine line between the differences of human versus alien.

Wikus is the main attraction of the film and Copley does a great job portraying the frightened and confused character. Some of his actions are a little ridiculous though, even for a trained MNU officer. I highly doubt his cell phone would last as long as it did without charging and that he could escape a secure military weapons research facility. In reality, the government probably would have gone to any costs, even human casualties, to keep Wikus contained.

There is plenty of action to be seen. The alien weapons are more powerful than anything; shooting blasts of energy and lightning towards any foes. The effects are a bit much as people’s limbs, heads, and entire bodys will explode upon impact. People were practically laughing at the sight of this and it sort of takes away from the more serious nature of the film.

The film has been dubbed as ‘the Halo movie’ by some since Peter Jackson and director Neill Blomkamp were on board to produce Halo the movie. When that went dead, the two decided on District 9, based on the short film, Alive in Joburg, instead. While District 9 is no Halo, it is quite a decent alien film shrouded in mystery.