District 9 2009

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: In this summer of gargantuan mediocrities, a modestly budgeted project with an actual idea in its head, and the wiles to manifest it onscreen, exploding heads and all -- that's something. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: In a good summer, there's usually a movie that will come out of nowhere and completely wow us. This is a good summer, and that movie is District 9. Read more

Ben Lyons, At the Movies: What an achievement in filmmaking. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: This might go down as the year that science-fiction cinema, despite the deafening crash and clangor of sparring robots, began to rediscover its brains, heart and soul. Read more

James Rocchi, MSN Movies: A great example of how fresh science fiction can be when it's not just handed over to the special effects team and then the marketing division. "District 9" is far from perfect, but every frame in it drips with ambition, energy and vision. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: To call this the best shrimp-from-outer-space South African apartheid allegory ever made does not begin to do it justice. But it's a start. Read more

Joanne Kaufman, Wall Street Journal: There's a wonderfully sly, farcical verve to these early moments, but it dissipates when the script, with its strains of E.T. and The Fly, moves into high sci-fi gear. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: The film all but gets away from [the director] as battles take over and opportunities to explore the story as more than the sum of its weapons disappears. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: This is one intense, intelligent, well-crafted action movie - one that dazzles the eye with seamless special effects but also makes you think without preaching. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: District 9 fuses science fiction mayhem and biting social commentary as well as any film since Starship Troopers. It's the rare alien invasion story that has the aliens running scared. Read more

Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic: For science-fiction fans looking for a bit more brainpower than Transformers has to offer, District 9 points the way toward redemption for a movie genre that could use an infusion of artistic ambition. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: It's an outsider blockbuster, a juicy, bravura piece of moviemaking pulp, and its hellacious style almost -- but not quite -- disguises its shortcomings as a story. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The backstory beats the hell out of the present-tense plot, a routine affair in which a well-meaning doofus working for the Man is infected with a virus, starts turning into an alien himself, and falls in with the oppressed creatures. Read more

Tom Charity, CNN.com: It's a brashly confident debut, full of sharp, inventive detail (the prawns are crazy for cat food) and rooted in a couple of Big Ideas. Well worth the time, if not all of it. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: A thinking man's, or man-boy's, Transformers. Read more

Adam Graham, Detroit News: You've seen alien invasion flicks before, and you've seen more than your share of summer blockbusters. But you've never seen anything quite like District 9. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: District 9 proves that there's intelligent alien life in the movie universe this summer. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: In an ideal world, every Hollywood studio suit would be forced to sit through District 9 as part of a curriculum titled "How to Make a Summer Movie That Delivers." Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: You don't feel bamboozled, fooled, or patronized by District 9, as you did by most of the summer blockbusters. You feel winded, shaken, and shamed. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The wildest science-fiction film to come out all year. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, NPR: The wonder is that despite its obvious roots, District 9 feels staggeringly original. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: A memorable, monstrous fable that's consistently gripping. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: The movie falls into the same uneasy category as Eight Legged Freaks: too tongue-in-cheek to be thrilling, not funny enough to be a comedy. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: In the midst of it all you almost take for granted the carefully rendered details of the setting, the tightness of the editing and the inventiveness of the special effects. Read more

Sara Vilkomerson, New York Observer: District 9 is the most exciting science fiction movie to come along in ages; definitely the most thrilling film of the summer; and quite possibly the best film I've seen all year. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: What is absolutely impressive are the visual effects: the hordes of aliens, the mother ship, the seamless blending of the real with the fantastic. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: I, for one, hope the inhabitants of Earth never encounter visitors from another planet because the reality of how we might interact with them could be close to what is depicted here, and that's a depressing thought. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: A bloody good time. One of the most original movies of the summer. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: District 9 does a lot of things right, including giving us aliens to remind us not everyone who comes in a spaceship need be angelic, octopod or stainless steel. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: This baby has the stuff to end the movie summer on a note of dazzle and distinction. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: It's a grimy, consistently surprising and fundamentally human-centric science-fiction yarn, reminiscent of the dystopian, semi-realistic 1970s tradition. Read more

Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: Every now and then, a film comes along that both defies and compels description. Read more

Daniel Engber, Slate: As an allegory of racial conflict and mass immigration, District 9 never really goes anywhere: The appealing premise fades into the background before 20 minutes have elapsed. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Socked in with the whiplash action and over-the-top gore is a story that's shockingly funny, clever and emotionally resonant. District 9 is that rarest kind of film, magnificent trash. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The reason District 9 reverberates so loudly is because its moral indignation is cranked to 11. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The fresh premise over, the stale action returns. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: In a summer where toy robots and action heroes have rocked the box office and killed brain cells, it's nice to see a movie where some serious thought has been put into reviving a stale genre. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: If you're looking for the late-summer special-effects action fantasy with big franchise potential, forget about G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. (You already forgot? Fine.) Instead, proceed directly to District 9. Read more

Tom Huddlestone, Time Out: Perhaps we're witnessing a new dawn for politically engaged sci-fi and horror, with Blomkamp as a latter-day George Romero. Either way, this is a stunningly impressive debut. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: District 9 has too many gory vaporizations to qualify as a serious statement on race relations, but it does outclank Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen by a wide margin, and you thrill to the cleanly cut action sequences. Read more

Christopher Orr, The New Republic: District 9 succeeds brilliantly as an exercise in style, but the style promises a level of substance the film never quite delivers. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: District 9 proves that sci-fi thrillers don't have to be star-studded or mega-budgeted to be visually compelling and thoroughly entertaining. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: This grossly engrossing speculative fiction bears Jackson's blood-splattered fingerprints but also heralds first-time feature director Neill Blomkamp as a nimble talent to watch. Read more

Scott Foundas, Village Voice: Even in the movie's most conventional stretches, Blomkamp puts things across with terrific verve, using action and computer effects to enhance rather than trump story and character. Read more

John Anderson, Washington Post: A sci-fi-fueled indictment of man's inhumanity to man -- and the non-human -- District 9 is all horribly familiar, and transfixing. Read more