District 9

I remember when they began teasing this movie at Comic-Con. They and signs indicating places where only humans or aliens could venture. Almost everyone thought these signs were for the super secret J.J. Abrams movie (Cloverfield) but it turned out to be for the low-budget District 9.

After making a short for YouTube, director Neill Blomkamp was encouraged to make it a feature with the blessing of Peter Jackson.

Casting a bunch of no-names and having it take place is South Africa adds a flavor of realism if you can look past the fact that these are CGI aliens.

The movie begins as a documentary but quickly changes to a typical action/adventure sci-fi movie with lots of guns, explosions and characters shouting the F-word almost every other word. I can tolerate maybe a one-time use in movies but when the word is used so much, it becomes distracting and my rating of the movie falls with each utterance.

Add in a exoskeleton robot with massive firepower and what started as a clever film turns into just another summer action flick.

I was impressed with the CGI. The aliens really looked like they were in the locations and interacting with the humans.

Blomkamp also has a series of shorts that was his "request" to make the Halo movie on YouTube but it was never realized.

District 9 is a movie with interesting social commentary with excellent effects.