Quick Review: District 9

I was a bit worried about "District 9" from the trailers. They reminded me way too much of the vastly overrated "Cloverfield." Fortunately, this film is a lot better. It begins in a faux-documentary style, explaining that an alien spaceship arrived some 20 years earlier and has been hovering in the sky over Johannesburg ever since. The aliens, given the derogatory name "prawns" because of their appearance, are unable to leave, and now live in a fenced-off section (hence the title of the movie) in utter squalor. A private company is contracted to relocate the aliens to a new camp well outside the city, and things get complicated. The film provides a lot of social commentary. Having the ship hover over South Africa and not New York or DC makes for obvious comparisons to apartheid, for example. However, it works better on a sheer entertainment level. My grade: B-plus.