Harsh stuff.
Unfortunately I agree with most of the criticisms but would not go as far as they did. I do think the movie was over-hyped because people wanted a Cloverfield or Blair Witch type sleeper pseudo docu-drama hit this year. I did find it to be good and could over look much of the plot holes as I did with the Star Trek movie and other summer blockbusters this year.
If they hype was less and I went in thinking this may be a different type of sci-fi action movie, I would have enjoyed it for being just that. The most compelling was the main character and to see the transformation he goes through as a person and human being not just the physical changes.
It also shows me what the Halo movie would have been like and I am sorry it was not made because it would have been a very different from the usual job done on video game movie. Who knows if Halo would have been good but it would have been interestingly different.

wow! that's more hate than even syfy deserves!

If you haven't noticed by now, we are a planet submerged in pop culture. You aren't going to find a truly original story. There are aspects of any one story in a thousand others. For any one person the most original stories are the one's they are exposed to first.
Next, I find that you have to put yourself into the movie to get something out. If you go to movies expecting to be hand fed every detail that your mind conjures questions for, then you will always be disappointed. If you can't find the answers yourself, or fill in the gaps with your own imagination, then any movie of a fantasy nature isn't for you. Science "Fiction" or not.
You want seamless scientific application, you're looking in the wrong place. You could just as easily tear apart 'Star Trek', 'Dune', or half a dozen other fan favorites. And if you've got a problem with the logic then come up with a reasonable explanation yourself...(It's called imagination.)
And racism? Honestly, as sensitive as people are today about racism, do you think the producers of this movie would make a film with the intention of offending 9/10ths of the planet? If you're offended, then you are looking for opportunities to be.
And if you can't find a way to care about the characters, that's more a reflection of your own character flaws than the movie's.

To "Diggin Deeper": I second everything you wrote. Great analysis.

I agree completely with the reasons stated.

I thought District 9 was naive at best. For a movie I was so looking forward to seeing, it was a great disappointment. While the couple next to us left the theater, we stayed because we liked the alien youngster and his father. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late.

Everyone is entitled to their opinions. But people tend to forget the most important thing. "IT'S A MOVIE!" It's not based on fact, it's not a moment from history that has been retold. It's just a *bleeping* movie. Also, to assume that some things are not possible just because we (the human race) can't do it is very narrow minded. Who's to say that an alien "Mothership" can't stay suspended in air for 20 years. Have you ever seen one do that? Me neither!
Every movie nowadays is going to have some elements from some or many other movies that have already been mad. It just can't be helped. So, all you D9 haters relax, and when the aliens do come to visit and need some specimens for their zoo, they'll take you and leave the rest of us to enjoy movies for what they are, "Entertainment" and not an Encyclopedia Biopic.

It's not really a movie about plot or science. Much of its structure is built around the Kubler-Ross stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. And it's an allegory on race and prejudice, echoing that old Twilight Zone (or was it Outer Limits?) episode where the white racist one day wakes up black.

It's certainly not a perfect movie at all, but it's affecting and entertaining.

Seems like a lot of these critics missed the point. And it seems like some of them weren't even paying attention, like the one who didn't get why the ship could move all of a sudden, Did they go to the bathroom in the scene where they got that liquid back from the lab, the liquid which would start the ship?

I still thought it was a great movie. I was more uncomfortable and genuinely disturbed in the first 20 minutes than I've been watching a film in a long time. I cared about both the humans and the aliens. Yes, the Nigerian gangsters were a little silly, but that didn't wreck the film for me.

I have a hard time taking too seriously both the criticisms of the movie being derivative and lamenting about plot holes. Alien tales go back a good hundred-plus years, so you can find a precursor to pretty much anything offered up in this genre. And given the bizarre things our government and others actually do, the idea that government officials would make stupid decisions isn't that hard to believe. This wasn't a documentary; it was essentially a parable, and I thought it was a very powerful one. It was also a ripping great action film.

I agree with a lot of the criticisms, but quoting Armond White is like feeding the troll. Don't do it people. Just think of the children, and don't do it. That guy is a gigantic attention whore.

It was a great film. Critics need to write something. I agree it is not 100% original but it left me happy at the end.

Can we not just look at it for what it is? It was a movie, not real.
An escape from everyday cares.

it's weird, but i find myself agreeing with much of the positives AND the negatives on this. which shows that there's a lot of middle ground between 'brilliant, clever, engaging movie' and 'terrible, stupid, boring movie'.
as a science fiction enthusiast, i too am rather sick of hollywood's dumbing down of what is potentially the smartest and most stimulating genre. District 9 isn't a turn about from dumb action to thinking man's film, that's for sure, but it's much more engaging as a jumping off point for thinking about ideas than most sci-fi fare. it doesnt explain everything, but few films of ANY genre explain EVERYTHING. there's a difference, however, between films that simply cant be bothered to make sense, and those that allow the viewer to contribute their own imaginations to the action they see. i usually find the latter category to be more satisfying. you see, sometimes you can be engaged by other aspects of a story, not just the 'sympathetic central character'.
the 'genetic fusion' for example, does seem pretty far fetched, but it's no good looking at our current state of medical science to explain an alien system; there are some extreme genetics ideas involving the use of Nanomachines to literally bond incompatible genetic material together. but, yeah, even i struggled with the 'mothership tractor beam' bit. so you cant win 'em all. need to think hard before whipping up that inevitable sequel script, guys!

Wow these are horrible reviews. It "steals a scene from Aliens" just because it has a "BIOmech" (reviewer admittedly called it BIOmech, which is not anything at all like the fork lifts on steroids in Aliens)? Yes because one thing that has a similar outline to another thing clearly means they ripped off Ridley Scott and all his hard work.

These baseless bashes against good movies are unbearable to read. I wish Syfy would stop featuring them on their website. None of these "reviews" even feature any proof to back up their claims, a la saying D9 stole from Aliens.

It looks like a child wrote those reviews and they shouldn't really be a news post on this website, but hey.. if it gets you viewers, angry or not...

Dude, it's basically the movie version of Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica. Mainstream critic types loooooooooooooooove it because it's depressing and "gritty", two things critics always mistaken for "smart" and "original". But since the movie is depressing and gritty, and has nothing but bad things to say about the eeeeeeevil human race, it's considered "deep", thus the elites in the media fall over themselves to kiss its nutsack, less they be seen as not "smart" by their peers. Same with BSG. I liked "District 9" when it was called "Alien Nation".

Gotta say I was pretty unimpressed with D9. I didn't hate it, but I also didn't really care. I'm sorta floored by how much it's loved and how easy it is to impress most of the critics and public (wait, I'm forgetting Transformers II... I guess I shouldn't be that surprised)

-Spoiler-
Ok I agree that there were many plot holes in the movie. Although not the ones that were mentioned by the reviewers above (those plot holes I could actually overlook). The ones that got me were mostly centered around the break-in at the corporation. First was the bomb made out of random scrap found on the tables. Second, they threw the bomb at a random wall which just so happened to lead to a underground garage (4 floors below ground). Third, the keys were in the vehicles (they should have made the alien hotwire the vehicle that would have been much more believable). And the final problem with that whole scene was the main guy that was chasing them miraculously appeared in the helicopter chasing them before they even got a couple blocks away from the building even though he was 4 floors below ground with them to begin with.

Damn, scififan nailed it.

I agree that the movie did have a negative portrayal of Africans, and it was disappointing that a movie based in Africa still had no starring black characters. I was also disappointed by the portrayal of Nigerians, why were they in South Africa by the way?

As once told in a South Park episode... "Simpson's did it!"

alot of my friends asked about the ship and the dumbness of the aliens and it seemed pretty clear to me from the movie what was going on.

they were basically a insect society and their hierarchy died off leaving worker bees left..so they tech etc went unusable untill those smart enough to rebuild the hive could.

colony collapse disorder and all that...

just sayin...

These race comments are racist themselves. If the gun runners had been white, people wouldn't even bat an eye at their race. However, there'd be loads of comments about how unbelievable it is for white people to be doing all those things. Ignoring the race factor, is it really that far-fetched to believe that drug & gun lords with little to no formal education could resort to such outlandish things as cannibalism? We who know the principles of biology know that such a thing is preposterous, but these characters don't. This gun lord is an ignorant backwards person who grew up surrounded by violence and brutality, why shouldn't he believe what the witch tells him?

FTA: "despite the film being set in South Africa, practically most of the black people appearing in the film are nothing but background fodder"

The movie surrounds a government sponsored corporation in South Africa. Those agencies ARE all controlled by white people. Apartheid may be over, but the emotions and politics behind it are still very present.

Finally, this entire story is supposed to take place present day in an alternate reality where this ship landed 20 years ago. That puts the arrival prior to the 1994 south african general election. Such an event could very well have displaced the end of apartheid. We don't know the details, because this film doesn't tell them. It doesn't need to tell them.

So I think the movie has a powerful message about humanity: don't think that apartheid couldn't happen again, because it could, and the only way we're going to get beyond that is by a change in attitude about the 'Other' just like that shown by the lead character. I think it is safe to say that this is the whole point of the friggin' movie. It's based on the real-life District 6, after all. All these things the critics are complaining about actually serve the theme of the movie and deliver it to the audience in a visceral way without too much techno mumbo-jumbo. Personally, I found it very satisfying to watch a movie with something important to say but to tell it through science fiction and a little action, it was done brilliantly. Great science fiction has something to say about the human condition, it's not all about technical plausibility after all. I'd love to hear what these critics think is a really good science fiction movie.

I liked the movie, but can see all your points. However, humans cutting into the spaceship?Oh yes, of course they would. What I found boggling is that someone didn't go "Hey, we can make millions selling tours of the alien spaceship!" I saw the film as an allegory on racism in Africa, and yes, Africa does have folks who sell weapons, who butcher their own with machetes, etc. etc. but they also have nice folk too. But then the plot didn't require them any more than the plot of say, Transformers 2, required people with brains (yes, that's a pithy comment on the stupidity of that movie).

We walked out of this one and don't regret it. Just a matter of taste for me. I like taste, and this tasted bad. We see this sort of thing (sans the intergalactic element) every day on the news. It's not SciFi - more Fi with a tiny dash of Sci. You could exchange the prawns for any human ethnic group and have nearly the same movie.

bitterblackale, I find your use of the term "prawns" racist and offensive. The politically correct term should be "Earth challenged", or "non-earther", or possibly "click click bloody click".
All the haters, I really liked the movie, does that mean I have different tastes in movies than you? Yup, does it mean either of us is wrong? Yup, you are. I mean, nope, just different. And, oh my god the captcha sucks.

it was without a doubt the best movie of the year imo and i have seen just about everyone that was supposed to be good and failed [transformers 2]

about the race thing if people are serious about it i dont know why, the Nigerians did not ACTUALLY die in real life anyway and im sure they got paid good so why whine?

i loved the movie...the only thing i didnt like was that they didnt explain how humans could understand the aliens......i found that to be weird other than that awesome movie, story-wise..action...syfy....4 1/2 stars!!

they understood each other because its been 20 YEARS!!!
lol

seriously...if we can learn obscure earth languages we can theirs too.

in fact some tribes used clicks in cominicating on earth so um yeah..

I'm not going to disagree a couple of the complaints (although I disagree with most of them), but I think they're blowing up District 9's minor flaws way out of proportion just because it got hyped up a bit. It may not be the most brilliant movie ever, but I think it's a good satisfying piece of science fiction of the like we haven't seen in a while. When I say it's original, I don't mean that it's done anything we haven't seen before, it's just that we're finally getting some interesting science fiction that isn't based on a comic book or a novel or television show. It's a world that begins and ends with the vision of the director, and these kinds of movies are too few and far in between these days when its too easy to adapt a decades-old comic book and have a ready audience before you even begin filming. Seeing where and how far the director was able to go with what he had, compared to what you would from any other director given the same or more resources, I think the movie is far more daring than people realize.

is Gunter's trying to steal McD's business?

As far as predecessors, the movie also reminded me a bit of Logan's Run. That is, at first the hero is hostile to the cause of the aliens, then he sort of joins them.

While District 9 is, admittedly, not perfect, I find some of these criticisms to be slightly off target, intentionally biased, and in some cases downright wrong.

"It really isn't that original". The critics traipse this argument across the page then draw erroneous connections to both The Fly and Alien Nation. First off, the fly was a horror movie, not a science fiction movie. It was as much science fiction as Sex and the City, although that argument, omitted here, may have some actual merit. The fly played on age old human fears, the development of science outpacing the development of humanity's wisdom. Never taking time to consider the consequences, an increasingly erratic scientist throws caution to the winds to "prove" some point. The end result; the scientist becomes, both figuratively and literally, a monster. Cosmetically the creature in The Fly bears some resemblance to the aliens of District 9, but thematically the films are two entirely different creatures.

The claim that District 9 is somehow ripping off Alien Nation is just downright insulting. Alien nation was a garbage cop film repackaged as science fiction. Ever seen a buddy cop movie? Ever seen an interracial buddy cop movie? That's all Alien Nation is, strove to be, and succeeded at being. Replace Sgt. Murtagh/Inspector Lee (African American cop/Asian cop) with vaguely alien cop. Make James Caan the archetypal conservative racist white cop who's recently lost a partner and bam ... you've got Lethal Rush Hour ... or something. Again, critics are grasping at straws. The only similarity between Alien Nation and District 9 is that the Aliens in both films have unusual dietary preferences; sour milk and cat food respectively.

My problem with that first argument is simply this, critics are taking a broad view of this film, selecting major thematic elements, and drawing incorrect conclusions. If D9 rips off Alien Nation and the fly, why not The Wizard of Oz? After all the use of color is clearly stealing of the lowest caliber. Depraved unimaginative filmmakers.

The criticism here with the most merit is of course the one based on science. The notion that the alien fuel source, referred to only as "the liquid", also has the capability to turn foreign species into "prawns" is ridiculous. Other than that though, I have to respond to with my usual response; relax guys, it's science FICTION. Okay so the ship hovers over South Africa for 20 years without falling. Big deal. I have no idea what their technology is based on. Perhaps their propulsion systems, or whatever makes the thing hover, isn't dependent on a necessarily refreshed resource. Maybe the science that keeps it in the air is based on the millennial half life of some unknown isotope. Who knows? Doesn't matter. As many people often forget, science fiction is often just a setting, the backdrop, not the focus of the narrative. Case closed.

Plot holes? There are some, the aforementioned magic goo comes to mind, but honestly there are alarmingly few. A major theme of this film is humans reacting through fear. Humanity is capable of great and terrible things when motivated by fear, and District 9 is basically a case study in that (on one level). What some call plot halls, others call extraordinary behavior.

The accusation that the film is racist is, to my thinking, inflammatory and irresponsible. So someone disagrees with how Nigerians were portrayed, or how Copley's assistant behaves. Well allow me to retort. The Nigerians are, if anything, present in this film to demonstrate how truly terrible human beings are to one another. Their behavior is a case of one group of poor and exploited people taking advantage of an even more poor and exploited people. I do think that the scenes of cannibalism are a bit over the top, but again who can say? I've read of far worse things being done by people in far less desperate situations ... in the real world. As for the black assistant, well he may appear fidgety, but if anyone actually sat through this movie until the end you would know that this man is not merely a brainless lackey. After the events surround the eviction of District 9's residents he turns whistle blower, and ends up incarcerated for his actions. The heroism and nobility of that character become all the more powerful for the fact that his actions happen off screen, after the fact, in the absence of explosions and flying body parts. If there is a moment in this film in which humans aren't portrayed as completely unethical opportunists, it is in that man. A black man, for the record.

Let us not forget that yes, while the majority of the films characters, including the chief protagonist, are white people, this film reality reflects that of the real world. Now before people fly off the handle talking about the end of apartheid and the swell of interracial camaraderie and equality, remember that law and truth do not often coincide.

But you know what, let's forget all that, and look at the portrayal of white South African's in this movie. The main protagonist is a middling bureaucrat who gains his high position with MNU through nepotism. A greater condemnation of contemporary white society in Johannesburg, and the world at large, is hard to imagine. This man is charged with systematically violating the rights of earths poorest and most vulnerable inhabitants. He performs forced on-the-spot abortions, oversees the murder of innocents, and responds to any hint of resistance with that ultimate threat; violence unto death. If District 9 is racist, it is racist in the only accurate sense, i.e. racist toward the human race. And this is the meat of the film.

How are we portrayed? What do we do when we make first contact? The moment comes for mankind to reach out to an alien species, extend the hands of friendship and aid, to rise to the noble heights that poets, scientists, philosophers, politicians, and thinkers of every stripe (claim to) aspire to. And what do we do? We hustle the aliens off to an impromptu refugee camp. We perform vivisection on selected test subjects for any potential gain. We demand information on military weapons and bio-engineering. In short, we fail utterly to embrace any sense of human decency while dealing with these new people. Even the main protagonist is motivated only by his own selfish desires to return to a recognizably human form, he makes no apologies for his past actions. None that are sincere anyway. Now take a step back, a deep breath, and think for a moment, and you will realize that this is exactly the way human treats human on a routine basis.

That is why District 9 has met with both box office success and critical acclaim, that is the unique power of science fiction. To show us a world, at once removed from our own, that holds our deepest flaws up to light, and makes us cheer for it. If there is any complaint that should be registered with District 9 it is this: it's not perfect. But if we're all being honest with each other, and ourselves, let's be realistic. Let's not blame the film for not being something else, and instead give it credit for what it is.

I thought it a brilliant film, the first true science fiction film we've had in a long while rather than sci-fi. Diggin' Deeper and BLUNTrauma pretty much got it right.

The film poses questions and you have to use the information you're given to work out how stuff happens. There's character development in a harsh environment and the action scenes (which the whole movie could have just been, a normal sci-fi action flick, but wasn't) are great.

There are a few plot holes or some serious questions but none of the above really apply greatly.

Alien ship hovering fine, passive system anti-gravity who knows. Cutting in the ship - it's sitting there 3 months what else would you do?

Spoiler/
Alien tech which is fuel and bio changing - if you notice there's a high degree of bio and tech involvement - guns can't be shot, there's an indication of some mind linkage as in direct contact with the goo in the ship and the mech seems to be controlled by thought. The start of the film the aliens are scavenging for their tech to extract this liquid which presumably powers all their gear, given the high bio-linkage it's not a far stretch to mutagenic properties. It's a plot device anyway.

I'm assuming the liquid was for the main mother ship or maybe just to power the control module, to give commands./Spoiler

Questions for me where; How where the aliens malnourished? What went wrong? Not a plot hole but something for a sequel. Why did the command module drop away when they arrived?? Maybe plot hole but could also be for a second film, who knows maybe when the fuel is depleted in the command module it drops away to go get more as default?.

Questionable hole for me was; they are scavenging for all their tech on the surface looking for the fuel liquid. Presumably all this tech was in the mother ship to start with so 1) how did it get spread out below? Or 2) why didn't they use the fuel when it was on the mother ship. Second question is easier to answer because it looks like they needed to make a pit stop so to speak running out of supplies, and somehow the tech with the fuel got spread out in the intermittent 20 years.
Still it's something I would like answered later. /Spoilers.

As for being like Alien nation I didn't even think of that show/film and I've seen them. Any other connotations came later as they do after watching the film. Of course it's got elements from other films- it's dealing with common themes, transformation is a science fiction staple, the only other film to do that recently WAS the Fly. That isn't a bad thing (also think of all the bio-tech cross overs - hell you might as well even say Akira just because of the mutating theme). Racism - well they'll dealing with South Africans, and that part of the world is always a touchy subject, I think that's was the whole point. They were showing the aliens as a metaphor for ourselves and how we treat the 'new' Others/minority.

Spoilers/
Character development, was great, he was flawed, lost everything and was hunted. How he was treated lying on that table when he had been 'one of them company man' and now just a sought after asset. All moving. Also the ending had surprises.
/Spoilers.

I really want to see the next one. Maybe something showing when the aliens were at the height of their power - but that would be a very different movie.

What ever happened to "willing suspension of disbelief?" Real life doesn't make sense either. it's a movie, enjoy it.

Let's take a moment to talk about what a plot hole is. I think this term is wayyyyy overused today and most often it is misused. A plot hole exists when there is an inconsistency within the logic of a fictional world. Got that? Fictional. When I watch a film I begin by willingly suspending my disbelief. We all know that no one can fly like Superman but when we watch we suspend our disbelief in the Kryptonian in favor of enjoying the tale. Some want to disbelieve so they cite plot holes based on the real world, not the filmic one.

IMHO the only plot hole in D9 is the fact that it takes officials soooo long to trace the phone calls of the protagonist. I found the film to be a worriesome tragedy that revolves around the despicable state of human nature.

I will wait for the DVD, and will probably borrow it from a friend. I have already seen alien nation once or twice plus the TV series. Why would I pay 7 or 8 bucks to see a crappy remake. You know, the excitement I am waiting for is when Harlen Ellison sues 'em for copyright infringement.

Heh... It's been interesting seeing all the reviews come out for this (I saw it pre-release so didn't know what the reception was going to be). On some levels, it worked a treat - it was visceral, funny and pretty clever. On other levels...meh. I had major empathy issues with Wikus, to the point where I got bored with the final battle dragging out so long and frankly didn't care if he died or not at that point. He won me back over right at the end, but still...

The racism thing.. well, it left a nasty taste in my mouth because it was a tired, lazy and pretty inaccurate cliche about Nigerians (the ones i know, anyhoo). There was no depth to any of the other supporting characters of any race, to be fair (but Christopher and the baby prawn were set up pretty nicely).

But it was obvious watching it that a lot of people weren't going to like D9 - too much splatter; too political for summer blockbuster season... I was hardpressed to recommend it to most people I know, simply on the grounds of what they wouldn't enjoy.

Glad I saw it, glad a lot of people liked it.. but it's not without it's flaws, and it seems churlish not to acknowledge that people who didn't enjoy it have the right to point them out.

People who like this movie havent seen any older sci-fi movies, were almost all the ideas are redones from an older movie apart from a broken ship cant fly so they have to stay on earth and make it look a doc movie from the start and evict them hehehe. Anyways i think script writers are running out of original ideas and so is the rest of humanity in a way as we are becomeing more like sheep just follow the trend, think about it if you can get out of your square.
Thank you

Didn't like it. Sorry. Wouldn't recommend it either.

I "hate" it because I don't know if Christopher i think his name is, would come back for Wikus and I just feel so sad seeing him with his flower, looking so hopeless :( thats why i hate it. I didn't want it t be a sad movie

The racist comments I dont get. I mean, so whenever we have "bad" characters that act shamefully and have no saving grace...they should always be played by white people?? Or should have it be 50/50 or should there be at least one token white guy.

The terrible Nigerians are a fact of life in SA townships, most of the things they do in this movie, happens daily, even eating things you wouldn't want to know about! (see newspaper headlines amost every week)

Not all (real life) Nigerians are bad, but these characters are supposed to be the main baddies in a terrible, violence ridden town. Of course they are evil!

The fact that black people where marginalised characters in the movie is commentary on the fact that they are (for the most part) still marginilised in our society!

If anyone wants to complain about the science, I refer you to Star Trek for lesson in terrible, illogical science in a movie. This did not, hovever make me dislike the movie as a STORY!

As for the fact that there have been similar movies before. Even the bible states that there is nothing new in this world.

BLUNTrauma makes sense. Read his post.

I hate the notion that simply because a film doesn't hold you by the hand and explain every little detail, that equals "plot holes."

The thing I found most interesting about this film was the fact that after a while you did actually start to care what happened to someone we know to be a baby-killer. That was a strange turn of events.

Where the movie truly succeeds is making the audience care both about humans and aliens, despite the fact that they're set up to hate each other.

Actully, all five of the people that I know that saw the film HATED it. They thought it was too dark, pointlessly violent, and unpleasant. Three wanted their two hours back. And these were five completely independent people with completely different tastes and expectations. I'm skipping this one.

Unbelievable! One of the best, most riveting movies in a long time, not to mention Sharlto Copley's Oscar-caliber performance & the critics are practically falling over each other to be the first to crap all over it. These critic-hacks have no appreciation for the blood, sweat, tears & years of a person's life that making a film like this involves. Guess it's cooler for the armchair critics to slam a movie than to admit the truth!

krom - agreed about the insect society. The humans suggested as much, but did not realize the command crew was in hiding (presumably fearing to expose themselves and be forced to explain the technology)

Blunt - very well said all around. Also, to the derivative stuff, yes, Alien Nation and the Fly had some similar themes, but Poseiden Adventure predating Titantic did nothing to alter the latter. Bad example, but blaming the similarities as evidence of unoriginality is foolish. I personally think the movie is meant to be an alternate version of the sci-fi premise of Alien Nation. "What if the aliens didn't look like us, so we treated them worse?" I believe Peter Jackson has made that comparison. The movie shows us some of what the prawn are capable of, but they are largely very different from us, and that difference disgusted humans so we de-humanized them further, and they didn't have much recourse, being abandoned by their leaders (presumably caution, though possibly also just irresponsibility, since Christopher Johnson knew nothing of how his people were being studied, and he also left without taking any with him - he clearly didn't rely on any others besides his one friend and his son).

Darken - to your thoughts. I think they are less plot holes than intentionally unanswered questions. I believe some mechanical failure, or outright negligence, led to the command module dropping. The million prawns aboard the ship then starved for 3 months, probably without communication from leadership. Any equipment they had or made later had bits scrounged from ship wreckage or stuff brought down, perhaps, but suffice to say, the fuel gathered up that way was probably equivalent to draining double A batteries to charge a car battery. Not the intended purpose.

To the various criticisms, the movie did provide many unanswered questions, which I know frustrates some people. Why did the command module fall? Why did the ship pick/come to Earth? Why wasn't Christopher Johnson surprised his fuel could change a human to a prawn, etc - in fact he seemed to expect it/recognize it, so maybe there's backstory there. Christopher Johnson NEVER explained himself, but I liked it. I saw it more as him hiding things than the writer not knowing how to explain it. Some people can't stand unanswered questions in their movies and want all threads tied up after 2 hours. I don't.

I personally liked the vagueness and enjoyed the story of the alien visitors treated terribly, as well as the parallels to apartheid and of an oppresser learning what his people are doing, etc. He resisted responsibility up until the final moment he ran, sabotaging the alien shortly before that. He arguably got what he deserved, but there's still hope. Ideally, we get a sequel where answers are given about the Prawn and Christopher Johnson.

As to some of the specific short-sighted critiques, the answers to many were clear to me or easily accepted as sci-fi (it's fiction/fantasy, so I'm not sure why people are mad about a floating ship or alien fuel transforming humans, etc. If we could do interstellar space flight, anti-grav, transformative genetics, etc, it wouldn't be sci-fi - it would just be fiction. Find me one real science-fiction work that doesn't at least optimistically exaggerate science). Anyhow, the fuel was scrounged by alien tech to power the command module, which is largely unpowered without it. The command module is needed to move the big ship, whether across the sky or across the stars. And every drop is needed to get the big ship home. They couldn't communicate with the mother ship until they spent 20 years gathering fuel under the humans' noses. Christopher Johnson couldn't get back to the main ship because he didn't trust the humans, I suppose, to fly him there with a helicopter and let him go.

As to other criticisms: How can we learn the alien tongue -- seriously? Racist portrayal? Maybe, but realize that it's an intentional look at South Africa's past, and some of the footage of interviews was real on the streets footage, literally people hating on other humans, not prawns. They didn't know it would be spliced in for a movie about aliens. As to the villains, I don't personally know there aren't gangsters like that in the SA ghettos, but I know there are some nasty paramilitary guys elsewhere in Africa. And plenty of movies have shown similar behavior from white "rednecks" and "hillbillies". Refugee camps and such often end up with more than their fair share of unscrupuless types, and in certain regions of the world (including in the "civilized" first world countries, superstition and fear still rule the streets of the ghettos and villages.

As to there not being a permanent military presence on the ship, we don't see that there isn't, though I agree it was a bit strange. Then again, 20 years is a long time, and their technology had largely been useless to man. Eventually, the ship just became something of a floating ruin, largely ignored, and far less annoying/an issue than the million grubbing aliens (some of whom were clearly skilled builders, but most of whom seemed to just be scavenging morons, and they might have been - they were possibly just dumb labor, perhaps even bred for it).

Most of these criticisms seem like they could be leveled at all but the most elitist films, and all sci-fi, for that matter. Other criticisms seem to be poorly thought out and I have to wonder if the reviewers were paying attention. Maybe they got tired of reading subtitles?

Diggin Deeper: "If you haven't noticed by now, we are a planet submerged in pop culture. You aren't going to find a truly original story. There are aspects of any one story in a thousand others. "

Dude, you're just ripping off Shakespeare.

Personally, I thought the film was, at best, a bland shoot-'em-up with a lot of useless gore. The protagonist was a pathetic weasel who repeatedly betrayed his alien ally, and whose ultimate transformation (mental, not physical) seemed to come from nowhere. The plot was full of holes and didn't make much sense.

I completely agree with the racism argument. I mean, I'm okay with the idea that you can have Nigerian gun runners eating people parts, as long as those aren't the only blacks shown ... especially if you set the thing in Africa.

In fact, all the human characters were mere cliche, from the sneering military man to the weak and whiny wife to the evil corporate overlords.

In the end, if District 9 is supposed to be "original science fiction," then give me more of the well-worn topes.

Well... reagrding "And in the end... who cares?" ... I disagree. I felt for the "red" prawn with the small kid. How could you not?

BlueFairlane, you watched the movie, so how can you say that the nigerians inside district 9 were the only onese shown? You se them the most, but Wikas has co-workers who are black, there are people outside of district 9 who are black, etc.

For someone earlier who said "it's just a movie" then why don't we all just go see any old movie playing in theaters, because we're just looking for an escape? It's because a great number of us value a good plot, a good script and good characters.

For me, after I came home from the theater and digested it all, I still like District 9, but I think that the movie didn't focus on the aliens as much as they should have.

For the "it's unoriginal" part, Japanese animation had fucking robots piloted by humans before Aliens did.

I don't agree that it's highly original, but I don't think that it had to be original to be a successful work of fiction.

Stories of metamorphosis, alien beings and advanced technology have been told for generations now- so why can't District 9 tell a story involving these points?

For the plot hole point, I think some points can be explained. One reviewer said that the search for fuel to the hidden ship was useless, but the shed the main alien lived in wasn't exactly within range of the tractor beam to be led up into the main ship

I think it's a battle of the kiss-asses vs. the angry/jaded viewers more than it is viewers vs. the film itself.

Fan hype seems to be more poisonous than hype from studios.

These criticisms are weak sauce. They all come across as people looking to dislike something popular or haters being, well, haters.

Your review of this movie isn't that original.

Wow, I am FLUMMOXED by the horrible drivel of District 9 getting nominated for an Oscar! What a shallow piece of grossout, chase scene, gogogo! prawn dung. NOT smart. NOT nuanced. HORRIBLY written and I, too, saw everything coming ahead of time and couldn't have cared less. PLEASE lord don't let this movie win any awards. It's a total joke. I dislike this movie for the same reason I dislike the band Coldplay. It's mediocre crud that thinks its something arty and complex.