nasakcuf-3

District 9 is told from the perspective of a retroactive documentary, with the actual movie filling in the events between the commentaries. When the movie initially began, I wasn't sure if this was going to be any good with this style of storytelling.

I was pleasantly surprised.

I think that part of the joy of this movie is to discover the storyline for yourself, and so I will not rehash it here. Suffice it to say that once the interesting plot line gets going it REALLY gets going, with characters that I found I cared about in the end, even Wickus whom I didn't really like at the beginning. The ending was rather touching and left the door wide open to a sequel that I would be sure to see as well.

I give this movie an 8.5, it is worth more than the price of admission.

My exposure to the Bond series begin with Roger Moore; I've seen Sean Connery's take on Bond and I still prefer Moore to Connery. Having said that, I have to say that I prefer Craig to Moore. In this movie, this version of Bond comes across as a real person acting realistically in the situations he finds himself in. In the end, I found this movie to be one helluva ride, with lots of stunts (some of which made me cringe) and fast editing (but not so fast as to create confusion).

Unlike previous outings, Bond isn't primarily concerned with an evil villain at the outset but one emerges nevertheless. Although the scope and scale of the villainy is somewhat smaller than what I've seen in previous Bonds it still came across effectively and, in the end, this is definitely a Bond movie. One nit to pick: The signature gun barrel and theme music are absent from the beginning and only show up later. I can't say I liked the theme music they used.

Overall, this was money well spent for me.

I have mixed feelings about this movie, and this is not a good thing. On the one hand, we have an action-filled movie with a promising plot and some interesting albeit bleak visions of the (near?) future. On the other hand, that promising plot has been done before elsewhere, and better. Moreover, the action scenes look like they were edited by someone with an attention span measured in milliseconds, making for a spastic series of action sequences that don't really allow one to see either Vin Diesel or Michelle Yeoh kick butt, a real problem considering this is supposed to be an action flick. And the ending was...flatulent. Here's hoping the sequel (if any) is better...

7/10 : If you absolutely have to get a Sci-Fi fix go for it, but you can find better...