What the fook is that prawn doing?

“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.”

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090812/REVIEWS/908129987

I think Mr. Ebert nailed what puts District 9 in the company of the very best science-fiction: the way that the very definition of “alien” soaks every scene of the film. The juxtaposition of the unknown with the very harsh, almost hyper, reality of its South African setting jars the mind the very first time it’s revealed. It forces the brain to form a connection where by any judging device there is none - no aesthetic, moral or historical similarity. It’s difficult, especially when the film’s peerless body-horror is introduced. And ramped up. Made more shocking as the film progresses despite the fact that what is suffering, gruesomely, is alien. We should have no empathy with it. Why does it shock?

He may not have been quite as enamoured with the rest of the film as I was, but I’m pleased we both saw what is, in my opinion, the crux of Neill Blomkamp’s vision. For a film-maker, drawing an emotional reaction of any sort when presenting such an unfamiliar concept is worthy of praise.