MOVIE REVIEWS

This was an outstanding debut by the New Zealander Blomkamp. Consistently enthralling and keeping one at the edge of his seat. THIS is a recent film, like 'Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World', that should have spawned sequels. Much better than his follow-up, 'Elysium' (I haven't watched any others he's made since; hope he doesn't end up a cinematic one-trick pony like M. Night Shyamalan...).

Great watch, will watch again, and highly recommended. This has a wonderfully exciting premise: alien refugees on Terra, how Terrans react and how the aliens react. The premise, as delivered, has some odd holes in though: it's specified that all of the crew have died, mysteriously, and no one knows how to operate the ship, but it's been in the air for some time. The idea of gravity alone should have motivated Johannesburg to evacuate, but their government interaction seems decidedly weak. The advantage of setting the story in South Africa, for an American audience, is that it's a very capitalistic society where they speak chiefly English: it's very similar to being set in Mexico and using Mexican Cartels instead of Nigerian gangs. So if we accept that we haven't been able to extract an incident report, that we're not able to move the ship, and none of the xenos can move the ship, then the premise includes that one xenos knows what to do. One would think that he just talks to someone and he gets all his people off planet, but since he's smart enough to do what he's been doing for 20 years, then he knows not to trust anyone. But this self-serving principle is key to understanding character motivations going forward. The writing in this is so good, along with the effects, and performance delivery. As Vickis deals with his transformation, it prompts so many philosophical questions of what it is to be a person / human / xenos, a citizen, a government agent. It also sort of resembles a gangsta / heist movie at parts, as opposed to a anti-government escapee. If any of the deep stuff worried you, then be at ease that this movie has plenty of explosions, gunfire and sci-fi goodness. It's also filled with some silly cliches that serve the points of the story, but there are several points in this movie that I have to shake my head at. The motivations don't make sense unless you're reminded that everyone, including the protagonists, are (forced) in a self-serving mindset and it's about what they can do for themselves, even when working together with the contrast being, of course, that only when anyone is cooperating that anyone gets anywhere. This is such a great watch, and if you like sci-fi styled stuff, and don't mind the South African setting ("Chappie" is another one), then definitely give this a watch.

A gritty and original story that is as entertaining as thought-provoking, combining xenophobic satire and political allegory with raucous action. 8/10

**For a low-budget film, it's a good effort.** I'm not a big fan of films about aliens, so the film won't be my cup of tea at all. However, that didn't stop me from seeing it, and appreciating what's good about it. Without a colossal budget or a powerful studio, director Neill Blomkamp gives us an intelligent and technically impactful film. In fact, it is in the most technical details that I felt impressed by the film: we have extraordinary cinematography, with magnificent light and colors. The effects and CGI used are very good and prove that you don't need an endless bag of money to get a good result. The ship is strange enough and the aliens are credible enough, with a bizarre but elaborate and well-made appearance, and the way they speak is, at the same time, expressive and enigmatic. Much of the film was filmed in a real South African slum, and it is difficult to see that human beings are still living in such an environment. The director bet on little-known actors, and this gives some additional credibility to the list of characters that were created here. Sharlto Copley is perhaps the easiest to recognize, as he has worked on some of the most widely circulated productions. Here, he is able to, at least, give us a worthy performance without major flaws... the only colossal flaw is not the actor's fault, but the script's, which gave his character a name very prone to jokes and puns in my mother tongue (I think French and even Spanish speakers will also understand): Wicus van de Merwe. The film's biggest problem is the weakness of the script. It seems to me that the film attempted a kind of social criticism by placing, instead of human people, strange aliens in that filthy slum. Is the film a sharp criticism of the way we discriminate and segregate those we consider inferior or different from us? If so, I understand, but perhaps I was one of the few to understand. It's the only explanation for the way the film begins: instead of taking sick aliens to a laboratory and spending decades studying them in depth, are we going to put them in a filthy slum? It doesn't make any sense to me.