A different review

This day started way too early and has finished much too late but I have to write something besides technical reviews today.
I saw District 9 recently. I had no idea what to expect and was happily surprised. Yes, the social commentary is anvilicious (did it really have to take place over Johannesburg? Come on!) and you see bits of Aliens, Blade Runner, and many other sci-fi flicks I'm too tired to think of right now, but it has some inventive qualities of its own. The documentary style that leaves gaps of information to build interest and tension, pieces of the story which slowly come out, while not new, was well done. The aliens themselves are interesting visually, different enough, yet they still managed to make one of them cute. I guess the most surprising element was the humour that was created from the main character's predicament. The actor did a fantastic job of creating a man that you didn't hate, but yet you weren't pulling for, and you just wanted to say, "poor bastard, he's having a bad day". And of course the explodey bits were good. There were also tons of little visual bits that were amusing, like the alien wearing the pink bra and the one carrying a blow-up bunny. If taken as a fun, sci-fi, edge-of-camp movie, which I assume was the intention, it succeeds.