Now that award season (or at least nomination season) is in full swing, I figured it’s about time I start watching more movies. You know, besides whichever classic pops up on cable on lazy Saturday afternoons.

Up first was the sci-fi flick District 9…

I already loved this movie because I am a sucker for good marketing. District 9 used a ‘Humans Only’ campaign to generate buzz, and after a showing at Comic-Con, it pretty much sky-rocketed. (In fact, District 9’s marketing was one of my favorite movie moments of 2009!)

Plus, I’m a sucker for a good sci-fi movie, and District 9, in my opinion, is a really good sci-fi movie.

In the film, an alien spaceship hovers over Johannesburg, South Africa.  With no apparent way to go home, the aliens – or ‘prawns’ as they are called- are sanctioned off in an area called District 9, which basically becomes a slum.

The prawns are scavengers, and a bit out of control, but all their weapons have been confiscated. The catch? Humans haven’t figured out how to use them; they can only be activated by the prawns.

Eventually, the people of Johannesburg become fed up with the prawns living so close to home, and decide they need to be relocated to a new area. In comes Wikus (Sharlto Copley, in his first feature film), a clean-cut, geeky guy in charge of overseeing the evictions.  During which, he is exposed to some strange liquid that slowly begins to turn him into a prawn.

This makes Wikus a pretty hot commodity, now that he can operate the aliens’ weaponry and all. Everybody wants a piece of him (literally, one Nigerian gang leader even plans to eat his arm. Sick). But all poor Wikus wants is to get back to his beloved wife (and stop the dang catfood cravings, of course). Along the way, he befriends an alien named Christopher Johnson (love how this foreign creature gets the most basic name, by the way), and these two decide its time to work together, kickin’ a- and takin’ names.

Throw in some handheld camera work, improvised dialogue, and a few exploding heads… and that’s basically the movie.

What I love about District 9 is how realistic it is. Not just in terms of special effects (although, yeah, that too), but in the premise itself. First of all, much of it is filmed in a documentary style, with fictional interviews and news footage. This alone makes it feel real- like you are watching the History Channel.

And in a sea of big sci-fi thrillers, District 9 truly stands out. It isn’t about showing the White House exploding, it is about showing a world occupied by an alien race. We isolate them; we call them derogatory names; we force them to live in poverty; we control them; we study them; they are less than human. In fact, the segregated and prejudiced world District 9 shows isn’t that much different than the one we live in today. (Message!)

District 9 is, if nothing else, a highly original sci-fi thriller, with the power to move you (that little prawn yelling ‘Father! Father!’); to make you laugh (Wikus’ interviews are nearly Office-worthy); to make you cringe (pulling off your finger nails. Eww); and, as I pointed out, make you think.