District 9

	It's full of enough action scenes and clever CGI to make Ridley Scott weep into his Rice Krispies

A massive spaceship stalls over South Africa. Its contents - one-million starving insect-like aliens - are 'welcomed', and then condemned to hellish slums. Crime is rampant, food is scarce and they're despised by xenophobic locals and exploited by machete-wielding gangs. Meanwhile the government has its own secret, money-spinning agenda. It all sounds a bit familiar, right? Well if you came looking for subtlety don't expect to find any, because there's a big shortage of that here, too.

Few films condemn the human race better than District 9. This social awareness flick disguised as a SCI-FI EPIC delivers a big welly up the rump of human nature, even slyly referencing the Holocaust to get its very big point across. Yet on top of that it's also full of enough action scenes and clever CGI to make Ridley Scott weep into his Rice Krispies, making it a ridiculously entertaining popcorn guzzler too.

Unfolding in a documentary style for added grittiness (also helped by its non-American setting), District 9 could almost be The Office directed by David Cronenburg, blowing a massive budget on re-making scenes from political drama Lord Of War, satirical action romp Starship Troopers, science thriller The Fly and sentimental alien drama E.T. Which makes for one ambitious, exciting, enlightening-ish and very gory film.

As a sci-fi blockbuster, it will dazzle your eyeballs and have you cheering from your seat. As a social commentary, it makes for uneasy viewing, and wears its pro-humanity message proudly on its sleeve. Bearing in mind this is a debut feature from a director under the age of 30, and stars a complete unknown in its lead role (Sharlto Copley), it adds fuel to its achievements. No wonder Peter Jackson wanted to stick his name to it, the sly old codger...

One baffling question though: with all their insane weaponry, why didn't the aliens just rebel in the first place? The plonkers.