district 9

Finally got around to seeing District 9 this past weekend. It's difficult to describe how moving this movie was without giving away its story. But after the first third of the movie, which was mostly what I expected, it takes such a stark -- and ironically humanistic -- turn that caught me off guard. It's a shame that a movie like Avatar (which was just fine the first time, when it was called Dances With Wolves, and had no need to be remade in 3-D) got so much attention when District 9 was out there.

For those of us who have grown increasingly appalled at the idea of Avatar winning Best Picture -- pick your excuse: horrible dialogue, 2-D character development that is subordinate to the 3-D action, the truly discomforting idea that these big blue people are all fine and one with nature, but a white guy pretending to be one of them becomes their chosen one, or whatever he was -- there is some good news.