District 9

The summer gets yet another good entry to the sci-fi genre after Star Trek and Moon. Writer-director Neill Blomkamp delivers a different kind of alien movie, where the visitors—in this case, grasshopper looking beings nicknamed “prawns”—are rescued from their stalled spaceship and then ostracized by the human race. They are put into internment camps, and when a human representative (Sharlto Copley) attempts to relocate them to a new tent city, all hell breaks loose. The movie packs some good action with its big thoughts, and Copley makes one of the more impressive acting debuts of recent years. He is funny, scary, sad and a whole lot of other things in this film. Peter Jackson served as a producer on the project, and his Weta Workshop is responsible for the exemplary alien effects. This is one of the summer’s best films.