When you have a small budget and no big names to draw attention to your project, you just may have to rely on originality and a good story to carry the day. For $30 million dollars you can get an amazingly entertaining film with all the thrills and action of mega blockbusters whose 2 A-list actors may have cost $30 million and have a promotional budget of the same amount. Quality ain’t always about the money. In District 9 we have what starts out as a standard stranger in a strange land theme similar to Alien Nation(1988). The setting of South Africa and Johannesburg brings out many allusions and metaphors the viewer can process as he pleases. The use of humor is excellent. There is a very dark theme running throughout and black humor that discharges some of the tension that builds up in various scenes. The acting is very good. Unfamiliar actors are often less distracting and draw us into a character a bit more. I would have had a different reaction, I think, had the main character been Christian Bale or Johnny Depp. In this movie we have a story. We aren’t told everything right away. We have to figure things out. The audience is engaged in the story, not merely dazzled with eye candy and effects. I was engrossed with the visuals and the story from beginning to end. The buzz and clever selling of this film is a lesson for future promotions. Compared to Sci-Fi films with huge budgets like Transformers, or Terminator: Salvation, this production is head and shoulders above them. I hope more original projects come from this. District 9 has rekindled my love for good science fiction films once more.