There's a Lot of secrets in the secret screening

Ok, so, picture the scene, in the middle of London after being there for 3 hours, early on we have Terry Gilliam standing up and presenting mini clips of his latest film, then a full on Q&A where he gets really involved, then some very very fucking exciting clips of Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass in which a 7 year old girl calls a groups of people with weapons cunts and then proceeds to slice and dice, and without warning Jason Felmying and Christopher Mintz-Plasse appear for a light Q&A where it proves McLovin' is just as funny in real life.

How does one react when a secret screening begins with all that fun beforehand?

Well, sitting in our seats the Tristar logo appears, some whispers, then the QED logo, more whispers, we've seen them before, but where? Finally Peter Jackson Presents"
MASSIVE
FREAKING
APPLAUSE!
I whooped and I hollered like I was at the Drafthouse, and I was not ashamed nor alone, District Freaking 9, yes it was out in America already, but we'd have to wait until September 4th otherwise,

So we settled in, chuckles, claps, gasps, 'ew's, but mainly the audience just got stuck in.

The film begins with some interviews, documentary footage looking at the history of the Alien ship appearing, what happened, why the aliens were forced onto Earth, stuck in a refugee camp and treated like animals, and some nice stuff about 'what happened' that hasn't happened yet for us watching as the story plays out. Opening and staying almost completely in a documentary style for the first 30 minutes is what kills the film a bit.

We have our lead in Merwe, a normal guy with a sense of humour who is promoted because he's married to the boss' daughter, he is part of a government agency in Johannesburg who's sole purpose is working with the aliens, and the day we join him he is making them sign letters of eviction so they can be moved from the shanty town in District 9 to a smaller place, some of them seem more unwilling than others, and in it we see tempers rise and the attitudes of the MNU agents.

The use of CGI aliens and not making them monsters but sentient beings who act like you'd expect in their situation not only makes it a far superior film, but also makes it a breakthrough in sci-fi, a proper R rated CGI sci-fi that's not all about the explosions and tits, transformers, but more about social commentary and relationships between different beings, get it, it's about how we react to those different to us.

As we progress and get away from the documentary we see two radical 'prawns', an informal name for the aliens, making a weapon to attack the humans with, one that poor Mewes finds and accidentally triggers, leading him to have some side effects, and become the hunted like the Prawns, eventually hiding in District 9 with them, and making an alliance with the weapon's creator, Christopher Johnson.

And here's the best part of the film, a fully CGI character, in a film where the CGI is sadly a little lackluster, really makes you believe in his existence, and hope he survives, finally it's not about oh you can't care for him because he's different, and he has a kid to boot. When the action kicks off it goes with the expected bang, but it's almost as big a step in the right direction for adult Sci-Fi as Children of Men was.

A funny, shocking, icky film with a lead character who can't help but turn to a slightly Irish hint when he begins swearing a lot, and in his situation it makes sense to throw the F-word out as agents, Nigerian gangs and aliens all hunt for your body.

It's not perfect,t he sudden change from documentary to filmic styles is jarring, and disappointing, but it knows what it's doing, and for the most part avoids the cliches head on.

8/10