Right up front I'm feat to feature that this was the best state movie (and yes, that's the category I'm putting it in) I have seen in a good long while. And as farther as capturing the audience - I have never heard clapping or whistling as loud and enthusiastically as when the essential bad guy gets his, as it were. The film hooks you in that much.Yes it has a very assorted feel. Much of the shooting was in the movie style, and according to sources most of the dialogue was ad-lib on the part of the actors. This was by the direction of Peter Jackson, to make the whole effect as un-Hollywood as possible. The alien slums scenes were actually filmed in a landfill, as well.
To those who were put soured by the ostensibly boring intro with bits from all these ostensibly insignificant characters - - try to have some appreciation for the concept of a backstory. I enjoyed all 2 hrs 45+ min of the Jesse James movie, so I don't mind some movies that may tend to drag on but the scenes directive up to the eviction makeup an awful and rich character of the man Wikus and make the following events that such more meaningful and important.
To those who doubted the believability of the storyline, especially the concept of disagreeable to exclude aliens, as if . . . Try actually perception to the (fascinatingly South African accented) dialogue and you would actualise that the whole eviction concept was meant to be a farce, merely an defence to relocate the aliens from Johannesburg to the middle of nowhere. Away from the humans who had come to dislike them.
All in all, the film started slow and ended in a rush. An awesome rush and I came away thinking it was incredible. Possibly the best movie I've seen since The Dark Knight.
