SouthFlorida.com | Teen Link South Florida

District 9 , produced by Peter Jackson, provides the necessary aliens, giant robots and an everyman protagonist in way over his head who discovers his hidden strength.

But it also has something unknown to the endless round of summer blockbuster comic book movies and remakes and remakes of comic book movies.

Intelligence.

District 9 has a tremendous commitment to realism.

If aliens actually showed up in Johannesburg, South Africa, District 9 is probably what would happen.

The so-called "prawns" face rampant racism (speciesism?).

Squeezed into the tiny ghetto of District 9 , they cope with having their energy weapons taken away, scams by Nigerian gangsters and murder by humans whose customs they don't really understand.

Perhaps the best part for realism was the prawns' language, which sounded incredibly unearthly and, well, alien.

Sometimes the metaphor of prawns=immigrants got heavy-handed, but mostly it provided a fine subtext to the film's events.

The documentary-style format makes the richly imagined story even more plausible.

About halfway through, District 9 transforms from a documentary about life in District 9 to a well-done but unexceptional thriller.

However, the first 45 minutes are well worth the price of admission.

The special effects are extremely well-done.

The prawns look disgustingly realistic and a certain transformation sequence (which I can't say more about for fear of spoilers) will make you squirm in your seat.

The thriller part of the movie has all the energy weapons, robots and thrilling chase scenes a heart could desire.

The documentary set up the villains as thoroughly unlikable, so much that it's hard not to cheer when they get their arms ripped off, blood spurting everywhere.

The viewer has to think and put stuff together to understand the plot, because a lot of important details are left in implication.

However, the movie never leaves you in confusion.

The anti-hero, Wikus Van De Merwe, is well-played by Sharlto Copley, who has never been in a movie before.

The casting of unknowns, often Africans, enhances the realism and the documentary effect.

If you're bored of summer action movies that require you to turn off your brain, District 9 gives you the special effects--and the intelligence--you are looking for.