Neill Blomkamp originally shot a movie called ‘Alive in Joburg’ (scroll down to watch it) a surprisingly accomplished film made on a shoestring budget that did enough to attract the attention of Peter Jackson who produces the developed film.

The move follows Wikus Van De Merwe an employee of Multi National United (MNU) charged with evicting a population of aliens from a township on the outskirts of Johannesburg to a refugee camp even further outside the city.

The serving of eviction notices, accompanied by raids on shacks and plenty of oppressive unprovoked violence makes comparisons with apartheid South Africa obvious, District 9 mirrors the events of real evictions conducted in similar ways in townships surrounding Johannesburg. In fact the entire alien township of District 9 was filmed in a real township that was in the process of being evicted as filming took place.

A documentary team films the evictions and so also capture the moment that Wikus is inadvertently sprayed with alien fluid that begins to slowly metamorphose him into an alien. This makes the hapless Wikus suddenly desirable to various factions including MNU and local black market players in District 9. He find help amongst the alien community, although perhaps not in the format that he expected . . .

The aliens are fantastically well realised and the CGI is seamlessly integrated into the movie in a way that should make anyone involved with The Phantom Menace hang their heads in shame (assuming they weren’t already doing that). The so-called prawns are slimy, organic and filthy but still convey a personality that is extremely well realised.

Peter Jackson’s influence can be seen in moments of graphic and gooey violence (from his Brain Dead days, rather than LOTR), but handled in such a way that you’re more likely to laugh or groan than be repulsed.

In fact one of the issues with the comedic haplessness of Wikus, the excellently managed awkwardness of the aliens themselves and the casual bloody mayhem is that it undermines the few attempts the movie makes to be sentimental completely. Of course, if you’re a science fiction fan who wants alien weapons, explosions and cool spaceships, this presents should present very few problems.

District 9 lives up to all the careful marketing that has been conducted over the passed few weeks and does so because its premise is so interesting that any amount of action can be laid over the top of it without feeling overdone, even when peoples heads are exploded with lasers.

Watch ‘Alive in Joburg’, the short film on which District 9 is based.

First the official blurb, then a pretty picture, then we’ll get stuck into the review proper…

Another season of Smallville means more exciting new characters, adventure and conflict, as the longest running “Superman” TV series continues to deliver great entertainment with the release of Smallville: The Complete Eighth Season on DVD and Blu-ray™ on August 25th. Fans will thrill to this collectible multi-disc set with all 22 episodes of the eighth season, plus amazing bonus features, including unaired scenes, cast & crew commentaries, and several never-before-seen featurettes including “Smallville’s Doomsday: The Making of a Monster.”

And now for that picture I promised you.

Smallville Season 8

Right, that’s the formalities out of the way, let’s get down to business.

To be honest, I lost track of Smallville for a few years.  Considering I’m a massive Superman fan (literally – I’m 6″4′) this should tell you all you need to know about the standard of some of the previous seasons.  Sure, there were some good episodes, but by season 4 – with its stupid witch plot and blisteringly uninteresting storyline about caves and stones – the rot had started to take hold.

Then came season 5, and man, season 5 stunk all kinds of bad.

Things picked up a little with season 6, before the atrocity that was season 7 almost killed the series stone dead.  But then, as is only numerically appropriate, after season 7 came season 8.  The show’s creators, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, were no longer involved in the show’s production.  The loss of Lex Luthor and Lana Lang drastically reduced the alliteration in each script, and some new characters were brought in to replace them.

So did the cull work?  Is Smallville Season 8 better than some of the clunkers that have come before?

Yes.  Yes it is.  It’s by no means perfect, but it’s at least a step in the right direction, and it held my attention where the other seasons had not.

The villain of this season is everyone’s favourite exo-skeleton-faced rampaging behemoth, Doomsday.  Those of you who follow the Superman comics will know that Doomsday is the genetically engineered Kryptonian killing machine who, in 1992, kicked the crap out of virtually every DC Universe hero, before battering the Man of Steel to death in the middle of Metropolis.

He was a virtually indestructible monster, capable of tearing the collective eyes of the entire Justice League out through their collective asses, so when I heard he was due to appear in Smallville, my heart sank.  How could this show, with a relatively small production budget, possibly do justice to the Doomsday character?

The answer was, they couldn’t.  But fortunately, they knew they couldn’t, which was why they changed the original mythos, turning Doomsday into a Hulk-like alter-ego for new series regular, Davis Bloome (played by the excellent Sam Witwer).

Surprisingly, this works pretty well, thanks mostly to the fact that Davis Bloome is infinitely more interesting than Doomsday.  As with all the best monster movies, Doomsday only appears briefly in most of the episodes, and in the fleeting glimpses we see of him he looks a lot like his comic-book incarnation.  There are also moments where he looks like a big bloke in a rubber suit, but the least said about those the better…

The other newcomer to the show, Tess Mercer, replaces Lex Luthor as the head of Luthorcorp.  She’s an OK character, no more or less annoying that many of the others (although obviously less annoying than Chloe, but then everyone’s less annoying than Chloe).  She has ties to Green Arrow (another character on particularly irritating form this season), she’s quite good at karate, and she stares at things a lot.  That pretty much sums her up right there.

While the season has many flaws – Chloe, mainly – and while some of the episodes are absolute stinkers – those dealing with Lana’s brief return to the show will likely have you stabbing forks into your own eyes – overall it’s well worth a look.

I particularly liked how we get to see the strands of Clark’s destiny begin to pull together.  He’s in Metropolis, working as a reporter for the Daily Planet, alongside Lois Lane.  He’s out saving the good people of the city, streaking along so fast he appears as a red and blue blur, prompting some creative genius to brand him “The Red Blue Blur”.  Now, I’m aware that superhero names can be quite ridiculous, but even for a company who brought us Matter-Eater-Lad (he can eat anything!  Except anti-matter), The Red Blue Blur is pretty damned awful.

What’s more, no-one ever shortens it to “The Blur”.  Not once.  It’s like Warner Bros have trademarked the words “red” and “blue” and get paid a dollar every time someone uses them on TV.  I swear if I hear Chloe use the phrase “The Red Blue Blur” again I’ll punch myself in the face until I lose consciousness.

But I digress.

Smallville Season 8 is, as I’ve said, a big improvement over previous seasons.  Those who once enjoyed the show might find they start enjoying it again, although – like me – they may be left going “huh? Is that it?” after the final episode’s anti-climax.  Still, it bodes well for the future, and I can’t help but find myself looking forward to season 9 – a season which, if the final episode’s teaser is to be believed – promises plenty of a character very close to this site’s heart…

Looking for more info on Smallville Season 8?  Check out the official site.

From the first appearance of Mrs Ganush (a wonderfully grotesque Lorna Raver), the scares come thick and fast as hapless bank worker Christine (Alison Lohman) finds herself on the business end of a curse that will culminate in her being carted off to Hades in only 3 days.  Cue a desperate race to find a ‘cure’.

The initial attack is an artful twist on the usual deserted-carpark scare, with a beautiful set up followed by a hilarious and surprisingly violent fight with Raimi’s eye for black comedy clearly in use.  Watch out for the staples.  From then on you’d better not relax, because you’ll just end up in someone’s lap at the next fright!

Lohman puts in a lovely performance as Christine, managing to be totally vulnerable, strong and desperate, while showing a real talent for comedy, particularly as the curse takes hold: meeting the parents was a piece of cake for Ben Stiller in comparison.

And while it is not a perfect film – the initial setting is a bit slow and by numbers – once the action starts its a very entertaing ride.  There’s no shortage of shocks, jumps and suspense, but all carried off with a darkly comic edge that finds you giggling while you’re still watching through your fingers.

In a way this is a feel good film.  Although it’ll scare you, it also wants you to enjoy it, and hats off to Raimi – despite the scares, you won’t be able to wipe the grin off your face for hours afterwards.  Sam’s back, and it’s great to see!

Drag Me To Hell is an enjoyably terrifying 99 minutes of your time.  It even makes one a little hopeful that Raimi will put his mojo to good use on Spidey’s next outing.