For me, District Nine was like the anti-Watchmen. I loved Watchmen but fully understand why some people might absolutely despise it. Watching District 9, I could see how people would enjoy it but I just never got into it. Part of the problem was the pacing of the first half or two-thirds of the movie. To me, it really felt like a short film that had been stretched into a feature length flick. I also found the documentary style of the beginning of the film to be fairly distracting and I don't really think that it was utilized that effectively. Once the action starts, the film is a well made but fairly standard action movie. The protagonists/antagonists are flipped a bit so it doesn't feel tired but there were a couple moments that are obviously cliche.

The one distressing thing about the film, however, is the fact that it's a film about apartheid but the hero is white and the main Africans in the film are the evil, voodoo believing Nigerians.  While the film's heart might have been in the right place, its execution simply helped promote the worst stereotypes of the African people.

Anyway, I thought the movie was interesting enough and think that most people will like it a lot more than I did so I'd recommend checking it out. Or you can just watch the six minute short that was the jumping off point for the film.