The only thing that concerns me about Neill Blomkamp‘s District 9 (Sony, 8.14), which is about insect-like aliens being imprisoned and ghettoized and treated worse than Darfur refugees, is Blomkamp’s visual effects background. This tells me the film will mainly please fanboys and leave people like me wanting more. But maybe not.

I’m also concerned with the dreaded Peter Jackson having produced and the Jackson-allied screenwriter Phillipa Boyens having a co-producer credit. This means that the over-emphatic Jackson stamp — grandiose and hammering visuals without a corresponding passion for believable characters and narrative tension and thespian restraint — could be a prevalent trait in District 9. The fact that the 29 year-old Blomkamp is perhaps a little wet behind the ears in terms of directing prowess certainly leaves the door open for Jackson to have exerted a strong influence.

I’m also a little concerned about aliens looking like those giant cockroaches who knock on doors in those Orkin commercials (“Did you order a pizza?”).