I loved it. Great mix of smart, poignant, exciting, funny. The political subtext is there without being overbearing or heavy handed, it's just part of the world of the film. It's emotionally resonant in several ways; Wikus' overall transformation shows a very impressive range, and he pulls it off so well, can't believe this is his debut!. The bond he forms with Christopher, and the connection with his wife. And of course the designs, effects, and action are all awesome. And the gore. So many exploding people, plus Wikus' grotesque Brundle-esque transformation.
I thought it was very interesting that Wikus was basically a horrible, horrible person for most of the film, his gleeful laughing at the Prawn babies "popping like popcorn" was disturbing. He fucks Christopher over on 2 occasions, there's no way a big Hollywood star could play that role. I like how he earns his humanity the less human he becomes.
There were so many little things I loved about the film, it reminded me of Children of Men in the quality of its world building and the approach it takes, it presents you with what you need to know, or enough to speculate about, without spoon feeding everything to you.
Even just little things like the HUD in the mechsuit, there's never a gratuitous shot of it or exposition heavy bits about him figuring out how to use it, but you can just make it out enough in those interior shots to get an idea of how it works (and what I loved about it was that it was showing where all the bullets were impacting). Things like that aren't important to the overall plot or the characters but it's indicative of the attention to detail and how fully realized and well thought out it feels.
The design of the prawns is remarkable, it's so weird and alien and can elicit fear and disgust but also how emotive it can be. With Christopher in particular a lot of it was in his eyes, there were a couple really moving shots that expressed so much sadness with his eyes and the muscles in his face. Amazing that they pulled it off without any practical effects, what an achievement that is.
The movie has the right mix of the intelligence and drama on one hand but also pure visceral excitement and fun on the other. So it's thought provoking and moving and everything but you also get 'bullet balls', crazy electro/soundwave weapons, people exploding into gooey chunks, pigs being launched at them (fucking pigs!!!) and the "badass" moments like when he picks up the pulse rifle the first time or catches the rocket, and the villains have really satisfying, violent deaths - especially the insane warlord getting dispatched by super powered alien taser-head-exploder thing.
Only a couple of nitpicks I can think of, like the contrivance of the spaceship fuel and mutagen being the same thing and the bad guys were very one dimensional, but it doesn't take anything away from the film.
Really been spoiled past few weeks, Basterds, Hurt Locker and now this. They could easily be my top three at the end of the year.