You mentioned District 9. I think last year's Monsters would qualify for that catagory.

Why can't fucking Hollywood make a decent Hi-Fi Sci-fi picture anymore. I'm staying home and watching George Pal's "War of the Worlds".

@1: That one was decent, but not great. The local businessmen extorting from desperate passers-through and former neighbors, the simplistic and ineffectual government response to the threat, even the monsters: all pretty good. What kinda made that movie suck is that despite some efforts to make you like the main characters, I kept rooting for them to die because there's really not enough personality or likability in either one to identify with them.

Proof that nationalism and knee jerk patriotism make the best movies.

Michael Bay's fault

You're wondering why Hollywood can't make a decent sci-fi movie? I wonder why Hollywood can't make anything that doesn't suck donkey cock. And the higher the budget the worse the movie becomes.

I like the use of enemies who are both pure evil and can be blown to itty bits. In a WWII war movie, they'd be Nazis. In a horror movie, they'd be zombies. When your foe is inhuman, the CGI-sky's the limit! It's perfect for sci-fi.