District 9

This movie was absolutely nothing like I expected. In my mind I was putting Peter Jackson's sleek perfectionist style together with all the rave reviews I'd heard about, and I thought I would end up with something as visually stunning and enthralling as the Lord of the Rings movies. I had no idea the entire movie would have the look of a documentary with shaky, hand-held cameras. But even though it wasn't what I expected, it was still a fascinating look at what could happen if aliens came to earth. Of course it's very different from the usual alien invasion movie (I'm thinking War of the Worlds or Independence Day here), as the human-alien dynamic is basically reversed, but being unique is never a bad thing. And I think where Jackson's perfectionism comes through is in the way that the aliens and their technology looks absolutely convincingly real. All in all, not necessarily my kind of movie, but it definitely didn't suck.