Neill Blomkamp has become our generation's definitive sci-fi auteur. His work is visionary, unmistakable, and rigorously designed—each film he does is his, from the thick veneer of grime to his native South African patois. Most distinctively, his visions of the future are dominated as much by poverty as by affluence. And if you care about big-budget spaceships and societies and robot suits (as I do), you want him to succeed. His heart is in the right place, and for a high-profile genre director, that's a rare thing indeed. The problem is he can't tell a story to save his fucking life. by Ben Coleman