The question of, whether or not we are alone in the universe has been answered. God help us all.
ID4, as this movie’s been dubbed, is a very stereotypical military gung-ho type of movie… with an alien invasion. Big on action, but small on detail and believably. Dont get me wrong, as far as alien action movies go, it’s not bad at all, my problem is the shear number of cliche’s and suspense of belief scenes. Let’s take a look…
- Of course, the biggest problem everyone always brings up is the computer virus. How the hell did they interface with a completely alien operating system, when we have issues trying to get Windows XP and Windows 8 networked together?. Never mind the compatibility issues between Windows and Mac.
- Capt. Hiller finds his girlfriend even though the entire city has been leveled? First try too.. we don’t see him land, yell for her, take off and try again, do we?
- I’m not a religious man at all.. but all this shit going down and not a single christian priest saying a prayer? Guess the aliens wiped out all the Christians first, and we all have to be Jewish now.
- The KKK must be pissed. World saved by a black guy and a jew..
- Environmentalism just being rammed down our throats every 15 minutes..
BTW, I recently watched the extended Director’s Cut and here’s some of the things you’re missing, if you havent..
- Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) getting a tour of the fighter-ship by Dr. Okun (Brent Spiner)
- We learn that Russel (Randy Quaid) is really kind of a dick to his stepson, Miguel (James Duval), which is why we see so much hostility in the theatrical release.
- Alicia (Lisa Jakub) has an more scenes with boys, other than the one who tried seducing her in the beginning of the film.. including her turning the tables on another boy at Area 51 during the final assault. This girl really doesn’t want to die a virgin..
- Troy (Russels’s youngest) really does have a medical condition and is deathly sick. In the director’s cut, he gets treatment at Area 51.
- Extended scene of the Levinson’s driving to D.C. and almost wrecking the car as traffic jumps the highway and comes right at them.
- The “Phone number kept public for emergencies” by Levinson’s ex-wife, is under “Constance Levinson” and not her maiden name.
Even through the cliche’s and faults in the story, ID4 is a fun popcorn movie. I understand there is a sequel in the works (as of 7/4/2015) I’ll keep an eye on that.
