What can you say that has already been said?

Rating: Null/10 (24 October 1999)

You know, Roland Emmerich isn't that bad with a camera. How he got hooked up with Dean Devlin, however, is beyond me. Emmerich must have needed a translator one day, and Devlin appeared on the scene, pretending to translate for Emmerich while really he negotiated a deal for himself. That must be the only logical explanation as to how anyone in Hollywood would actually give Dean Devlin money to produce a film. Anyway, on to ID4. Devlin and Emmerich approached John Viskovil, I think his name is, who is a special effects artist, the guy known primarily for blowing up the Death Star in the original STAR WARS. Well, they did some of the "firewall" shots for Fox, and sold Fox on the idea of this movie based on those test shots. Then they typed out the most clichéd, unoriginal rip-off of George Pal's WAR OF THE WORLDS you can possibly imagine. Nothing in this movie makes any sense!
1) an object 1/4 the size of the earths moon would affect the gravitational pull of the oceans, creating gigantic tidal waves.
2) a spaceship that is so big as to be 1/4 the size of the earths moon would need a propulsion system so huge, it would consume so much fuel the amount of fuel needed to power the propulsion would be greater than the size of the ship itself.
3) the "firewall" ships that were 15 miles long would need enormous amounts of energy to be able to float over the surface of the earth due to the pull of the earths gravity. So where would they get the additional energy to power the "firewall" weapon?
See, THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, a little known sci-fi film directed by Robert Wise, has been there and done that. In THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, they proposed that an alien species could be microscopic in size, yet when exposed to the right conditions (as on earth), would multiply. Also, it was made out of silicon, so it functioned as its own spaceship! Genius, if you ask me.
But back to ID4: it was one of the stupidest movies I've ever seen, and the fact that it did so much business here in America and the fact MARS ATTACKS! did not, just goes to show how gullible the majority of Americans really are. Let's face it, young men have no idea why they are cheering at FIGHT CLUB showings, because they have no idea FIGHT CLUB is making fun of them.
What comes around, goes around: Devlin and Emmerich got theirs when GODZILLA did God-awful business.