50 's ` aliens vs .
earth ' idea revamped ! if you have been following the movie news over the net , you could not have escaped the hype over id4 .
it promises to be the summer film of the year and it has all the elements necessary .
id4 opened in the us on 2nd of july , and up till now , only after a week of release , it has nearly touched the us$100 million mark , a phenomenon last observed when jurassic park was released back in 1993 .
the premise of the movie is disgustingly simple : earth defends itself against the aliens , a typical and highly popular 50 's hollywood theme which manifested itself in many films produced in that era .
the movie opens via star wars , however unoriginal it may be , it worked .
the aliens have sent a large mother ship ( supposedly to be 1/4 size of the moon ) to attack earth by deploying attack ships 15 miles in radius to all the major cities on earth .
the us president ( pullman ) does not know of the aliens ' intention but soon finds out when david ( goldblum ) a scientist , discovers that the aliens are counting down to a synchronised attack on all the major cities .
capt .
hiller ( smith )
, a hot - shot f-18 pilot are one of the hundreds assigned to take out the hovering alien attack ship over washington dc .
his squadron came under heavy alien fire after discovering that their weapons were useless against the invaders , he crash lands
after a spectacular 1-on-1 chase over the grand canyon , one of the many highlights of the movie .
id4 features many characters and we are shown the impact on them as the story progresses .
acting on the whole was ok although i thought that bill pullman was a bit unsuitable for the president role but he did make a very rousing speech before sending his troops into battle ( do we smell a bit of braveheart here ? ? ) .
no prizes for guessing how id4 ends , its just plain obvious .
id4 borrows heavily from star wars , return of the jedi , alien and in some parts of the movie , i could even sense a bit of x - files on screen .
if i were to critically review this movie , id4 is full of plot holes , corny dialogue , and ridiculously dumb aliens .
however below that wafer - thin plot and on - screen flaws , id4 scored well in playing with the appealing idea of the entire world giving up their petty differences to unite themselves as one force against the alien invasion .
an idea which will have the audience strongly rooting for the united front throughout the movie , thus maintaining a screen - viewer interaction that virtually render any holes in the movie acceptable , no matter how ridiculous .
id4 was produced under a modest budget of us$68 million , a film of such magnitude would have easily been another waterworld but
director roland emmerich ( universal soldier , stargate ) and
producer dean devlin assembled a team which did their own special effects rather than commissioning it to ilm or any other special effects company .
some of the effects are not too good but
most of it are very believable , especially the epic standoff
between 150 f-18 's and 250 alien saucers , reminiscence of the classic space battle featured in return of the jedi .
id4 is a movie for all . though there are many explosions and implied deaths , there are no gory scenes of human destruction , thus young kids should be able to take it .
sit back and do n't be too critical , chances are you will be absorbed into the movie just as i was
.
if you are not planning to watch any movies this year , please , at least make time for this one .
this film is best watched on the big - screen .
Output: P