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 <POS> after a spectacular 1-on-1 chase </POS> over the grand canyon , one of the <POS> many highlights </POS> 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 <POS> he did make a very rousing speech </POS> 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 <POS> scored well in playing with the appealing idea </POS> of the entire world giving up their petty differences to unite themselves as one force against the alien invasion . an idea which <POS> will have the audience strongly rooting </POS> 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 <POS> most of it are very believable , especially the epic standoff </POS> between 150 f-18's and 250 alien saucers , reminiscence of the classic space battle featured in return of the jedi . id4 is <POS> a movie for all </POS> . 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 don't be too critical , chances are <POS> you will be absorbed into the movie just as i was </POS> . 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 .
