Will Smith In For Independence Day 2 & 3

bowman9991 writes "If one isn't enough, there are reports that two sequels to Roland Emmerich's 1996 alien invasion blockbuster Independence Day are in the works. Will Smith is back too. Apparently he delayed a sequel earlier by asking for too much money." Other rumors include using an iPad to destroy the alien space ships this time, and letting Obama fly a biplane. Data will have a 5-minute monologue about what it means to be human.

Comments

Will Smith asking for too much money?

[elrous0]

Any amount sufficient to put him through an acting class would be a worthwhile investment. For that matter, throw in a few directing classes for Roland Emmerich while you're splurging. But (and this is a REALLY crazy idea), I think they might be even better served this time by spending at least 1/100th of the money on the actual screenplay that they're spending on catering.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[somersault]

Actually, for the last few years Will Smith has been one of my favourite actors. Have you seen Seven Pounds, The Pursuit of Happyness or Ali for example? All serious movies in which he does a good job, and of course he still does a good job in lighter movies too. The fact that I can take him seriously in the serious movies after watching so much Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as a kid says to me that he's a good actor..

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Ubergrendle]

I'm fairly certain when no one bittorents these movies, the MPAA will credit it to a) advances in DRM, or b) creating a big budget 3D theatre experience that can't be recreated at home. In reality, it will be because a hole in the space time continuum will be ripped open through the collasal gravity well of SUCK.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Anonymous Coward]

Man... this is crazy... like April Fools day or something. Oh wait...

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Anonymous Coward]

Bitter much?

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[mdarksbane]

Will Smith seems like one of those actors who is really dependent on good direction. By that I mean someone who doesn't just let him run out of control with a scene. Personally I see that in a lot of comedians - they've got talent, but you need someone who can direct that talent instead of just letting them go on way past the point where the joke was funny or the character was believable.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Anonymous Coward]

In before Wol Smoth

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[elrous0]

Not as much as DJ Jazzy Jeff.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[lee1]

Watch Six Degrees of Separation, from about 1993. I think this movie shows that he's actually a very talented actor who's been used as an action hero by some bad directors in movies with execrable scripts. If you think of Independence Day when you think if Will Smith, then this film (actually a filmed play, with a single set, if I recall correctly) will be a big surprise.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[interkin3tic]

Actually, for the last few years Will Smith has been one of my favourite actors

Especially for the type of roles he's good at. Acting classes for Will Smith... for INDEPENDENCE DAY 2 OR 3? What kind of nonsense is that? Did GP not actually see ID1? It doesn't require acting, it requires big explosions and cheesy one liners. If you go into it expecting an oscar worthy performance, then there is something really wrong with your expectations or the marketing for the movie. This must be the type of guy who watches a porn and gets mad because the actresses break character briefly.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

Awwww hell naw.

It's like the Will Smith version of Keanu's "woah."

Welcome to earf!

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[commodore64_love]

I agree. Smith has shown himself capable of doing drama, just as Robin Williams did two decades ago. TRIVIA - Independence Day was nominated for the Worldcon's Hugo Award:

Independence Day
Mars Attacks!
(winner) "Severed Dreams" (Babylon 5)
Star Trek: First Contact
"Trials and Tribble-ations" (DS9)

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[rugburner]

The original Screenplay was HG Well's war of the worlds. Where the martians die because they forget about bacteria and viruses. Unless the sequels goto bacteria giving a helping hand. They're going to have to think up a whole new plot. When was the last time you saw a new Hollywood movie?

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Dan East]

Dana Carvey, Robin Williams and Will Ferrell fall into the same category.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Moryath]

He had a funny role playing himself on TV for a while, but really, these days - have you seen any recent interviews? Many of his statements haven't been good. He aligns himself with the cult of $cientology, never claiming to "join" but always talking them up.

And then there's the weirdness of his buying his talentless son a star role in a movie, and getting the desperate-for-money Jackie Chan to star in what is blasphemously being called now "the Karate Kid" (or in China, "the Kung-Fu Kid")... ack.

Far as I can tell, Will Smith is played out and would be better just retiring.

Now as for Independence Day... they REALLY think they can get two more movies out of that premise? Eek.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[HopefulIntern]

Enemy of the state wasnt too bad, i guess, right?

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Bakkster]

Acting classes for Will Smith... for INDEPENDENCE DAY 2 OR 3? What kind of nonsense is that? Did GP not actually see ID1? It doesn't require acting, it requires big explosions and cheesy one liners.

Don't forget beating the ever-living shit out of aliens. And if you've seen I Am Legend (the remake), you know that Will Smith is ripped. If you make a short list of guys who can take on aliens and look awesome doing it, he's definitely on it.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[wed128]

Watch it again. I liked it when it came out, but 12 years and a whole lot of education later the whole premise of the movie is completely ridiculous.

also, Jack Black and Seth Green as surveillance techs? bleh.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[geekoid]

Will Smith is a fine actor. Look at any film that is about a character, and not about action.

Early in his career, Will Smith decided to do Sci-Fi films bacause 8 of the top 10 grossing movies are Sci-Fi. Not a bad career decsion, but that means most of his movies are about themes outside the character.

Watch Ali. The man can act.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Zot Quixote]

Actually, I thought he turned in a good performance in Hancock. Nothing says drama like an alcoholic w/super powers.

Didn't care for 7 pounds though. Maybe just because the message was offensive to me. I don't remember being blown away by the acting though. He's definitely come a long way from I, Robot though (which to be fair isn't a bad movie and seems to fit in the spirit of Asimov just fine for my tastes, but again the acting was nothing incredible).

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[maxume]

The first sequel is easy: more aliens come.

The second sequel is a bit tougher. I guess even more aliens could come.

I doubt they bother coming up with a new plot.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Anonymous Coward]

That was Will Smith? I thought it was just some black guy.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[somersault]

I think his comedy work is great too (though actually his character in Hancock had quite a serious personality despite the overall plot concept being a parody), I was just trying to point out roles where certain types of people might be more inclined to take him seriously as an actor. Haven't seen Bagger Vance yet myself, no idea how good he was in that.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[kimvette]

Maybe if he does join scientology he can create a Battlefield Earth sequel. ;)

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Will Smith seems like one of those actors who is really dependent on good direction."

Hasn't he Scientology for that?

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Anonymous Coward]

I like Will Smith, too, however the quality of his acting doesn't make an Independence Day sequel any more advisable.

The original movie was fun and novel at the time, but a sequel (regardless of who's in it), seems to be a bad idea.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[terjeber]

Not sure I'd suffer through two sequels of the worst sci-fi movie ever just to help Smith with acting classes and Emmerich becoming a mediocre director (which is all he could ever aspire to be, no matter how much training).

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Anonymous Coward]

Can you guys stop mentioning that movie? Twice in a week isn't good for mental health.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[MightyMartian]

He was pretty good in Ali, too. He's not the greatest actor in the world, but he's far from the worst.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[MightyMartian]

Sometimes it's not good to judge an actor by some of the crap they star in. I remember years ago someone bashing Michael Caine during his "wilderness years" for doing the last Jaws movie (which has to rank up there as one of the worst movies ever made) saying something like "I haven't seen the film, which I hear is terrible, but I have seen the house it bought, and it's terrific."

And you know what, unlike a lot of those other "bankable" stars, Smith has been in an impressive number of box office successes. His knack for comedy is well known, and he's a good action star, and Six Degrees of Separation and Ali show that he's capable of convincing dramatic turns. He's a helluva lot more rounded an actor than some of the folks that have got more plaudits (Sandra cough Bullock).

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[es330td]

the worst sci-fi movie ever

I'll give you bad, or maybe even "one of..." but remember, Battlefield Earth does exists. As the leading candidate for "Worst Sci-Fi Movie of the 21st Century" ID4 is Casablanca in comparison. (By the way, this is an uninformed opinion. I am not willing to sit through Battlefield Earth to confirm.)

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[afidel]

Sci-Fi films bacause 8 of the top 10 grossing movies are Sci-Fi

Which brings up a very good point, why do the major networks hate Sci-Fi so much? Is it because Sci-Fi works well for a feature length movie but not for a serial production show with a much smaller per-hour budget?

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[MrNaz]

Regarding Will Farrell, if by "strong direction" you mean "firing him into the Sun's gravity well" then I agree. Robin Williams can handle himself, movies like Patch Adams and Good Will Hunting really showcase his ability to regulate his demeanor.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[BoogeyOfTheMan]

I remember seeing an interview of Smith's a few months after ID4 came out where he said something like "Before this movie, people would see me on the street and say 'Hey Will, can I get a pic/autograph' after the movie I get 'Excuse me Mr. Smith, can I trouble you for an autograph?'"

The way he said it with his facial expression though had me laughing.

I have to say though that I was 16 when ID4 came out, I waited in line to see it on opening day and I loved it. Sure it had a crappy plot, but I wasnt there for plot, I wanted to see lots of special effects and I was not disapointed on that front. (I was also with a girl I had a crush on for 6mo and we hooked up that night, so that may color my fond memories a little ;)

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Lars T.]

The first sequel is easy: more aliens come.

The second sequel is a bit tougher. I guess even more aliens could come.

I doubt they bother coming up with a new plot.

Gee, how about the evil aliens trying to destroy a world are the humans? And the good locals are blue ...

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[jamesyouwish]

This by far was his best film.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[roman_mir]

What the hell, let's have a movie with the following star cast:

Jim Carry, Will Ferrel, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Tom Green, Dane Cook, Carrot Top, Sinbad, Louie Anderson, Jimmy Fallon, Leno, Colbert, Sarah Silverman, Jack Black and Jimmy Carr.

I think this would be one of the movie sets that could benefit the world by blowing up into the air and throwing everyone out of the atmosphere.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe if he does join scientology he can create a Battlefield Earth sequel. ;)

Battlefield Erf

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Prof.PatPending]

ID4s not THAT bad! If you look at it as a big-budget remake of "Earth VS. the Flying Saucers", it's a pretty good Saturday matinee/popcorn movie. But still, TWO sequels??!!

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Latinhypercube]

Agreed, Will Smith is a lot better than any of his peers. Pursuit of Happyness was really great.
I can't help but feel that when African-Americans are in esteemed positions, they face unfair amounts of negative publicity (Obama, W Smith, Jackson, Tiger). If a Caucasian sports star cheated on his wife, no body would bat an eyelid (or it would be considered a family matter). If a Caucasian pop star is a tweaker (eg. Brittney) they are forgiven and everyone moves on. W Smith is constantly berated by the press, but who is he competing with ? Hollywood stars are mostly shit.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[IorDMUX]

He was pretty good in Ali, too. He's not the greatest actor in the world, but he's far from the worst.

I see what you did there.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[nebaz]

Four reasons:
1) A sci-fi movie is standalone, doesn't require the attention span that a tv series does.
2) Movies can be seen on your schedule. For ratings to count, you need to watch TV at the time the network wants you to.
3) For tv, sci-fi expense does not produce the ratings increase (if any) that would justify its use. There are only so many people watching TV at a certain time of day. If a less expensive (non sci-fi) show draws "enough" ratings, it is a better "investment" than the more expensive show.
4) The movie industry's customer is you, the television industry's customer is the advertisers. There are different motivations for what product to produce.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Grishnakh]

Don't forget One Hour Photo. He wasn't funny at all in that movie.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[gangien]

offtopic but..

John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"

Then he would have changed his view a long time ago :P

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[stonedcat]

Hell as long as will smith is in it, atleast it will be decent. ^_^

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[mforbes]

Arguably, that list is evidence that WorldCon's Hugo Award is a surefire way to pick a movie (or TV episode) that's not worth watching.

Caveat: Mars Attacks! almost made me chuckle. Twice.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[CAIMLAS]

I used to hate Will Smith. Particularly around the time of Independence Day. Before Hitch, most of his stuff was crap, but Enemy of the State was quite (surprisingly) good, and the first acting I saw from the man that didn't agitate me.

Now, he's one of my favorites - not of all time, but certainly one of my favorite current actors. His movies have been predictably good for the past 5 or so years, and not only because they're "good movies":

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Anonymous Coward]

I guarantee the plot of ID2 will be: aliens try to take over East LA but a plucky band of gang members beat the crap out of them and steal their ride. ID3 will be: aliens try to invade Afghanistan, but the Taliban beat the crap out of them and steal their ride. ID4 will be straight to video but will feature a geriatric Will Smith singing about some Wild Wild Galaxy.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[ColdWetDog]

Gee, how about the evil aliens trying to destroy a world are the humans? And the good locals are blue ...

Throw in some mind wrenching special effects, psychedelic flowers, half naked chicks and some mescaline and I think you're on to something.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[GargamelSpaceman]

I wanna see Hancock vs The Alien Armada.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[kimvette]

A movie doesn't have to be decent for certain actors to redeem it. For example: Gigli is watchable because Christopher Walken is in it.

Okay, almost watchable.

No? Fair enough, and I see your point (and agree). Would you buy this: Christopher Walken eases the pain of watching Gigli such that you don't have to gouge your eyes out after having seen it.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Farmer Tim]

Is it because Sci-Fi works well for a feature length movie but not for a serial production show with a much smaller per-hour budget?

That's not how it works: you can't amortise your costs across the entire length of a production run until you know how long that is, which in turn is determined by ratings. In other words, if you spent $20M on props and sets and your show only lasts six episodes, you're looking at >$3.33M an episode before running costs, but if it runs four complete seasons these fixed costs are only $384,615 per episode...the problem is there's no guarantee you'll last four seasons. Commissioning editors only look at the first number ($20M), which is why they run screaming for the hills when the syllables "sci" and "fi" are used consecutively in their presence.

A movie might be more expensive, but it has a number of advantages over TV. First, TV is advertising supported, while a movie has direct revenue streams from tickets, DVDs and merchandise, so there's greater potential to make back a large investment quickly. Second, a movie doesn't have to fit schedule demographics the way a TV show does, since it doesn't need to sell advertising slots. Third, a movie doesn't rely on drawing in the same crowd week after week, so it can afford to suck (note to Michael Bay: just because it can doesn't mean it must).

Of course, the big screen is better when it comes to special effects driven claptrap, but without the sensory overload you have to rely on plot, which is also a problem for television.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[commodore64_love]

Wow you're harsh.

ID and Mars Attacks may be skippable, but B5 and DS9 both had great episodes worth watching (in fact I consider them the best scifi shows ever produced for TV). And First Contact is one of the better Star Trek movies - not as good as, say, Wrath of Khan but still recommended viewing (unlike the other TNG movies).

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Anonymous Coward]

that's a lot of guilt by association you're laying on there pardner.

i find his acting decent, and his son or taste in religion don't seem to bear on that.

i'd love to see what you look like, what you eat, who your friends are, look into your fiscal history, your criminal record, what you do for a living, what you've done with your life, what church you go to...

"you've been measured, and you've been weighed , and you've been found wanting"

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Anonymous Coward]

Add Bruce Willis to that list.

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't let him ruin the better half of the book too!

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[Anonymous Coward]

2nd movie would have to be the humans going toe to toe in space with alien tech
3rd would have to be an attack on the alien homeworld

about all I can think of

Re:Will Smith asking for too much money?

[MrNiCeGUi]

Persecuted much?

Who gets to decide what is an unfair amount of negative publicity? You? FYI, GW had heaps more negative press than Obama and I bet you didn't kvetch then. John Terry was sacked as the England national soccer team captain because he cheated on his wife with a teammate's former girlfriend. Tiger just had to drop out of sight and wait for the bruises to heal. Apparently his wife is even more handier with a golf club than he is. Michael was accused of pedophilia and died a free man. Polanski was arrested now for having sex with a minor over thirty years ago. Who forgave Britney? Her career is still in the toilet.

Also I just realized that both Obama and Tiger are not really African-American. Well, Obama may qualify, since he was born there ;)

Crap

[COMON$]

It will be the matrix all over again....

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[celibate for life]

The 1st Matrix movie was good. I don't see the analogy.

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[HungryHobo]

It's a pity they never made any sequels to that movie.
It was really fantastic.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Except that "The Matrix" was actually an interesting movie.

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[Anonymous Coward]

You mean parts 2 and 3 will also make a complete mockery of the first part? And, in this case, not suck?

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[iCantSpell]

It will be the matrix all over again....

The matrix was a fine piece of garbage, just like spiderman(1-3), terminator(4), alien/predator(*), rocky(1-99), rambo(*) and even movies with the word "movie" in it.

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[Gruturo]

It's a pity they never made any sequels to that movie.
It was really fantastic.
Obligatory XKCD reference

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[jollyreaper]

The 1st Matrix movie was good. I don't see the analogy.

Just imagine if the second two ID4 movies are good. Alanis Morissette might write a song about it.

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[iotaborg]

Speaking of which, Will Smith was initially asked to play Neo in the Matrix, but declined (and did Wild Wild West instead). I think the world would be a very different place if that happened...

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[Anonymous Coward]

Have you even watched First Blood? It's a rather good movie I enjoy watching to this day.

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[FTWinston]

Hmm, ID4...
So next up, is it ID4-2 and ID4-3, or ID5 and ID6 - followed 20 years later by a prequal trilogy?

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[krou]

I suspect it'll be ID4-2-3D ...

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[mike2R]

You know, I rather like Independence Day. I'm not trying to claim it was a work of art or anything, but it was a fun alien invasion movie.

Admittedly I'm a sucker for fight-or-humanity-will-perish speeches...

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[Captain Hook]

wouldn't ID4-2 be ID2?

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[commodore64_love]

Yeah we wouldn't have that Wild West video which sat on top of the TRL (total request live) chart for half-a-year until finally MTV got sick of it and forced it into retirement.

The world would be deprived.

(cough)

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[UnknowingFool]

I think he means this:

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[polar red]

you really should see 'Mars attacks' then. now THAT was a fun movie.

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[Dr_Barnowl]

Yeah, something about duty and honour really chokes me up these days... it must be the "guy" equivalent of whatever romance means to girls.

This predidential speech and the one in Armageddon both have me close to tears, as does the moment when Bruce Willis pushes the button to blow up the asteroid, and the bit where Robert Duvall flies the spaceship into the comet in Deep Impact.

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[Monkeedude1212]

The 1st Matrix movie was good. I don't see the analogy.

In the same way that when I watch the Matrix Now, it's "Gritty-ness" is lost, the mysteriousness of it is cliche, and the slow motion seems gimmicky.

Now when I watch Independence Day - it was always a cheesey, laugh at me, "oh my gawdz aliens!" flick. It poked more fun at itself then I ever could have hoped to achieve. It is even funnier today than it was when it was released. Because now the meme has gone around to fear Jeff Goldblum's powerbook.

However, I feel that Independance day deserves to remain a single movie more than the Matrix did, even after it's sequels have come out.

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[Anonymous Coward]

So tired of xkcd karma whores... great comic, but please post something besides just a link.

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[AndrewNeo]

They should call it ID4^2 and ID4^3 instead.

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[prograde]

Much like the Highlander trilogy: There can be only one!

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[FTWinston]

I predict something stupidly incongruous, like
ID4, ID3D, ID3D^2

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[CrimsonAvenger]

I think Lucas did a really effective job of showing how Lord Vader/Anakin Skywalker was actually just a ponce

I think Lucas did a good job of showing Anakin as a whiny emo kid who thought that his adolescence was unlike any that had ever gone before.

Which, when you come right down to it, is how most adolescents view their high school years....

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[thebasicsteve]

Nope, definitely ID10-T.

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[operagost]

Thank U?

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[Lisandro]

"The 1st" They were sequels to that?!?!

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[Bakkster]

At least it was a collaboration with Stevie Wonder...

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[mike2R]

My all time favourite is from Babylon 5 movie In the Beginning. First you have Londo talking about how the humans fought in the Earth Mimbari war - here, and then immediately after it the President speaking before the Battle of the Line - here.

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[Em Emalb]

Wicki wicki wild wild.

Wicki wild wild.

Wicki wicki wild wild west! ...You're welcome.

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[Maxo-Texas]

The "1st"?

You speak as if there were Matrix sequels.

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[Anonymous Coward]

So ID16 and ID64?

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[Anonymous Coward]

wouldn't ID4-2 be ID2?

IDK, my bff Jill?

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[jollyreaper]

wouldn't ID4-2 be ID2?

No. The first one is ID4. Second ID5. Third ID6. You know what this means? There's going to be three prequels. FUCK!!!!

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[Anonymous Coward]

Will Smith was first approached to play Neo.

UNFORTUNATELY, Will Smith declined and ended up playing his role in Wild Wild West. The studio then approached Keanu Reeves. Of course Will Smiths wife, Jada Pinkette-Smith still played her role in the Matrix sequels.

Will Smith passed up probably the biggest movie role he could have ever played in his career, to do Wild Wild West. WTF????

He later apologized to his fans for passing up that opportunity. Although Keanu did a good job, I think Will Smith would have taken the role of Neo to another level.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Man, the entirely meme-based mind amuses me to no end. At least, it'll amuse me more once Hollywood misunderstands said meme, assumes everyone's forgotten, and makes more Matrix movies, further thrashing your precious childhood memories because you thought repeating the same joke over and over again within earshot of people notorious for not understanding modern internet culture was a good idea. Pure hilarity! I'll just be able to sit back and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh...

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[kimvette]

Except, The Matrix didn't suck. Matrix Reloaded didn't completely suck but it certainly did exhibit a high level of suck. Matrix Revolutions is so bad I've never made it all the way through. I've had it queued up on Netflix instant play for ages, but for some reason I never try watching it.

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[kimvette]

he's referring to Ironic

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[houghi]

I never got the name ID4. What happened to the other 3? If the 4 is a reference to the 4th of July, I can only ask: why? Are there so many Independence days in July that you need to make it clear which one you mean?

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[terjeber]

Alanis Morissette once played God. If this group of characters were able to make two good ID4 movies God would happily take on the role of Alanis Morissette so as to make a perfect song about this particular miracle.

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[edbob]

Did you watch the movie? After the aliens are defeated, July 4 becomes a worldwide holiday.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Who knows? If the Independence Day sequels are successful all these years later the studios might even be motivated to resurrect other old movies for sequels, such as The Matrix.

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[kimvette]

Agreed. The book is better though. (isn't that always the case?)

Rambo II is watchable.

III and the new one? They are absolutely nothing but special effects. Boring crap. But then again, I'm probably not the target demographic.

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[bjl1960]

that movie was f*cking hilarious...

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[Evtim]

""III and the new one? They are absolutely nothing but special effects""

That's because III and VI are propaganda.

The hilarious thing is that when I first watched III on a crappy VHS player (but every boy in class was envying the owner, a boy who's father, naturally, worked for the secret service), smuggled from hand to hand under communist regime with terribly bad dubbing (one voice, male, with bad dialect) we all cheered when Rambo kicked Russian ass. Knowing fully well that what happened on screen was 100% impossible - we did not buy that part. So the propaganda was working on us, or rather, we did not really needed it to know what's what. This is one of my fondest memories for its cultural and historical significance in my little life. As far as I can remember there was a dedication in the beginning "To the valiant people of Afghanistan" or some such. Utterly hilarious, especially with hindsight.

But the first was quite good, for sure!

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[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly, I'd like to see the Aliens return with even more ships, cause c'mon, those ships where just a recon fleet right?

Dont tell me they wiped out those aliens completely in the first movie?

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[Hatta]

Seeing the White House destroyed was pretty awesome, wasn't it.

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[eleuthero]

Which is why it is really good that it was fiction - I'd hate for a modern teenager to be able to pull an Anakin Skywalker on his teachers / friends / neighbors...

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[Grishnakh]

I was in high school when that movie came out. My friends and I all cheered loudly when we saw the trailer for Independence Day in the theater and the White House was destroyed.

Re:Crap

[Grishnakh]

The problem was the ending: the humans won. I'd rather see the aliens win. That's why I liked Avatar so much.

Of course, most of these movies (like ID) aren't at all realistic anyway. They always portray humans as flawed but mostly noble and moral beings. 5 minutes walking around in public would show that that's simply not the case (either that, or maybe I'm just living in the wrong place). Avatar was very accurate in its portrayal of humans as evil, greedy, stupid, and amoral, with a few exceptions.

Re:Crap

[ClickOnThis]

Independence Day was one of the most derivative pieces of drivel I have ever watched. Scene after scene, one can see blatant ripoffs of clichés from other movies: War of the Worlds, Dr. Strangelove, The Right Stuff, Alien, Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind...I'm sure I have missed a pile of others, and I haven't even talked about TV shows. Sitting through the thing, I kept thinking "geez, make your own movie, dammit." It was a resampling and stitching of borrowed iconic scenes, leading to the all-too-obvious American neo-con fantasy of expanding the national holiday to cover the entire world.

Re:Crap

[Jesus_666]

Replace the Force with a gun and reexamine that statement...

Re:Crap

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't even know there was a Rambo V yet!

Re:Crap

[Anonymous Coward]

No. It was pretty, and it gave birth to the now-played-out 3D bullet time effect. It was absolutely not a "good movie".

Re:Crap

[eleuthero]

thankfully, most teenagers also don't have access to guns at the times when they are most upset ... and that is the concern with anakin like power ... not whether or not they ever get that upset but whether in that moment of frustration / rage-induced insanity, will they have the power to do anything they will later deeply regret. Thankfully, in most cases, they do not (hence the no guns policies at schools)... It is only when the relationships around individuals break down completely that the ongoing issues develop into terminal rage.

Re:Crap

[mike2R]

Ah whatever, I just saw the movie as a bit of fun that was worth the price of admission. And I'm British and I enjoyed the speech.

Re:Crap

[COMON$]

maybe, just maybe you watch too many movies...

Re:Crap

[ardor]

Actually, humans are way too diverse to be universally called noble or evil. Most people don't want to go out and whack some native tribes, they just want to be left alone.
Also, in Avatar, its one corporation that acts greedy and evil, not the entire human race. Plus, their actions actually are illegal in that universe..

Re:Crap

[ardor]

Because now the meme has gone around to fear Jeff Goldblum's powerbook.

I like how this sounds. Imagine the announcer:

The Aliens upgraded their weapons (show new alien behemoth ship) .... but so did our heroes (show Jeff Goldblum with his iPad)

Re:Crap

[Stormwatch]

What do you mean, "1st" Matrix movie...?

Re:Crap

[Abstrackt]

The 1st Matrix movie was good. I don't see the analogy.

There was more than one Matrix Movie?

Re:Crap

[Sethumme]

IDT-1000?

Skynet sends Arnold Schwarzenegger back in time to fight aliens?

Re:Crap

[Grishnakh]

Most people don't want to go out and whack some native tribes, they just want to be left alone.

I'm not so sure about that. It seems that most people will happily follow along with any charismatic leader who promises them great things if they go and take it from someone else by force.

Also, in Avatar, its one corporation that acts greedy and evil, not the entire human race. Plus, their actions actually are illegal in that universe..

It's one corporation with a lot of money and power, and apparently a lot of loyal followers willing to risk their lives for it.

As for illegality, where'd you get that? I didn't see anything in the movie alleging that the corporation's actions were illegal. After all, they were on an alien world, beyond the reach of any Earth-bound government. If their actions were illegal, why would the Earth government allow them to ship all that military hardware over there? As far as I could tell, the problem was two-fold: 1) they were beyond any government's jurisdiction, so they could do what they wanted, and 2) they were a multinational corp. that mined some unnamed material that was needed for human society to continue functioning, so of course governments would look the other way when it came to how the corporation got that material.

I've read they're already planning a sequel too, so hopefully those Na'Vi will predict that the humans will return in force, and will take the time to prepare themselves appropriately. They should have 10 years or so before the humans can come back, unless there's some sort of FTL communications technology that they didn't mention in the first movie, in which case it'll be 5 years.

Re:Crap

[Anonymous Coward]

I liked Mars Attacks better when they blew up Congress. "I want the people to know that they still have 2 out of 3 branches of the government working for them, and that ain't bad!"

Re:Crap

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure was better than Mars Attacks. Oh, the humanity.

Re:Crap

[Phoghat]

"very accurate in its portrayal of humans as evil, greedy, stupid, and amoral, with a few exceptions."

I don't think this is completely correct. Using WW II as an example, human beings CAN and will (I hope) pull together in a time of crisis. In WW II fighting the Axis, we were fighting against a threat to our very way of life, and not only the US but its allies came together, forgot petty differences, and defeated it.

Re:Crap

[commodore64_love]

>>>So will there be ID4, ID5, ID6, followed by a three-part prequel?

I think Lucas did a really effective job of showing how Lord Vader/Anakin Skywalker was actually just a ponce - i.e. like your typical tyrant.

Re:Crap

[Grishnakh]

Using WW II as an example, human beings CAN and will (I hope) pull together in a time of crisis.

The Axis weren't exactly doing nice things in that war, and there were millions of troops on that side. Those humans weren't any different from the ones on the Allied side; they just happened to be born on the other side of a boundary, and have different leadership. They did as their leaders told them to do.

and not only the US but its allies came together, forgot petty differences, and defeated it.

And afterwards, turned back on each other. The Soviet Union and the USA were sorta allies in WWII, but went on afterwards to have a giant cold war. And now, just within the USA, its own citizens seem to be turning on each other.

I think my assessment of humans as being generally stupid, easily led, and lacking in critical and independent thinking ability is completely fair. The only reason atrocities like WWII happen is because people are so willing to follow bad and evil leaders and do their bidding.

Why?

[ground.zero.612]

Seriously, why do movies generate so much nerd rage? It's not like it was called "Independence Day: the real life prophecy of the truths to come."

It was a movie, made to entertain the masses. Was it any worse than Men in Black? I happened to have enjoyed both films actually. Queue the continued nerd rage in 3...2...1...

Re:Why?

[PhongUK]

Because sequels are often a complete cop-out.

Re:Why?

[edittard]

Queue the continued nerd rage in 3...2...1...

Righto. Should we form the line to the left or the right?

Re:Why?

[ground.zero.612]

Yes, I agree that often times sequels are not up to par. I am one of those people that knows that the Matrix is not a trilogy.

I just don't see any reason to get all mad about them. As an example, those other movies in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the Matrix, IMHO.

Re:Why?

[PhongUK]

I agree that people can get a bit hyper about shit sequels. The same is done for computer games though to be honest and while i have more important things to worry about in my life, they clearly don't :D

Re:Why?

[cmiller173]

Oh, I almost totally missed that ground.zero.612 wants his nerd rage orderly, otherwise he would have cued the nerd rage which would have resulted in an unruly mob of rage.

Re:Why?

[Grizzley9]

Yeah, because all of nerdom hates The Black Knight.

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is no time to behave in civilized way. I say we go en masse.

Re:Why?

[ground.zero.612]

Queue the continued nerd rage in 3...2...1...

Righto. Should we form the line to the left or the right?

To the left. Here in the US that's the side that has oncoming traffic.

Re:Why?

[Talderas]

How can you possibly make a sequel to Independence Day? They defeated the aliens.

Independence Day 2 - The aliens are back with a vengeance!
Independence Day 3 - After hijacking a mothership using an iPad nano, Will Smith and Jeff Goldbloom take the fight to the alien homeworld!

Also, were the aliens migratory, as in the moved from planet to planet like a swarm of locusts?

Re:Why?

[MistrBlank]

They blew up the mothership, they blew up many of the ships hovering the globe. There is no indication that the whole race was eradicated.

Re:Why?

[jeffasselin]

Well-ordered nerd rages have only been proven if you assume the axiom of choice though, which I thought we weren't accepting in this thread.

Re:Why?

[Dr_Barnowl]

It's not inconceivable that such a civilization would split periodically ; they're obviously in love with the idea of unsustainable growth, or they would presumably just get ahold of their birth rate and settle down on some world or even an artificial habitat.

Of course, it could just be a different hostile alien civilization. It would be nice to explore different dynamics of trying to take over the earth. Of course, this is Roland Emmerich we're talking about. Lots of Boom Boom Pow for sure...

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not only that, but how do you know the ones we saw represented the whole race? Maybe it was just a mothership (heading a "scout fleet" if you will) whose purpose was to wipe out the humans before everyone else arrived. Then a few years later the rest of the aliens show up and after a big "WTF?" moment start killing everyone.

Re:Why?

[Thanshin]

Independence Day 2:

The aliens were the ships. What we thought were the aliens were the ship's parasites. Having discovered a planet that cleans them of parasites, the aliens come en masse to be cleaned. The earth fight endless "alien" hordes, never understanding we've become a galactic "spa" for the aliens.

Independence Day 3:

The aliens finally aknowledge the existance of the parasite cleaners who call themselves "hunams". They decide that the "hunams" are Earth's parasites and, fearing contagion, declare the solar system a bio-hazard zone and nuke it from galactical orbit.

Re:Why?

[grumpyman]

May be because it's an American-centric story on a single heroic character kick the thousands of hero just by himself? I'm not a star_xxxx fanboy at all and I don't know if this movie or star war 1 was worse...

Re:Why?

[elrous0]

Movies like "Men in Black" have a more self-conscience sense of humor about themselves that earns them a great deal more tolerance. Movies like "Independence Day" that sell themselves as more serious action movies are expected to have a least a little plausibility in the real world. Aside from the usual problems with a weak script and poor direction, it probably didn't help that Independence Day was loaded with obnoxious product placement (it was like watching a 2 hour long Apple commercial) and other such cynical nods to the fact that the movie was just a crass money grab made by people who could have cared less whether the movie was actually any good or not.

Re:Why?

[geekoid]

Because Geeks can be idiots sometimes.

The primary reason is that an Apple laptop was used to gain control of the ship.

Of course the refuse to think about the fact that:

A) The ship was studied for 50 years
B) We know how electronics work
C) He didn't necessarily have to be running OSX.

They seem to think the technology would be magic and impossible to work with. Idiots.

Except for the ending, it is a perfectly fine 'Aliens going to take over the world' movie.
The filming of the plane striking the ship was pretty weak.

Now, the whole concept that aliens would take over the world by landing here and send in ships is a weak plot in any alien movie.

They could have just dropped rocks from space.

I don't mind there being sequels. If they are good, then good for me, if they stink, then I won't go see them. There is a lot of potential in the world they created. Area ll the Aliens dead? Do we take their tech and find more of them? Do they have some type of bacteria that is harm full to humans?
What effects does the tech have on our culture? What about other Alien races? Do they come and visit us because we eliminated them? Do we spread out to the stars?

Re:Why?

[nottheusualsuspect]

KA: You've lost your plot!

BK: No I haven't.

KA: Look!

BK: *Looks* Its just a flesh wound.

KA: *exasperatedly* A flesh wound?

BK: I've had worse! Did you see-

KA: Yes, yes, Patsy and I both saw National Security, and regret it terribly; in fact, I've half a mind to take your leg just out of spite.

Re:Why?

[RMingin]

JESUS, dude! SPOILERS!

Re:Why?

[UnknowingFool]

Way too cerebral for the average movie goer. More like:

Independence Day 2:
The aliens ships were just a small part of a larger hive. Having lost contact with the scouts, a larger force comes looking for them. Mass invasion occurs.

Independence Day 3:
The humans are losing the war and are on the brink of extinction. But all the aliens are controlled by a hive mind in the aliens homeworld. One tactical strike and all the aliens become zombies.

Re:Why?

[Rogerborg]

Toooooo much brainthinky. It's all about the title.

• Idependence Day 2 - Independencer Day
• Independence Day 3 - Independendest Day.

Re:Why?

[kimvette]

MIB never pretended to be a serious sci-fi franchise, and it was a lot of fun to watch.

Independence Day: they tried to make it a serious sci-fi movie, but failed (see: Jeff Goldblum) . I enjoy watching it (ID4) though because it's neat to see 1996 CGI effects and what they accomplished at the time.

Re:Why?

[kimvette]

No, they would _Jailbreak_ the mother ship's central computer, and leave SSH enabled with the default root password. Malware will find its way on the ship and all of the consoles on board will display annoying ads and completely take over the computer, dragging it to a halt. The aliens call a truce and agree to part ways if we grant them free licensing to the Norton Internet Security suite (the joke is on them, muahahaha!)

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

How can you possibly make a sequel to Independence Day? They defeated the aliens.

Actually, ID5 would be the day human history got interesting. Humanity has dozens of fried-out alien ship husks littering the planet, and probably a few alien survivors. Lots of advanced technology for the taking.

The first few years after ID4 would be a very interesting time for humanity. Does the species continue its cooperation and reverse-engineer the ships and their weapons, or do we immediately retreat to our national flags and tear ourselves apart in a race to get the technology before The Other Humans do?

Also, were the aliens migratory, as in the moved from planet to planet like a swarm of locusts?

"African or European?" :)

Not just a Monty Python reference - whaddya think we'd do if we'd just (a) had a hostile first-contact experience, (b) kicked their asses, and (c) spent a century or so (with an optional world war in the race to see which nation gets to be top dog before we figured out how to work together as a species) reverse-engineering all that technology from the remains of the burned-out city-ships.

If ID5's the story of what happens after first contact (imagine "District 9", but with more hate, and one in which the humans win by preventing the aliens from escaping the camps), ID6 is when we scrap the Federation of Star Trek, and become the Empire of the evil-Spock mirror universe.

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

It was a movie, made to entertain the masses.

So were the LOTR movies and they were excellent. "It's made for the masses" is not an excuse to suck.

Re:Why?

[Carewolf]

The humans are losing the war and are on the brink of extinction. But all the aliens are controlled by a hive mind in the aliens homeworld. One tactical strike and all the aliens become zombies.

Uhh.. A cliffhanger?

This opens up for a new triology dealing with the invasion of alien zombies!!

Re:Why?

[TheRaven64]

C) He didn't necessarily have to be running OSX.

If he'd been running OS X, it would have been impressive, since the film was produced several years before OS X. Using the PowerBook itself was not such a bad idea, obviously you'd use off-the-shelf parts for the human-interface portion. The problem was that they decided to show a close up of the screen and it clearly showed the alien ship running AppleTalk. Given that almost no one on Earth uses AppleTalk, that's quite a stretch... If they'd gone with the normal MovieOS interface, with just some generic 'connecting to alien network' text, it would have been fine.

Re:Why?

[ground.zero.612]

May be because it's an American-centric story on a single heroic character kick the thousands of hero just by himself? I'm not a star_xxxx fanboy at all and I don't know if this movie or star war 1 was worse...

So if he was Mexican it wouldn't have sucked, IYHO? Were you also mad at the fact that it premiered on our actual US Independence Day?

Somehow, I don't think nearly as many people would have gone to see "Cinco de Mayo" with a Mexican-centric hero fighting illegal space Mexic... er.. aliens...

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's the only way to be sure.

Re:Why?

[Nidi62]

Not true. After the Secret Service guys kill the alien that had Bill Pullman, he talks about how their whole species moves from planet to planet. The whole dialogue implies that the whole species is traveling en masse , and that they made earth their newest stop.

Re:Why?

[ground.zero.612]

MIB never pretended to be a serious sci-fi franchise, and it was a lot of fun to watch.

Independence Day: they tried to make it a serious sci-fi movie, but failed (see: Jeff Goldblum) . I enjoy watching it (ID4) though because it's neat to see 1996 CGI effects and what they accomplished at the time.

What's wrong with Jeff Goldblum? I believe he's the front runner in the Jeff GoldBluMan Group.

Re:Why?

[idontgno]

I like it.

Hell, the surprisingly-predictable faux plot twist/surprise ending practically writes itself: the shocking discovery of the identity of the leader of the insidious, insular, and aggressive alien culture.

Re:Why?

[Hurricane78]

Well, nerd rage... it’s what continued sex deprivation does to you... ^^

Re:Why?

[kimvette]

Haven't you seen J&SBSB?

The Internet is a communication tool used the world over where people can come together to bitch about movies and share pornography with one another.

Hope this clears things up for you! :)

April Fools' Day?

[DiademBedfordshire]

Please let it be an early April Fools' Day joke.

Re:April Fools' Day?

[Kamokazi]

omg ponies?

Re:April Fools' Day?

[Anonymous Coward]

And I am sure Data won't have a monologue about what it means to be human. Instead, Will Smith will use the iPad to upload all of Data's poetry (see "Ode to Spot") to the aliens computer like in "A Fist Full of Data's" and their holodeck will start talking about how Felis Cattus is the taxonomic nomenclature an endothermic quadruped carnivorous by nature or whatever that quote was (I didn't look it up; guess that makes me a geek).

Re:April Fools' Day?

[Gadget_Guy]

Please let it be an early April Fools' Day joke.

It had already gone midnight in New Zealand when this was posted. I assumed that this marked the start of the crap day of /. that is April Fools. Are you saying that there is a chance that it might be true???

Re:April Fools' Day?

[BatGnat]

Thank you someone who acknowledges that 1st April does not start at midnight America time

Re:April Fools' Day?

[izomiac]

TFA says "This is still marked as a rumour, so we'll let you know when (and if!) it’s confirmed." and no other sources are provided. It is currently Thursday, April 1, 2010 at 12:22:38 PM on Christmas Island (6:22 PM EDT).

April Fools?

[LtGordon]

Wednesday March 31, @09:29AM

I think they jumped the gun. At least I hope that's the case.

Re:April Fools?

[Lunzo]

It's already April Fools day in some parts of the world. They were just making sure they got the joke in before noon.

Not bad....

[vikingpower]

...for an early 1st-of-April prank....

Re:Not bad....

[BatGnat]

It is not early. It is just not April 1 where you are. America is behind the rest of the world.

goddamnit

[roman_mir]

Aren't there other interesting stories that could be told through the art of movies that are not stupid?

Can't they finally shoot the Ring World or something like that with the same Will Smith as the main character?

Jesus holly fucker.

Re:goddamnit

[roman_mir]

Hollly shit, you fucking Anonymous Coward, you are right, you primitive, motherfucking, cock-licking bastard!

Re:goddamnit

[tom17]

Jesus holly fucker, I think you may be right!

Re:goddamnit

[GIL_Dude]

I'm in for Ring World but are you seriously saying Will Smith would be Louis Wu? Or would he dress up in a Wookie outfit and be Speaker To Animals? (Yes, I know a Kzin isn't supposed to look quite like a Wookie - more catlike and all, but it was still funny). He certainly couldn't be a Pierson's Pupeteer or Teela Brown. Darn, why do I remember all their names?

I'm sure he's down with rishathra though!

Re:goddamnit

[roman_mir]

Why not Wu? Wu was not supposed to be identifiable as someone of a specific race, is that why? The age is somewhat appropriate, but seriously, if they can do 15 feet tall blue Sigourney Weaver (I haven't seen yet, but I hear) then can't they do a bit of a makeover with Smith?

Re:goddamnit

[M8e]

jesus Holly Sampson fucker!

Re:goddamnit

[tophermeyer]

Its funny, I am actually re-reading the Ring World series now. Will Smith should have no involvement with a Ring World film whatsoever. He just doesn't fit any of the characters (not that that would really prevent him from being cast though).

And interestingly on the topic of crappy unnecessary sequels, Ring Worlds Children blows. I mean, it really blows. Its awful.

Re:goddamnit

[Verteiron]

Niven should have stuck with his original idea, which was to explain the disappearing ships in hyperspace as "kidnapped by a tnuctip". I'd love to see Known Space blown to smithereens by "we've been hiding in hyperspace for billions of years" tnuctipun.

Re:goddamnit

[L4t3r4lu5]

Jesus holly fucker.

1) It was made of thorns.
2) Wrong head.

Re:goddamnit

[geekoid]

Ring World woudl have problems.

The story would need serious trimming to make a film. This would irritate fans of the books, and geeks who get there jollies from not liking movies.

A lot of what happens is interesting because of events from the past that need explaining. Three legged, 2 headed creature doing a spinning back kick when everyone thought they were just cowards. Difficult to explain in a 2 hour movie. The audience just wont be able to relate.

Now, in a 10 hour mini-series it's entirely doable.

Re:goddamnit

[Princeofcups]

Aren't there other interesting stories that could be told through the art of movies that are not stupid?

You obviously never saw "The Puppet Masters." Sometimes it's worse when Hollywood has a brilliant story to start with, and completely loses any semblance of the original material. If you are going to make mediocre movies, there's no problem starting with mediocre scripts. A lot of Roger Corman and Hammer Studio movies come to mind. Great entertaining films in all their cheesiness.

Re:goddamnit

[Anonymous Coward]

What like" I am legend?

The best book I read in several years.

They put will smith in it.

People have stopped me watching it just so I don't self harm.

Re:goddamnit

[sarhjinian]

Screw Ringworld, the cinema cries for Discworld.

And no, the one with Sean Astin as Twoflower doesn't count.

Re:goddamnit

[CosaNostra Pizza Inc]

Ring World is something I'd like to see. Other movies that could potentially be very good if redone RIGHT: Philip Jose Farmer's "Riverworld" series, L Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth. There was a Riverworld miniseries on the SyFy channel a few years back but it was a horrible, loose adaption of the novels. Battlefield Earth was an awesome novel. L Ron Hubbard may have been a whackjob cult leader but this novel was a science fiction masterpiece. Too bad the 2000 movie of the same name was such a poor adaption with lousy effects and hammy acting. Other movies I'd like to see: Ender's Game, Childhood's End, Neuromancer, The Man in the High Castle,

Re:goddamnit

[Anonymous Coward]

Yay! Off to e-mail SyFy!

Re:goddamnit

[Hurricane78]

Can't they finally shoot the Ring World or something like that with the same Will Smith as the main character?
Jesus holly fucker.

Oh god. I read that as “Right Wing World. *shivers*!

But you must know, that for the business people, everything revolves around an imaginary concept called “IP”. And they want to milk every “IP” for as long as possible, before risking something new. Which usually means: Until the whole population completely and utterly hates it!

I think making art a business in just plain wrong. And “IP” is disgusting and perverse.

Re:goddamnit

[spitzak]

I seem to remember Larry Niven saying in response to "will somebody ever make a Ringworld movie?" something like "I hope not. Right now I get a big payment every time one studio sells the rights to another, and that would stop if the movie ever got made".

Anybody know if this quip is true?

Oh dear lord.

[Pandanapper]

The huddled masses of special effects lovers will pay their last drop of blood to see it too. You don't even need a storyline.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[eldavojohn]

The huddled masses of special effects lovers will pay their last drop of blood to see it too. You don't even need a storyline.

Of course, why do you think they've announced Men in Black 3, Hancock 2 and (*shudder*) I, Robot 2?

And keep in mind that these are just sequels that Will Smith is involved with. Rarely I go to the theater but one of the big detractors is when every single goddamn preview before the feature film is about a sequel. It started happening frequently a couple years ago and now is just completely out of hand.

I imagine the 3D effect is going to exacerbate this situation. "Yeah, we done did Watchmen but now we need an excuse to capitalize off of Watchmen in 3D so we'll hack together a script for Watchmen 2: Who Watches Those Who Are Watching the Watchmen? Do you smell boatloads of money?"

Re:Oh dear lord.

[somersault]

To be fair, there have actually been some decent sequels out in the last few years though - definitely as far as superhero movies go. Probably not so much when it comes to other types of movie (though I have to say I did enjoy AvP2, it's much better than the first at least). Can't wait for Iron Man 2, it is going to kick some serious ass :)

Re:Oh dear lord.

[MozeeToby]

Maybe someone finally showed them how to make an alien 'invasion' movie correctly, so now they think they should give it another go.

What it boils down to is that every alien invasion movie and TV show ever made comes up against at least two fatal flaws. First, there's no logical reason for aliens capable of interstellar travel to attack us. If we're assuming aliens that can live on Earth the assumption must be that Earth-like planets are common, why would the aliens risk starting interstellar war for resources that are apparently quite common unless... Second, aliens capable of interstellar travel would be capable of wiping us out with little to no effort. The idea that we would win a conflict against a species that has had high technology for at least thousands of years longer than us is quite laughable (actually, the first film handled this correctly for the first 95% of the movie, humans had inflicted exactly 1 casualty on the aliens since the attacks began, until the ridiculous 'computer virus' crap came in and suddenly the alien craft were made of Papier-mâché).

Re:Oh dear lord.

[L4t3r4lu5]

Iron Man 2 has Don Cheadle as War Machine. Don Cheadle ffs.

Terrence Howard must be gutted.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[Anonymous Coward]

First, there's no logical reason for aliens capable of interstellar travel to attack us. If we're assuming aliens that can live on Earth the assumption must be that Earth-like planets are common, why would the aliens risk starting interstellar war for resources that are apparently quite common unless...

Actually in ID4 I think they made a decent attempt at an explanation... Decent in that it hangs together for at least the time from introduction to the end of the movie, even if it may not stand serious scrutiny afterward. If you'll recall, in ID4 the aliens were compared to locusts, so apparently when they get too numerous and deplete all the local resources they move on to another star system. In the movie focused on just the planet Earth, but they could just as well wait to exhaust most of the resources of an entire solar system. This sort of thing actually has been practiced (albeit on a much smaller scale) in human history, see slash and burn agriculture for an example of what I mean. Also, in case the subtext was too subtle for you (i.e. the clue-by-four managed to miss your head :p) there was a definite environmentalist theme in ID4, so it makes narrative sense that the villains of the piece would have an extremely rapacious and unsustainable way of life.

Finally, you might contend that any species advanced enough to move its civilization across interstellar distances would have figured-out a better solution to their resource problems than continual expansion, genocide, and slash and burn on an interplanetary scale. My response would be you would think that humans, being a species that is capable of near-instant planetary communications and has been around in recognizable form for at least 200,000 years, would have figured-out a better way to resolve our issues than lethal force, especially on the scale of modern warfare. Taking the pessimistic view (because of what could imply about our own species), perhaps the aliens in ID4 were forced into taking such drastic measures because they were psychologically incapable of implementing better cultural strategies to solve their resource needs!

Of course, none of this indicates a particular need or desire for another ID4 movie, much less two of them! ;)

Re:Oh dear lord.

[somersault]

I was disappointed that it's a different actor, but he is a decent actor nevertheless. I admit I've only seen him in Ocean's Whatever and Hotel Rwanda but again he works well in both comedy and drama roles. You'd think they'd try to stick to the same actors - there must be some reason Terrence didn't get the part.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[maxume]

There probably won't be a sequel to Watchmen. It wasn't particularly successful, and a sequel would lose a lot of the core audience (read that as 'nerds').

(I didn't find any information about it, but I wouldn't be surprised if no one has the rights to even do a sequel; if Frank Miller still has the rights to the characters, no way will there be a sequel, if DC or some other company has the rights, then you have to decide if someone would finance such a thing)

Re:Oh dear lord.

[geekoid]

Squeals are getting a lot better. I think the rule of what Hollywood considers a 'successful' sequel has changed a lot.

In the 70s and 80s the rule was :"If it make 75% of what the original did, it's a success. SO they would spend less money accordingly. SO you can see why the quality would stink.

Some where hugely success squeals. Aliens, for example. I think the industry is starting to realize that a good squeal will make as much, if not more, then the original. Of course, that's just the money side. You also need actors that don't just phone it in.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[geekoid]

So? He's a perfectly fine actor.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[eldavojohn]

if Frank Miller still has the rights to the characters

Who? You might want to contact Alan Moore and let him know you just confused him with Frank Miller. Let me know if you survive!

Furthermore, I think Moore was dead set against a movie if I recall correctly. Somehow he got strong armed into letting it happen. Don't think the publisher or other people involved don't want massive payouts when the author or creator has only integrity to uphold!

Re:Oh dear lord.

[Zenaku]

Okay. I know I'm about to get into one of those hypothetical nerd arguments that nobody can win, but what the hell. I'm waiting for an utterly inadequate laptop to deploy a shamefully bloated enterprise app to a local instance of Websphere, so I've got 10 minutes to kill.

If we're assuming aliens that can live on Earth the assumption must be that Earth-like planets are common, why would the aliens risk starting interstellar war for resources that are apparently quite common

There is no reason to assume that interstellar travel is fast or inexpensive. Maybe it took the aliens a thousand years and 10 generations to get here, and they haven't got the resources to get to the next closest earth-like planet.

Second, aliens capable of interstellar travel would be capable of wiping us out with little to no effort.

What are you basing this on? Oh yes of course, the idea that "Technology" constitutes a single field, and that advancement in one area automatically means advancement in others. Where did everyone get this idea? If we invent a cure for cancer tomorrow, will we suddenly know how to build a matter teleporter? It is perfectly conceivable that a species could develop interstellar travel without inventing a way to instantly and selectively kill off a particular species on a planet. Saying it is laughable is like being surprised that we can put a man on the moon, but still can't cure the common cold. The two things have nothing to do with one another.

Have to agree with you about Jeff Goldblum -- in a single afternoon -- deciphering the alien equivalent of TCP/IP and hacking up a computer virus capable of running on alien hardware. Beyond ridiculous.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Watchmen 2: Who Watches Those Who are Watching the Watchmen???!!!"

(Score: 6, Hilarious)

Re:Oh dear lord.

[MozeeToby]

If you're in orbit around the planet, you already have everything you need to destroy the Earth's military and economic power. A bar of steel dropped from orbit has more power than an anti-tank round. An asteroid has the power of a nuclear weapon. In a high orbit, an alien spaceship would be essentially untouchable from any available weapons and would have firepower in direct proportion to available mass. Interstellar travel is hard, the energy requirements just to get a ship into orbit are massive, let alone accelerating it to a speed that would make interstellar travel acceptable. There is no form of realistic interstellar propulsion that wouldn't also make a devastatingly powerful weapon, if for no other reason than you can always drop a few tons of steel onto the planet at 10% the speed of light.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[timholman]

Have to agree with you about Jeff Goldblum -- in a single afternoon -- deciphering the alien equivalent of TCP/IP and hacking up a computer virus capable of running on alien hardware. Beyond ridiculous.

That was absolutely one of the most cringeworthy aspects of the movie, and they could have fixed it with a single scene.

Data: "But it's strange - despite their formidable technology, their computer and communications networks are extremely straightforward - no encryption at all. We've spent years reverse-engineering the command codes for their systems. We've had a lot of success - for all the good it has done us."

Goldblum: "What - an advanced race like this, and the idea of passwords and encryption didn't occur to them?"

Pullman: "No - they're telepaths. They can't lie or hide anything from each other - and we're the only other advanced civilization they're ever encountered. No other race they've destroyed had computers."

Goldblum: "Give me everything you have on their computer systems and command codes. I have an idea ..."

Sure, it would have still been a stretch, but a lot easier to swallow.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[corbettw]

You're assuming that humans don't possess something the aliens need. In the Legacy of the Aldenata books, it's industrial capacity (and food resources, including humans). In Independence Day, it's natural resources. In the World at War series (with the lizards landing during WW2), it was economic features like consumers and producers (they didn't just want to add a world to their empire, they wanted new subjects to add to their empire's economic base). In the V reboot, it seems to be worshippers of their queen. In War of the Worlds, it's water (at least, that's what's implied in the opening chapter). In every case, the invaders could scour the earth clean of humanity, but doing so would defeat the purpose of coming here.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[schon]

Squeals are getting a lot better.

Eeeeeeeek!!!!

Re:Oh dear lord.

[maxume]

Yeah, oops. I doubt he cares much about what I think though.

Moore has certainly made it clear that he didn't want anything to do with the movie that got released, but I'm not sure that extends all the way back into to the time when the book first came out. I can certainly see him changing his mind after League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[Hatta]

Have to agree with you about Jeff Goldblum -- in a single afternoon -- deciphering the alien equivalent of TCP/IP and hacking up a computer virus capable of running on alien hardware. Beyond ridiculous.

Obviously the aliens used Apple hardware. Fortunately for us, they believed the hype that Apple software was immune to viruses.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[c 0xFF]

Thank you! I'm now going to reenact this scene whenever I watch the movie, just to make it complete.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[Gulthek]

Dude, you're forgetting that in the context of the movie all modern computer technology was derived from the analysis of the alien spaceship.

It worked like this:

Goldblum Computer -> known, prebuilt interface to alien ship -> mothership -> invasion fleet

No other civilization had computers? That's more of a stretch!

Re:Oh dear lord.

[Anonymous Coward]

Your comment, and this the first time I have written this, is perfect. You should be writing screenplays!

Re:Oh dear lord.

[Anonymous Coward]

There is no reason to assume that interstellar travel is fast or inexpensive. Maybe it took the aliens a thousand years and 10 generations to get here, and they haven't got the resources to get to the next closest earth-like planet.

Exactly, and think about this: if it took them 1000 years, how they would see us through their 'telescopes' is a 1000 years ago, so they only expected us to walk around with swords and arrows...

As you said maybe they didn't really evolve 'predicting extraterestrial behaviour' which is pretty understandable...

Re:Oh dear lord.

[Anonymous Coward]

Even if they had written a scene like that, it'd probably get cut to make way for more action scenes. If you're lucky it might make it to the "deleted scenes".

Sounds like it would have been a pretty good explanation though.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[Anonymous Coward]

In addition to that, they could have even gone as far as to say that our computing and networking technology (APRANET, TCP/IP, x86 (lol), whatever) was to some extent derived from Area51's decades-long research into the alien command codes. That would have brought Goldblum's uncanny virus-writing speed into the realm of feasibility -- he would have been able to draw on existing knowledge as well.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[ardor]

Well, defending against such an attack would be very hard, if not impossible, since the kinetic projectiles wouldn't be easy to spot. Add their extreme speed to this, and you better have excellent equipment that can find them quickly.

On the other hand, effective counterattacks are possible. Install killer satellites in orbit, armed with high-energy lasers or kinetic weapons of their own. Or, install ground-based lasers. This kind of armament is at least a decade away, but once its there, that ship you mention would not get away unscathed.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[Anonymous Coward]

Interstellar Travel in itself is a means in which to destroy a planets.

Strap whatever it is they are using to propel their huge Motherships through space to something sufficiently large enough (a comet, a moon, a planet, or just use an old mother ship for all I care) and set it at near light speeds (or hyperspace speeds if it is such a place where hyperspace exists and objects traveling through it can interact with objects not in it) and aim it for earth. That would damage devastating enough to pretty much end Earth's chance of resistance (i.e. Resistance is Futile)

Re:Oh dear lord.

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't forget: he does that using MS-DOS. Which makes for a good argument about the interstellar origins of one Bill Gates...

Re:Oh dear lord.

[Rande]

If we invent a cure for cancer tomorrow, will we suddenly know how to build a matter teleporter?

The cure for cancer _is_ the matter teleporter. Just send the patient through the teleporter but omit the cancerous cells.
I'm imagining more the Tron digitiser rather than the Star Trek version, but most similar magic techs will do.
Pretty much the cure for everything except memory loss if you can rebuild a person up from the subatomic level.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[Anonymous Coward]

Grandparent:

Second, aliens capable of interstellar travel would be capable of wiping us out with little to no effort.

Parent:

What are you basing this on?

The most obvious possibility is that, if they've got propulsion technology that allows them to move large spaceships from one star to another, then they can also use it to move spaceship-sized asteroids from the asteroid belt to Earth. We'd probably never even know they existed, let alone have the chance to make humanity-in-peril speeches.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[Anonymous Coward]

Goldblum: "What - an advanced race like this, and the idea of passwords and encryption didn't occur to them?"

That doesn't work because the aliens were able to decipher and hack into the satellites. Therefore, the aliens are probably highly advanced in cryptography.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[scerruti]

I'm going to go way out on a limb here....

Have to agree with you about Jeff Goldblum -- in a single afternoon -- deciphering the alien equivalent of TCP/IP and hacking up a computer virus capable of running on alien hardware. Beyond ridiculous.

Earlier in the movie the Aliens had managed to hack into all of Earth's communication satellites in order to broadcast their countdown timer. (They apparently lack accurate time pieces.) Perhaps, in order to communicate with all of Earth's communication satellites, they needed to build a common Earth like interface. Then imagine that they distributed this interface (let's say it was a rudimentary, poorly secured Python interpreter) via a Windows update type mechanism to all their ships. Finally, they built into it the ability to patch itself so that they could add communication routines for other satellites over time to all the ships.

Now all Jeff Goldblum has to do is write one little Python script that calls a system function in this alien built python interpreter to disable the shields. It turns out the disable the shields command was actually a side effect of a buffer overflow that Jeff discovered when he was trying to make the interpreter display the skull and crossbones.

It's all actually very believable compared to giant alien ships coming into orbit just to destroy buildings. In fact, come to think of it, it was probably in the movie and then got cut because it was just "too obvious".

Re:Oh dear lord.

[Anonymous Coward]

Have to agree with you about Jeff Goldblum -- in a single afternoon -- deciphering the alien equivalent of TCP/IP and hacking up a computer virus capable of running on alien hardware. Beyond ridiculous.

They had been studying it for, what, 50 years? I don't understand why so many people have a problem with this part of the story.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[timholman]

That doesn't work because the aliens were able to decipher and hack into the satellites. Therefore, the aliens are probably highly advanced in cryptography.

Right - and that's the plot point I would have removed. After all, the entire idea of them needing our satellites to coordinate their attack was blindingly stupid. What, these advanced aliens can't synchronize their own clocks prior to an attack?

The "satellite hacking" bit was written into the movie to give Goldblum something to figure out and try to warn everyone about. It never made sense in the context of the aliens' capabilities. It was just the best idea the writers could come up with.

Re:Oh dear lord.

[mjwx]

Sure, it would have still been a stretch, but a lot easier to swallow.

But he used a mac, they "just work".

Re:Oh dear lord.

[npsimons]

That was absolutely one of the most cringeworthy aspects of the movie, and they could have fixed it with a single scene.

Data: "But it's strange - despite their formidable technology, their computer and communications networks are extremely straightforward - no encryption at all. We've spent years reverse-engineering the command codes for their systems. We've had a lot of success - for all the good it has done us."

Goldblum: "What - an advanced race like this, and the idea of passwords and encryption didn't occur to them?"

Pullman: "No - they're telepaths. They can't lie or hide anything from each other - and we're the only other advanced civilization they're ever encountered. No other race they've destroyed had computers."

Goldblum: "Give me everything you have on their computer systems and command codes. I have an idea ..."

Sure, it would have still been a stretch, but a lot easier to swallow.

You, my good man are a genius. YOU should be writing (at least parts of) movie scripts. A thirty second scene (if that!) that could have saved millions of geeks years of agony; brilliant!

I surely can't be the only one

[inigopete]

...who found it ironic that a film with "Independence" in the title had quite so many product placements in it.

Re:I surely can't be the only one

[Anonymous Coward]

What is freedom if not the freedom to buy? We do live in a consumer paradise after all.

Re:I surely can't be the only one

[dangitman]

...who found it ironic that a film with "Independence" in the title had quite so many product placements in it.

Hey! I use Depend® brand adult diapers, so get off my motherfucking lawn with your predictable urinary cycle.

Once you seen one Roland Emmerich

[rolfwind]

epic film, you've seen them all.

Same emotional highs and lows, same treatment of relationships, same everything.

You'd think a creative person would want to move on and do something different.

Re:Once you seen one Roland Emmerich

[Mindcontrolled]

Well, from film to film he somewhat increased the amount of destruction. How he will ever top 2012 in that regard is unclear to me. But hey, Emmerich is basically making disaster porn... You are not saying that anyone watches that stuff for the storý, are you?

Re:Once you seen one Roland Emmerich

[quantumplacet]

like maybe a biopic on shakespeare?

Re:Once you seen one Roland Emmerich

[Culture20]

Well, from film to film he somewhat increased the amount of destruction. How he will ever top 2012 in that regard is unclear to me. But hey, Emmerich is basically making disaster porn... You are not saying that anyone watches that stuff for the storý, are you?

In ID4 2 (ID5?), we take the fight to the aliens' conquered planets. We destroy more than one planet! That's how the devastation increases. In ID6, Humanity destroys the aliens' whole home galaxy. 'Cause we're that cool.

Re:Once you seen one Roland Emmerich

[Anonymous Coward]

"'Cause we're that cool."

Damn straight we are! Actually:

"ID4 3:Cause we're that cool!"

would make a great tag line for the movie.

Re:Once you seen one Roland Emmerich

[kalirion]

Without over-analyzing, I'd say that Stargate, Independence Day, and 13th Floor were all rather different from each other.

Re:Once you seen one Roland Emmerich

[mitgib]

Stuff did get blown up real well in 2012, but there was way too much romance in there for my liking of an end of the world movie.

Oh wait, I gave away I paid attention to the story

Re:Once you seen one Roland Emmerich

[BurtCrep]

Mainstream films are not made by creative people, they're made by business people.

Re:Once you seen one Roland Emmerich

[Anonymous Coward]

In ID7 the whole cycle will start anew, but this time from the perspective of an alien race almost being destroyed by the humans.

Re:Once you seen one Roland Emmerich

[dbosso]

You'd think a creative person would want to move on and do something different.

A creative person would.

Re:Once you seen one Roland Emmerich

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

I'm going to go see it.

not because I particularly care about Roland Emmerich's film making or his stories, I just want to see how long Roland can keep getting bullshit greenlit.

Re:Once you seen one Roland Emmerich

[quetzalblue]

> I just want to see how long Roland can keep getting bullshit greenlit.

Umm .. about as long as you keep going to pay to see the new bullshit ?

Re:Once you seen one Roland Emmerich

[Hurricane78]

What creative person??

2 Sequels of a bad film?

[yossarianuk]

Why bother?

The First film was not exactly any good, it had a terrible script and bad acting, the effects were o.k for the time, but it was no great leap forward like jurassic park seemed a few years earlier. The CGI looked fake and the most of American nationalism on display was awful...

It is not exactly going to be compared in cinematic terms to the Godfather trilogy is it (they should have missed out Godfather 3)

Re:2 Sequels of a bad film?

[frozenray]

Movie review

Meanwhile, Jeff Goldblum, flying in the crashed enemy saucer, which is piloted by the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, gets inside the mother ship and uses his laptop computer to put a virus into the aliens' main computer system. He can do this because the aliens, like every other life form in the galaxy, have basically no choice but to use the "Windows 95" operating system; in fact the whole reason why they have attacked the Earth is to destroy Bill Gates.

Re:2 Sequels of a bad film?

[geekoid]

The first film was a good sci-fi movie. The script was fine. and much of the acting was above average.

The CGI was heralded by experts as ground breaking AND the american nationalism is no more then you would expect in a movie about a war in America.

"It is not exactly going to be compared in cinematic terms to the Godfather trilogy"
Why would anyone ever make the connection?

Clearly you hate the movie because geeks these days are supposed to hate main stream sci fi movies.

Re:2 Sequels of a bad film?

[operagost]

The CGI looked fake and the most of American nationalism on display was awful

It's called "patriotism"; there is a difference and BTW, didn't you notice them teaming up with IRANIANS?

Re:2 Sequels of a bad film?

[Gogo0]

i had the same problem with "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." too much grinch, too much christmas.

if you didnt want to see american patriotism then dont watch movies with titles of american national holidays!

Re:2 Sequels of a bad film?

[mgblst]

The movie was bad, so bad it was a disgrace. The fact that you like it says more about your taste than anyone elses. I bet you like most movies now, good for you. That is a lucky way to be, one of my mates is like that, but I would never trust his opinion on a movie.

The problem we have is that it could, so easily, have been a good movie, and kept all the other aspects that made it so popular. It doesn't have to be a bad story, that can easily be fixed (well, ok, not easily, considering that editing can destroy a lot of movies).

Foundation

[Kranerian]

The article says,

"If true, this is bad news for the already delayed Asimov Foundation trilogy: it’s likely Roland Emmerich will direct the Independance Day film after his latest film Anonymous about the life of William Shakespeare, delaying the Foundation start date even further."

Bad news? No. They seem to be under the impression that we want him to direct the Foundation Trilogy. Anything bringing the possibility of him not doing it is good news indeed.

Re:Foundation

[inigopete]

Yes, I'm really looking forward to a film by Roland Emmerich about the life of William Shakespeare...

Re:Foundation

[edittard]

It might be better that it's made by him than not made at all.

Re:Foundation

[icebrain]

Be careful what you wish for. We could wind up with another Starship Troopers...

Re:Foundation

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it will be another Bakshi LOTR

Re:Foundation

[allcoolnameswheretak]

You just shattered my world. Emmerich is going to direct Foundation? Fuck, please, no.

Re:Foundation

[Anonymous Coward]

Better not made at all than let George Lucas anywhere near it.

Re:Foundation

[dswensen]

No, it might not.

Re:Foundation

[houghi]

And not only him. Most SF ends up ad stuff blowing up: I, Robot; Starship Troopers; Total Recall; Minority Report just to name a few books where stuff blows up and where the books are more about social stuff then anything else.
That is also the reason a lot of people say they do not like SF, because it is only stuff blowing up and no story.

I understand that they would like to make movies where people only bow stuff up, but there is no reason to use a storyline and especially not ones that are good.

In the 70's many pr0n movies pretended to have a storyline. Now they are mainly a series of pr0n scenes without a story whatsoever. That should perhaps be the direction where these explosion-movies should go to. Just a series of special effects. And let people who enjoy the stories go to movies that care about the stories as well.

Current SF is just pr0n for the mind.

Re:Foundation

[geekoid]

I dont want anyone to to the foundation trilogy. Man those books were awful.
\

Re:Foundation

[hmckee]

Wow, you're being really generous calling it "pr0n for the mind". More like special effects pr0n!

Re:Foundation

[coolsnowmen]

Clearly an unsubstantiated opinion. I thought those books were thought provoking and insightful (read them in HS). Comparatively, if Tolkien's boring trilogy are to be given a bonus for being the father of modern Fantasy, then surely you'd have to give Asimov the same leeway. IMHO: Asimov > Tolkien any day.

Re:Foundation

[edittard]

At least we'd have the choice to see it or not. Second thoughts. We'll let you decide for us - you're so much better than we are, right?

Well timed, actually

[DoofusOfDeath]

In these two sequels, it will be the House of Representatives and the Senate buildings that get vaporized. In 3D.

This will shatter all revenue records.

Re:Well timed, actually

[brian0918]

"They blew up Congress!! Hahaha!"

Re:Well timed, actually

[Talderas]

Tim Burton did that with Mars Attacks!

Re:Well timed, actually

[coofercat]

Oh no, please don't let that happen. I almost cried when I saw the White House blowing up. I'm not sure I can take any more scares like that.

Re:Well timed, actually

[operagost]

I'll assume that you're not an American and don't realize that both houses meet in the Capitol.

Re:Well timed, actually

[GodfatherofSoul]

President Dale: I want the people to know that they still have 2 out of 3 branches of the government working for them, and that ain't bad.

Re:Well timed, actually

[HyperQuantum]

In these two sequels, it will be the House of Representatives and the Senate buildings that get vaporized.

Not the parliament?

Plot?

[MadDogX]

I would really like to know what the sequels will be about. I mean, at the end of the first one the "entire civilization" of evil aliens was defeated and the planet was littered with dozens of crashed city killer ships. Oh wait, I can see it now: "Independence Day 2: The Great Spring Cleaning" That shit's gonna take a while to clear up, I tell you. Maybe they should bring in WALL-E and his pals.

Re:Plot?

[Kranerian]

Independence Day II: The Endor Holocaust.

Title ideas

[Anonymous Coward]

ID5: The Day after Independence Day

Independence Day 2: Aliens vs. Universal Soldier

Stargate: ID2

The Day After Independence Day, 2012 on the 13th Floor: Universal Soldier SG-1 vs. Godzilla, Eight Legged Freaks, and Cavemen from 10,0000BC

Re:Title ideas

[Anonymous Coward]

Independence Day 2: The Search For More Money

Naming Technicality

[NonUniqueNickname]

As a trilogy it would no longer be Independence Day. They would have to rename it to Independence Long Weekend.

Re:Naming Technicality

[angryphase]

1. Days of Independence: Independence
2. Days of Independence: Independence with a Vengeance
3. Days of Independence: Even More Independence!

Re:Naming Technicality

[HopefulIntern]

In other news, Born on the Fourth of July 2: Born on the 5th of July is promised to be even more fourth-of-july'y, says director Oliver Stone. A dangerously insane human being.

Re:Naming Technicality

[je ne sais quoi]

No, they're actually moving onto the next holidays in the calendar and hoping to make a franchise of it with a year's worth of holidays. The first sequel will be Labor day, where the aliens will attack the beaches while WIll Smith is getting his last summer vacation in. The next will be Columbus day, where the alien space-sailors will contact us and sleep with our women and transfer an alien version of small pox and STDs that will threaten to wipe out up to 90% of the human population while the aliens are busy melting down our jewelry to ship back to the alien home world. Fortunately Will Smith and his laptop will be there to upload some anti-bodies into the alien bio-mainframe to stop the viruses.

Re:Naming Technicality

[operagost]

Independence Day 2: Electric Boogaloo

Re:Naming Technicality

[Bassman59]

Independence Day 2: Electric Boogaloo

Thank you!! (wish I had mod points)

Re:Naming Technicality

[Bassman59]

Independence Day 2: The Heretic.

Independence Day 3D

Re:Naming Technicality

[imaque]

Or maybe it will just be Memorial Day: MD31.

Advertising for the original movie...

[Andy Dodd]

Does anyone remember all of the advertising that branded it as "ID4" (July 4...)

So we're going back... Back in time!

Re:Advertising for the original movie...

[dingen]

Maybe they'll just skip the prequel trilogy and go straight for ID5 and 6.

Re:Advertising for the original movie...

[game kid]

They'll only use a single digit for the number, and start changing the letter. We'll soon have IE1, IE2,... IE6,... IE9,...

...then they'll run out of letters and start using numbers, as in I12, I23, I95...

YAAARRRGGHHH...

[torsmo]

Please, someone make a movie where the protagonist (preferably American) saves the world from the new iterations of Independence Day...

Re:YAAARRRGGHHH...

[mjwx]

Please, someone make a movie where the protagonist (preferably American) saves the world from the new iterations of Independence Day...

Please, can someone make a movie where the protagonist is not a USian and saves the world from more crappy actions movies which are little more than thinly disguised US dick waving.

Foookin Praawns, we need more District 9.

Yeah, that'll be the reason...

[91degrees]

Fox can now offer more as they are swimming in the massive financial returns reaped from James Cameron's Avatar.

Yeah, because the multi-billion dollar News Corporation couldn't quite manage that before.

Seriously, the amount they'll pay for a movie is based on how much they expect it to make. Not how much they have in their coffers.

At first I thought...

[Anonymous Coward]

...it was an early April's Fool's Day joke ;)

Entire Plot in 1 Slashdot Comment

[Stregano]

You can just call me Socrates for being able to magically already know the plot.

There are more aliens that are very angry at the fact that the mothership was destroyed. What we did not know is that the aliens do live on a planet, and the higher ups on the planet decide that it is time for a war.

They send a huge alien force to Earth. Everything looks grim for the humans.

Will Smith tries and wants to give up since it seems impossible, but something gives him some magical motivation or it seems like there is no way to beat them until Jeff Goldblum thinks of something (which is odd because I never knew Jeff Goldblum was smart to begin with, but I digress).

With this new idea/more motivation, Will Smith gives it one final shot to stop the alien invasion and succeeds.

Bruce Willis cries or something emotional and then that is the end of the Independence Day Trilogy.

P.S. Jeff Goldblum sucks.

Re:Entire Plot in 1 Slashdot Comment

[Anonymous Coward]

Jeff Goldblum is actually awesome and you have a tiny penis, fuck you.

Re:Entire Plot in 1 Slashdot Comment

[Anonymous Coward]

...which is odd because I never knew Jeff Goldblum was smart to begin with, but I digress
 

Actually he wasn't until he got his genes mixed up with a housefly's.

And to the dirty-minded among you: Yes, of course that's how it happened.

Re:Entire Plot in 1 Slashdot Comment

[BrettJB]

Waitaminute... You clearly have more than three steps. If Jeff Goldblum is involved, there can be no step 3.

Re:Entire Plot in 1 Slashdot Comment

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, the big event will culminate on a small moon. Earth will have been mining several moons for solid fuel, with automated mining ships that load up then transport their raw material back to Earth for processing. But the aliens will have systematically attacked each of these moons and hijack the mining shuttles, until there is only one moon left. Will Smith will have to go to this moon, disguised as a prisoner that has been involuntarily volunteered for defensive flight duty, on the premise that after his (and the real prisoner's) tour is up, they will be fully pardoned.

Re:Entire Plot in 1 Slashdot Comment

[Syberz]

They should get David Duchovny to play Jeff Goldblum, he was awesome in Celebrity Jeopardy on SNL.

I'd add a youtube link but the site's blocked at the office.

HOLY HELL

[decipher_saint]

Just make new goddamn movies, how hard is that???

You want my movie-going dollar? Stop giving me an experience I could rent more than 10 years ago.

Re:HOLY HELL

[Anonymous Coward]

So you have watched all the good movies that have been filmed and depend only on new movies. Wow...

Re:HOLY HELL

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, Star Wars would have been way better without that stupid second movie.

Good

[benbean]

If for no other reason than the attendant publicity might finally teach the people of the Internet how to correctly spell "independence".

I would also like to see "You, Your and You're", a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Aniston or Sandra Bullock.

Re:Good

[grasshoppa]

Jennifer Aniston AND Sandra Bullock
That works better for me.

Re:Good

[Anonymous Coward]

Prime sequel material: Their, There, and They're, though that might work better as a political intrigue piece.

Re:Good

[Inda]

I'd like to see a film called "Win, loose or draw?" staring Dale Winton.

Re:Good

[Sponge Bath]

As long as we are in the geriatric zone, throw in Betty White. Woo! Saggy!

Re:Good

[Anonymous Coward]

I would pay lots and lots of money to to see a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Sandra Bullock, except instead of 'romantic' make it 'erotic' and instead of 'comedy' it should be 'made-for-Cinemax late-night women-in-prison movie.'

Re:Good

[Clandestine_Blaze]

If for no other reason than the attendant publicity might finally teach the people of the Internet how to correctly spell "independence".

I would also like to see "You, Your and You're", a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Aniston or Sandra Bullock.

"Too Loose to Lose" would be even better.

Re:Good

[Anonymous Coward]

I would also like to see "You, Your and You're", a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Aniston AND Sandra Bullock.

FTFY, much better in my opinion, might even pay the premium to see that in 3D

Re:Good

[Anonymous Coward]

As long as we get the sequel "Their, There, and They're".

Re:Good

[geekoid]

When lose, draw.

Re:Good

[Anonymous Coward]

"I would also like to see "You, Your and You're", a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Aniston or Sandra Bullock."

And "There, Their and They're", a horror film starring... oh, what the hell ... also starring Jennifer Aniston or Sandra Bullock.

Re:Good

[DrugCheese]

Your just talking crazy now.

Re:Good

[GodfatherofSoul]

Jennifer Aniston ON Sandra Bullock and we're talking blockbuster

Re:Good

[Anonymous Coward]

Better yet, "You, Your and You're", a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Sandra Bullock.

Yes, I will have the starring role in "Me, Myself and I", a romantic comedy about a Slashdot-reading geek.

Re:Good

[game kid]

Jennifer Aniston AND Sandra Bullock
That works better for me.

But then management will reject the title and call it Friends with Benefits to capitalize on Aniston. (Then I'd be even more interested in watching.)

One last hope!

[ThePangolino]

Rumors have recently been denied by a guy named Will Smith. http://www.imdb.com/news/ni1926356/

Re:One last hope!

[digitalchinky]

All of it is a rumor, including the denial.

Bill Pullman anyone?

[GPLDAN]

Come on... you forgot Bill Pullman as the kick-ass Fighter Pilot President. His role was so influential, GW Bush actually mimicked the role!

Re:Bill Pullman anyone?

[Fallingcow]

Holy shit... you're right. I can't believe I never made that connection.

Re:Bill Pullman anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh my god, I just realize that Will Smith will be playing the president in the sequel! His character saved the planet and is now old enough to be President of the U.S.A. He and Bill Pullman will be good friends, but President Hiller is not popular despite the heroics from his younger days. Then we get invaded and he's popular again.

Sometimes I wonder why I still write code.

Re:Bill Pullman anyone?

[dwye]

Oh my god, I just realize that Will Smith will be playing the president in the sequel! His character saved the planet and is now old enough to be President of the U.S.A. He and Bill Pullman will be good friends, but President Hiller is not popular despite the heroics from his younger days. Then we get invaded and he's popular again.

Sometimes I wonder why I still write code.

Because you cannot come up with a decent sequel idea (decent in the business sense, at least) to save your life? Seriously, that is almost the plot of each succeeding season of 24, so how difficult was that?

What the Matrix sequels should have been

[Junior J. Junior III]

It's a pity they never made any sequels to that movie.
It was really fantastic.

Matrix 2: A complete re-telling of the first story, this time told as a documentary with dramatic re-enactments, produced by a mainstream media infopinionewstainment law enforcement/most wanted show, colluding with the government of the Matrix world. Morpheus and Neo demonized and shown to be degenerate, immoral, psychopaths, and terrorists. By allegory this would show what our own culture does to radicals. The film ends with Neo being captured, the cliffhanger being his arraignment. Albino milli vanilli twins are conspicuously absent, and there is no goth night club anywhere.

Matrix 3: The trial of Neo. Rather than using kung fu, he has to use legal fu to get out of his predicament. The trial is mostly a show trial, the charges are bogus, well, ok the charges are legitimate but the order that Neo was trying to bring down was anything but... and somehow Neo's got to be able to take the stand in order to expose the truth of what the Matrix is to the virtual public.

That would have made the trilogy completely awesome.

Re:What the Matrix sequels should have been

[Thanshin]

and somehow Neo's got to be able to take the stand in order to expose the truth

I don't think we're talking about the same Neo.

Leave it at "...and somehow Neo's got to be able to stand".

You know, for inanimate objects, standing is already quite a feat.

P.S.: I was going to suggest "...be able to transmit some information". But that could be solved by writing on his face.

Re:What the Matrix sequels should have been

[MozeeToby]

In this vein:

Independence Day 2: Aliens show up in a ship that makes the mothership from the first movie look like a civilian pleasure cruise, which, in fact it was. The aliens that attacked had signed up for an exotic "most dangerous game" type hunting vacation, only to be destroyed by said game. The Alien's Coast Guard/FBI shows up to investigate what happened and piece together the attacking aliens illegal activities. Together with humanity, the alien FBI raids the evil cruise line's headquarters for evidence, and eventually successfully bring charges against the executives.

Independence Day 3: All shot from the aliens point of view, as a kind of Ocean's 11 movie, beginning with the escape of the executives from their high security prison and leading up to them being stranded on earth with no resources where they fall to drugs, crime, and prostitution. Eventually rising to the top of the slum cesspool they, become something like the Mafia, only to be brought down in a hail of bullets when they finally piss off the wrong police detective.

Wow... I can see why L. Ron Hubbard wrote so many books that were so thick. Writing crappy pulp sci-fi is easy.

Re:What the Matrix sequels should have been

[Anonymous Coward]

eh, sounds pretty boring.

Re:What the Matrix sequels should have been

[nottheusualsuspect]

I'd buy that for a dollar!

Re:What the Matrix sequels should have been

[operagost]

Law and Order: Virtual Crimes Unit? CSI: Zion?

Re:What the Matrix sequels should have been

[Anonymous Coward]

Please, never, ever, ever write anything.

Re:What the Matrix sequels should have been

[Nukenbar]

I don't think anyone wants another Law and Order: The Matrix

Re:What the Matrix sequels should have been

[Anonymous Coward]

user-editable movies is something already here.
The Matrix game should soon be available in Second Life, if it is not already there.

Re:What the Matrix sequels should have been

[Anonymous Coward]

Neo Wright: Ace Attorney

With an iPad... with Obama?

[MikeRT]

Would it be too much to ask of them to make the explanation for the story be that humans spent the last 10-15 years reverse engineering their technology and now understand it enough to make a weapons that can penetrate their shields and destroy their ships?

Re:With an iPad... with Obama?

[Drethon]

You mean like the last season or two of Stargate?

No no no no no.

[TrebleJunkie]

Please tell me that this is an early April Fools joke? Please? I'm begging, here!

your favorite _______ sucks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Obligatory goatkcd reference

meh

[JackSpratts]

could live without both smith and emmerich. would like to see goldblum though. but hey, since we're dreaming, how about a sequel to buckaroo bonzai there bigboot?

bigboo tay

- js.

Re:meh

[largesnike]

prepare the oscillation overthruster!

Plot Spoiler!

[gambit3]

In this one, the aliens come back with a different OS, and now running Antivirus!

Re:Plot Spoiler!

[yossarianuk]

Actually the storyline is that the aliens in the past decade or so have been migrating to Linux, they come back and defeat mankind easily (who 90% of the population use Windows).

But they learned the lessons from last time and saved the greatest punishment to Apple users (so there is a happy ending)

Re:Plot Spoiler!

[xav12]

No need for antivirus when they've switched to Ubuntu

Re:Plot Spoiler!

[MiniMike]

In this one, the aliens come back with a different OS, and now running Antivirus!

They're running Windows? So this will be a short film?

Re:Plot Spoiler!

[jo_ham]

Well, they make it all the way to the Earth, but then can't fire any weapons because the driver for the plasma cannon is not open source, and everyone else passed the buck on writing one. "Oh, that'll be done sometime on the trip".

The UI was also poorly thought out and the "Raise defensive shields" box was too big to fit on the screen so the "OK" button was not clickable and not selected by default.

The humans, running "inferior" software shoot them all down.

Re:Plot Spoiler!

[Anonymous Coward]

Na they are running BSD Netcraft confirmed it ;)

Re:Plot Spoiler!

[MarkGriz]

In this one, the aliens come back with a different OS, and now running Antivirus!

Yes, but it's Norton Antivirus, so Will Smith justs sits back and waits for it to crash itself.

Re:Plot Spoiler!

[Hurricane78]

But does it run Linux?
(If so, we’re fucked!)

Why do people complain...

[MistrBlank]

I really hate the complaints over the ending of Independence Day.

-It was already established that the aliens were using our computer systems, at the very least our satellite networking to communicate, it isn't a stretch

-The ending is a nod to War of the Worlds where a virus stopped and killed them.

-It's an EFF'ING MOVIE. It's supposed to be entertaining and it's a movie about aliens, it's already asking you to suspend belief about the world around us.

Re:Why do people complain...

[Stregano]

Jeff Goldblum using a pre-osx mac to create a computer virus and be able to figure out how to hack into an alien mothership and plant the virus.

Randy Quaid saving the Earth from aliens is much more believable than that.

Re:Why do people complain...

[Calsar]

In a telpathic society where you can trust everyone, you don't need a virus scanner on your computer system.

Re:Why do people complain...

[Anonymous Coward]

To be fair, in the deleted scenes it reveals that there is a visual interface between the two. Pretty much the alien communications are displayed s a running bar code and are graphically interpreted by a program. So it is more akin to WWI and WWII code breaking than computer language compatibility. Symbolically it fits well with the War of the Worlds virus theme: in the movie the aliens are so advanced they don't worry about safeguarding their computer systems and in the novel the aliens are so advanced and wiped out pathogens so long ago that they don't worry about them.

Re:Why do people complain...

[emurphy42]

The scientists at Area 51 had spent half a century studying the same alien fighter that Goldblum rode to the mothership. Assume that he (a) stood on their metaphorical shoulders and (b) used the fighter's computer as a bridge to the mothership's, and suddenly it's rather less of a stretch.

More discussion on this topic

Re:Why do people complain...

[Anonymous Coward]

agree
They could have put in a 5 minute segment telling us how they were able to reverse engineer the alien OS b/c they had their ship in a basement for 50 years, but that would have taken 5 minutes out of the giant airplane action scene which cost x million dollars to shoot.

Re:Why do people complain...

[IDtheTarget]

I just want to know how much apple paid for that advertisement.... :)

Re:Why do people complain...

[spedrosa]

Yes, we should suspend belief from the world around us. But not from the world around the friggin movie.

Granted, it might be possible to design a virus for alien computer systems. Maybe if we spent a lifetime studying them we just might be able to compile a Hello World. Now, to do that in less than a day, bypassing whatever countermeasures they may have, with the assistance of people who had an alien ship for decades and couldn't figure it out... if you don't call that a stretch, I'm not sure what it is.

Re:Why do people complain...

[geekoid]

How do you know that?
A computer Scientist from MIT; it's not a stretch that it was running a custom OS.

BTW, they already know how the electronics worked, AND a specie that is a "group think", would they even have a firewall? Or even ever have a computer virus? I mean, they're like insects. If you actually stop to THINK about it, it actually does make sense.

But you stick with your non-thinking knee jerk reaction.

Sad, really.

Re:Why do people complain...

[f8l_0e]

Jeff Goldblum using a pre-osx mac to create a computer virus and be able to figure out how to hack into an alien mothership and plant the virus.

Absolutely right. Everyone knows that you need at least OS X 10.5 to defeat an advanced alien race! ::rolls eyes::

Re:Why do people complain...

[Princeofcups]

I really hate the complaints over the ending of Independence Day.

Agreed. Where's the rage over the flaws in Star Wars and Star Trek? It's probably just the typical hate-what's-popular schtick. Somehow only liking obscure material makes one feel more geeky, or something.

Re:Why do people complain...

[Anonymous Coward]

-It was already established that the aliens were using our computer systems, at the very least our satellite networking to communicate, it isn't a stretch

Yes it is.

-It's an EFF'ING MOVIE. It's supposed to be entertaining

That is the main problem most people have with it. It is supposed to be entertaining, but isn't. Since people paid to watch it, they need some entertainment value out of the movie and it sure is more entertaining to pick the movie apart, than it was watching it.

Re:Why do people complain...

[Lars T.]

Jeff Goldblum using a pre-osx mac to create a computer virus and be able to figure out how to hack into an alien mothership and plant the virus.

According to the "software patents suck" crowd, software is just math and easy to figure out.

Re:Why do people complain...

[Lars T.]

I just want to know how much apple paid for that advertisement.... :)

"Only" cross-promotion costs: http://www.informedusa.com/t/independanceday.html

Re:Why do people complain...

[Anonymous Coward]

Jeff Goldblum using a pre-osx mac to create a computer virus and be able to figure out how to hack into an alien mothership and plant the virus.

He was using OpenTransport, though, so it's cool. It would have been totally unbelievable if he was still stuck with MacTCP.

proximity to 9-11

[peter303]

I recall being unable to watch that movie without a lump in my stomach for a few months after 9-11. The urban destruction scenes were too close to the mark. Doesnt both now that Los Angeles or New York is now destroyed in every apocalyptic movie.

ZoneAlarm

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope this time the aliens have learned to use a firewall in their mothership.

Actually, one decent plot possibility

[Dr. Manhattan]

The original invaders were refugees, fleeing an even more powerful race. Now the humans need to team up with their former exterminators to have a hope of surviving this new threat...

Re:Actually, one decent plot possibility

[Stregano]

Isn't that the plot of Halo 2? Well, close to it.

Re:Actually, one decent plot possibility

[AndrewNeo]

Yeah, that's.. sort of actually close.

Re:Actually, one decent plot possibility

[FinchWorld]

Sounds like the Vasari from Sins Of A Solar Empire.

Poor Dr. Okun...

[ultraexactzz]

It makes sense to revisit this story - surely every alien didn't die immediately, right? But the only story that makes sense would be some post-apocalyptic, mad-max nightmare scenario, with shades of District 9 and alien tech being used for shenanigans. Not sure what new material they'd be able to bring to the table - unless they do a prequel with the Roswell landing, which has its own challenges.

So, so easy to screw this one up.

Re:Poor Dr. Okun...

[geekoid]

Or we take the tech to the stars.

a Roswell story in this world could make a great thriller.

April 1st?

[MBGMorden]

Isn't it a little early to be starting up the April 1st jokes?

God I've come to hate this "holiday"/tradition/whatever. For the first 2-3 years on Slashdot, yep, the jokes were funny. Now, they're repetitive. And I get a whole day of having to parse a level of ridiculousness of a story to determine whether it's real or not.

Re:April 1st?

[geekoid]

Just don't come here tomorrow.
I love 4/1 on /.

Sony to remove shields from alien ships

[colordev]

Alien infiltrators were using Sony's "other OS"-feature when building their protective shields. Yep, never trust a Sony.

Sequels

[Anonymous Coward]

Screw "Independence Day 2", I want "Moon 45".

I saw this story and laughed...

[iosq]

...until I realised it wasn't April 1st yet in America. Then I cried.

I have a confession to make

[Anonymous Coward]

I actually like Will Smith. I liked Independence Day. I liked Men In Black. I liked Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He's a fun actor. How can you hate that?

Is it just me...

[HopefulIntern]

...or did Independence Day (the first one) randomly reappear in the past few months?

It came out when I was about 10, and it was the coolest movie* everyone had to see. I saw it when it came out on VHS to rent (my parents wouldn't take me to see it). Then it disappeared. I often wondered about it, especially the last few years after I found my model F/A-18 Hornet from the movie, complete with destructible parts. It was as if it never existed. It suddenly made a re-appearance on a Will Smith box set (*shudder*) at Sainsbury's. Now this. What happened? It was a bad movie (admittedly) then, and nothing's changed....

*Unrelated note: Does anyone else's Firefox spellchecker not recognise the word "movie"? Weird..

War propaganda

[M. Baranczak]

Here's a little exercise: watch the 1938 Soviet film "Alexander Nevsky". Then watch "Independence Day".

Re:War propaganda

[Anonymous Coward]

I've noticed that the whole "army propaganda as entertainment" genre has really biased the former, in the last few years - it's barely even subtle any more. Even with my liberal capacity for suspension of disbelief, it is not difficult to suspect that the American Army has captured a significant financial stake in Hollywood, and is actively morphing them into their recruitment centre/media division.

Re:War propaganda

[M. Baranczak]

Oh, come on. Are you implying that it used to be subtle?

Re:War propaganda

[MightyMartian]

That certainly explains Starship Troopers, nicely missing the entire point of the book.

Reminds me of the Independence Day review

[clickety6]

Can't find it now, but it was along the lines of:

"Independence Day. Aliens arrive on Earth in giant spaceships and proceed to destroy the White House.
However, they later turn out not top be friendly after all".

Stop the xkcd karma whoring

[Anonymous Coward]

This post is not funny. The comic is funny. You should have to do more than link to xkcd to get modded up.

Re:Stop the xkcd karma whoring

[L4t3r4lu5]

Slashdot FAQ

"Note that being moderated Funny doesn't help your karma. You have to be smart, not just a smart-ass." - CmdrTaco

Re:Stop the xkcd karma whoring

[Anonymous Coward]

The above post in question is 50% informative, just for linking to xkcd... so lame...

Re:Stop the xkcd karma whoring

[Gruturo]

Hi, my Karma's been at 50 for ages, long before this excellent thingy. The XKCD comic is perfectly in topic with the parent and I thought some people might have a good laugh seeing it.

Is this the XKCD hate season? Is it now trendy to bash people who post links to it? Cause I sure see that happening a lot lately.

victory cigar anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

victory cigar anyone?

Wait!

[kenp2002]

Stop raping my childhood.err....wait hasn't been long enough yet.....

O come on

[bytesex]

April attacks early this year.

sffmedia.com is blocked at my office!

[Anonymous Coward]

Sites get blocked here usually for:

- wanton unexpurgated naughtiness
- social networking
- you can send messages through it
- its a known fount for frauds, trojan horses, etc. etc.

Do any of the above apply?

A little early, right?

[DesertFly]

A little early for April Fools' Day, isn't it?

Bill Pullman

[The Dancing Panda]

For everyone bashing Will Smith. He's the most popular actor around right now. There are several movie critics who stopped publishing reviews for his movies because what they say doesn't matter. Everyone's going to go see it anyway, because it's a Will Smith movie.

I still consider Bill Pullman to be the greatest president of our generation.

Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in this history of mankind.

Mankind -- that word should have new meaning for all of us today.

We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore.

We will be united in our common interests.

Perhaps its fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom, not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution -- but from annihilation.

We're fighting for our right to live, to exist.

And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice:

"We will not go quietly into the night!

We will not vanish without a fight!

We're going to live on!

We're going to survive!"

Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!

Re:Bill Pullman

[Anonymous Coward]

For those interested in a more realistic depiction of a modern-day president, I suggest President Skroob in Spaceballs (played by Mel Brooks).

Re:Bill Pullman

[geekoid]

Or when he met the bad guys and said "So, Lord Helmet, at last we meet again for the first time for the last time. "

Re:Bill Pullman

[d474]

The Bill Pullman speech is very funny when read by this man: Engrish!

Re:Bill Pullman

[nottheusualsuspect]

There are several movie critics who stopped publishing reviews for his movies because what they say doesn't matter.

I haven't listened to movie critics for any actor in so long, this caught me unawares when someone pointed it out to me 2 months back.

Re:Bill Pullman

[Anonymous Coward]

i personally liked this scene as well. Best presidential speech I've heard in a long time.

Re:Bill Pullman

[tokul]

I still consider Bill Pullman to be the greatest president of our generation.

Let's see. Nuked own country. That's what great presidents do.

I like Kevin Kline aka Dave Kovic more. He could balance US budget.

Re:Bill Pullman

[kalirion]

Let's see. Nuked own country. That's what great presidents do.

Honestly, what other choice was there? Write a virus on a Mac that can be uploaded to an alien operating system and disable their shields?

Re:Bill Pullman

[GodfatherofSoul]

Jack Nicholson in Mars Attacks FTW

President Dale: I want the people to know that they still have 2 out of 3 branches of the government working for them, and that ain't bad!

Re:Bill Pullman

[barzok]

That's just crazy enough it might work!

Re:Bill Pullman

[Anonymous Coward]

I absolutely love that speech and get goosebumps everytime I hear it, even then just reading it.

Re:Bill Pullman

[CAIMLAS]

Bill Pullman is also the best God our generation will ever know.

Re:Bill Pullman

[Hurricane78]

Protip: Speeches like these will get you laughed at in other countries.

We laughed our asses off, or cringed from the cheesiness, here.

Re:Bill Pullman

[Lunzo]

Yeah, it's pretty cringe-worthy. I would have improved it by ending with the immortal words: "America, Fuck Yeah!"

Because it's the worst Sci-Fi movie ever

[Anonymous Coward]

I really hate the complaints over the ending of Independence Day.

-It was already established that the aliens were using our computer systems, at the very least our satellite networking to communicate, it isn't a stretch

If a computer engineer goes back in time to the 1950's, it's a stretch, but it's possible, that he will be able to program the 50's hardware he'll see.
But if a computer engineer from the 1950's is confronted with a 2000's computer, he wouldn't have a clue what to do. And especially, he won't be able to stick a virus coded on a punchcard into the new computer!

Similarly, it is conceivable that advanced aliens could tap into our primitive computers. It is less conceivable that if we see a computer centuries more advanced than ours we'd know what to do with it - much less run a computer virus written in today's programming language on it.

The movie had other nonsensical science. My favorite is when the guy is saved from nuclear explosion by.... running away from it and hiding in a corner! Utterly ridiculous.

Re:Because it's the worst Sci-Fi movie ever

[khallow]

But if a computer engineer from the 1950's is confronted with a 2000's computer, he wouldn't have a clue what to do.

Nonsense. They weren't idiots back then.

And especially, he won't be able to stick a virus coded on a punchcard into the new computer!

Yes he would, since the punchcard system would already be wired into the new computer by the beginning of the movie.

Re:Because it's the worst Sci-Fi movie ever

[Lars T.]

If a computer engineer goes back in time to the 1950's, it's a stretch, but it's possible, that he will be able to program the 50's hardware he'll see. But if a computer engineer from the 1950's is confronted with a 2000's computer, he wouldn't have a clue what to do. And especially, he won't be able to stick a virus coded on a punchcard into the new computer!

Gee, why don't you show me how easy it is to program on something as bog-standard for the 50s as a drum memory computer? And you are telling me Mel would have a problem with an almost picture-perfect implementation of a Von Neumann architecture?

Only a Rumor

[hellfire]

Direct from the article:

"This is still marked as a rumour, so we'll let you know when (and if!) it's confirmed."

And I can find no reference to a 2 or 3 in IMDB. Someone's trying to drum up ad hits, methinks.

A day early?

[kimvette]

Hey guys, it's not April 1 yet.

*checks IMDB*

Yup, early April Fools' post; no Independence Day 2 or 3, thank GOD. However, it looks like Will Smith is working on some sci fi sequels worth considering: MIB 3 (you liked MIB - admit it!), I, Robot 2, and Hancock 2.

What I'd like to see him do though, is more zombie movies. First off, you can never have too many zombies. Secondly, he did a good job in I Am Legend. :)

Obama flying an airplane?

[mi]

There are only two ways lawyers can fly — as a passenger, or from high point down

McCain could fly a plane, I suppose. Ditto for both Bushes. Obama (or Clinton)? Only in a movie...

Re:Obama flying an airplane?

[jo_ham]

If Bush 2 had flown the plane though, he'd have shown up 18 months late for the fight, with a blood alcohol level of 74 mg/100

Re:Obama flying an airplane?

[mi]

18 months late for the fight, with a blood alcohol level of 74 mg/100

George W. Bush stopped drinking at the age of 40. He was fit and healthy enough to be running regularly during his first term (had a knee problem later). Obama, meanwhile, can't stop smoking — despite all the bad PR it gives him — talk about character...

And, yes, all of those Republicans I listed did have fighter-pilot training. Two of the three even saw actual combat and both were shot down by the enemy.

What do your lawyers have to brag about? Getting disbarred?..

Re:Obama flying an airplane?

[jo_ham]

Hey, I have no problem with military servicemen, and I'm also not a Democrat (or a Republican) - they are both much too right wing for my tastes.

My issue is merely to raise the ad hominem attack problem. You want to talk about military service being something to brag about - sure. John Kerry was in the military. They had no problem trying to discredit him rather than championing his war record, since his opponent's record didn't compare. I just hope that the money paid to those "swift boat vets for untruth" helped to soothe their consciences (or whatever it was that made them drag a fellow vet through the mud with often easily disproved lies).

Serving your country is an honourable thing to do, and deserves great respect, regardless of the political party you run for. If you want to set it up as an untouchable pedestal though, you had better not be totally hypocritical the first time you face an opponent with an excellent war record.

While my post harps on Bush's two main foibles, in general character assassination helps no one. Obama went a different direction with his life - it doesn't make him less of an able leader or man in general. The fact that Bush served in the forces doesn't make him an able leader either, but I respect him for joining up (apart from the awol bit).

Re:Obama flying an airplane?

[mi]

they are both much too right wing for my tastes.

Read-up and count the number of items, with which you agree... Kill yourself, when you reach 50%.

John Kerry was in the military.

John Kerry's problem was, he had nothing else to brag about. 20-something years in the US Senate and all he talks about during his Presidential campaign, is the 4+ months he spent in Vietnam? Thousands of others did too, idiot, talk about, what makes you a better fit for Presidency, than a guy who fought for 8 months?

Obama went a different direction with his life

To each his own, of course. I was just pointing out, that John McCain — and both Republican Presidents before him — could fly a plane, as in the movie. Obama would not be able to. That's all.

it doesn't make him less of an able leader or man in general.

Not joining the military does not, I agree.

war of the worlds?

[iccaros]

Was Independence Day just a remaking of war of the worlds.. Aliens come to earth, kill everyone with not a word of why Aliens are unstoppable until they are infected with germs (virus in ID) from earth.. So will this be a remake of the war of the worlds TV show? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Worlds_(TV_series)

Men in Black II (2002)

[AlpineR]

I enjoyed Independence Day and Men in Black, too. Both were fun, a little wacky, not terribly sophisticated, but they suck me in every time they're on TV.

So my only concern is the sequel part (Good Movie 2: The Quest for More Money). Men in Black (1997): 7.0/10.0 on IMDB. Men in Black II (2002): 5.6/10.0.

And shooting two sequels at once triggers the klaxon of bad movie alarms. See the Matrix and Pirates of the Caribbean trilogies for two examples of twin sequel abominations.

Re:Men in Black II (2002)

[ground.zero.612]

I enjoyed Independence Day and Men in Black, too. Both were fun, a little wacky, not terribly sophisticated, but they suck me in every time they're on TV.

So my only concern is the sequel part (Good Movie 2: The Quest for More Money). Men in Black (1997): 7.0/10.0 on IMDB. Men in Black II (2002): 5.6/10.0.

And shooting two sequels at once triggers the klaxon of bad movie alarms. See the Matrix and Pirates of the Caribbean trilogies for two examples of twin sequel abominations.

Filming two movies at once seemed to have worked well for Peter Jackson with LOTR... Just sayin'.

It's great

[delevinson]

I love that movie because David Levinson saves the world with his laptop.

Let's hope the Aliens are smart enough to attack..

[MXPS]

on a different holiday this time around. Rosh Hashanah or Mothers's Day would be so much better for me.

DYK that Independence Day started as stargate 2?

[Joe The Dragon]

DYK that Independence Day started as stargate 2? but That was before SG1 started.

Niggers niggers niggers

[Anonymous Coward]

n/c

Only a nerd woud say "Queue"

[bit9]

Cue the continued nerd rage in 3...2...1...

There, fixed that for ya.

The word "queue", when used as a verb (in non-nerd terms), means to line up. The idiom you were thinking of is actually "cue the ____", which is derived from the use of the word cue in a studio and/or stage setting, where a cue is a signal for a performer to enter the scene.

/pedantic

Re:Only a nerd woud say "Queue"

[ground.zero.612]

Cue the continued nerd rage in 3...2...1...

There, fixed that for ya.

The word "queue", when used as a verb (in non-nerd terms), means to line up. The idiom you were thinking of is actually "cue the ____", which is derived from the use of the word cue in a studio and/or stage setting, where a cue is a signal for a performer to enter the scene.

/pedantic

Thank's, your a good spell checker. Its added so much to this threads. Its a good thing your here to fix, all the grammars, that made the point in my post not obvious. I would of thinked highlier of /.

Hell hath no fury like a /. spelling troll pedant scorned.

Re:Only a nerd woud say "Queue"

[bit9]

Wow, good burn! You really showed me! Or something.

Re:Only a nerd woud say "Queue"

[ground.zero.612]

Wow, good burn! You really showed me, or something.

There, fixed that for you. The word "or" is used as a conjunction (in non-pedantic asswiper terms), and has the following meaning(s):

or 1 /r; unstressed r/ Show Spelled[awr; unstressed er] Show IPA –conjunction 1. (used to connect words, phrases, or clauses representing alternatives): books or magazines; to be or not to be. 2. (used to connect alternative terms for the same thing): the Hawaiian, or Sandwich, Islands. 3. (used in correlation): either or; or or; whether or. 4. (used to correct or rephrase what was previously said): His autobiography, or rather memoirs, will soon be ready for publication. 5. otherwise; or else: Be here on time, or we'll leave without you. 6. Logic. the connective used in disjunction.

/pedant

Re:Only a nerd woud say "Queue"

[bit9]

Oh no. Now you're really hurting my feelings with your razor-sharp wit.

Re:Only a nerd woud say "Queue"

[ground.zero.612]

Oh no. Now you're really hurting my feelings with your razor-sharp wit.

I know there's a "no feeding the trolls" rule so I shouldn't feed you, but since you are unable to figure it out with mockery: you're not funny.

Re:Only a nerd woud say "Queue"

[bit9]

Jeezus, are you still taking the bait? What the hell, man???

Listen, I don't normally troll. In fact, I never troll, but you couldn't just leave well enough alone, and I didn't feel like spending half my day debating the finer points of Slashdot etiquette, the importance of grammar, or what a god-awful film Independence Day is. So instead I trolled, hoping you'd get the point.

At no time was I actually trying to be funny, nor was your mockery lost on me.

My original point (which I thought was fairly obvious, and didn't feel like repeating) with the grammar thing was not merely to be a troll - although, at best, it borders on being such - it was that despite your protestations about "nerd rage", you clearly are a nerd just like the rest of us. Funny how many people on Slashdot try to elevate themselves above the unwashed nerd masses, yet really aren't any different than the rest. How much time have you wasted today trying to get one-up on "that stupid Slashdot troll"?

You take me to task for my grammar advice not being pertinent or helpful to these forums, yet your own "+5 Insightful" post wasn't particularly enlightening, and completely misses the point about why most nerds didn't like Independence Day. It's not merely "nerd rage" about how unrealistic it is. It's the "deus ex machina" that most nerds don't like. We don't expect every movie to be full of plausible-sounding science and make you think until your head hurts, but once in a while (even in a big "summer blockbuster"), we'd appreciate a plot that can move forward on its own steam, rather than resorting to cheap, lazy plot devices to propel it.

Sequals

[p51d007]

The ONLY thing Hollywood knows how to do is milk a resource until everyone can't stand the movie. Rocky, Star Wars, Matrix, Harry Potter etc etc. They haven't had an original idea in decades!

Re:Sequals

[Grishnakh]

No shit. They're even rebooting Spider-Man, AGAIN. WTF?

And what was with the back-to-back Hulk reboots?

Re:Sequals

[Anonymous Coward]

You do realize that Harry Potter is a series of books, right? That is why they have made a number of movies, it was to follow the story in the books...

Re:Sequals

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Rocky/Star wars/Matrix/Harry Potter were all creator driven. Not studio driven. Stallone/lucas/Washoski/(whatever the author of the potter books' name is) created those stories and wanted to tell more. You should be criticizing series like the terminator/ any of the comic book movies that only really exists to make money

April Fools!

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, April Fools Day isn't until tomorrow.

how sad it is...

[macbeth66]

when the editors comments are funnier than anything, anyone else has come with.

April Fools

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, you guys waste no time on posting april fools jokes...

New plot, how?

[ImYourVirus]

Didn't the first movie say that their whole civilization moved from planet to planet. So you're saying a completely different race of aliens wants to kill us now? Man, where the fuck are the good aliens, they always gots to be trying to kill us, well maybe that could be the second movie, bad aliens try to kill us and then some other race of good aliens save us, then in the third they try to kill us because they are really evil. Man I could do this for a living, hehe.

Re:New plot, how?

[maxume]

I don't remember if they actually spelled out that the entire civilization traveled together or not.

Re:New plot, how?

[ImYourVirus]

Approximately 1 hour 24 mins into the movie.

President Thomas Whitmore: I saw... its thoughts. I saw what they're planning to do. They're like locusts. They're moving from planet to planet... their whole civilization. After they've consumed every natural resource they move on... and we're next. Nuke 'em. Let's nuke the bastards.

Link

ID 2 - Cleaning up the Mess!

[Anonymous Coward]

ID 3 - Interstellar Payback Time!

that's insane

[circletimessquare]

in 1996 you need windows 95 to spread the melissa or i love you virus

clearly the aliens would be using windows word '97 or excel '97, it came out in 1996, like the movie did

nothing like a visual basic macro virus to take down an alien mothership!

even better, why didn't the movie makers use microsoft bob?

In this one..

[CosaNostra Pizza Inc]

In this one, the aliens come back disguised as tea-partiers who protest and plot to overthrow the government.

Nope...

[denzacar]

That would be The Transformers you are thinking of. THERE everything from cars to toasters is a product of alien-techTM.
Scientists in ID4 (including Lt. Commander Data) had no success in deciphering anything since there was nothing there to power the ship.

Oh and do note that humans had no "ray guns", shields, space-fighters that don't use jet propulsion - in fact all that was a complete surprise to them.

TNT

[mdwstmusik]

Great! I'll give the thumbs up to any movie that will add to option of Saturday afternoon movies on the Will Smith channel (aka: TNT).

The aliens are back!

[Snaller]

And this time they are running Linux!

Boy are we screwed now!

Sequel to the shittiest A rated movie ever ?

[unity100]

well. at least when our children watches it decades later and laugh their asses off, we can say 'i was there when they filmed that movie'

That's Dave Barry

[SpammersAreScum]

...from his humorous Year-In-Review. Haven't been able to find it online.

General reaction

[halcyon1234]

"If one isn't enough, there are reports that 2 sequels to Roland Emmerich's 1996 alien invasion blockbuster Independence Day are in the works

Aw, hell, no.

Re:Pfft

[An ominous Cow art]

No, that would be a movie called "AFD1".

Plot Revealed

[prefec2]

In ID4.2 humans discover, that the aliens were mad at them because they thought humans had shot down that craft in the 1960s. One surviving alien tell the US president (it must be the US president, because the USA is so big that it is nearly impossible that the surviving alien could be in any other country. Especially it could not be in Russia or China). I tells the president, that a out of earth atmosphere secret nuke test destroyed the alien craft 40 years ago. After some research it is clear that there were two tests one from Russia and one form the US. So these two superpowers put together all their resources and build a ship, which they send to the alien planet. So we could talk with the alien overlords. After some setbacks this works, Will Smith has sex with an alien (which do look good, only their biological clone worriers look horrible) and we all make peace.

In ID4.3 either the Vogons blow us up or the aliens decided that we stink, as Will Smith (WS) brought tripper to their planet and now everyone is going to die (on their planet). But WS is send to the aliens with an antidote and we all life long an prosper OR WS fakes an vogonic rerouting document and they blow up the alien planet instead or Vogonsphere (which would be no big loss, as a lot of bad poetry will become history). Thinking of that... maybe R. Emmerich is not from Germany, but from Vogonsphere.

Titles & plot summaries have also been release

[dragonworks2050]

The first sequel will be "Labor Day" in which the surviving residents of Earth must overcome their differences and work together to fight the invaders. The second sequel will be "Columbus Day" in which Will Smith must convince the others to follow him on an intergalactic voyage to find a new habitable planet fit for human conquest.

wow

[Anonymous Coward]

just wow. well done. send this man to hollywood, pay him whatever he wants.

For your next trick, can you fix thermodynamics in the Matrix?

Re:wow

[timholman]

For your next trick, can you fix thermodynamics in the Matrix?

Easily done. You change the line about the machines using us as heat engines to a line about the machines needing human brains as a computational matrix, because the war fried the ozone layer / magnetosphere / etc., rendering high-level computational devices incapable of functioning. So in effect the Agents are all software running in a huge organic computer network, and the attack drones are simply remotely operated devices.

It requires about 10 to 15 seconds of extra dialogue, and (once again) makes the plot a bit less cringeworthy.

I can't do squat about Matrix 2 or 3, however. Like most folks, I try to pretend they don't exist. :-)

To be fair...

[GF678]

The bit where Jeff Goldblum's character hacks the alien mothership's network to upload a virus, isn't so far fetched after all. Earlier on in the movie he notes how the aliens were using "our own satellites against us", implying they had somehow managed to establish an uplink with our electronics and protocols.

If the aliens could control our systems, one would believe the reverse could also be true (in the realm of the movie at least).

Beacuse they couldn't get the tech straight.

[Ungrounded Lightning]

Seriously, why do movies generate so much nerd rage?

Because they never get the tech straight and it blows the "willing suspension of disbelief" needed to enjoy the films - after you've paid all this money on the promise you will be entertained.

Examples from Independence Day:

  - The mother ship is a quarter the mass of the moon and they put it in near Earth orbit without cracking the planet open with tides, making significant changes in the orbits of the Earth and Moon, or even causing noticeable tidal disruption of the Earth's shipping.

  - They can cross interstellar space with a fleet but have to crack into our comsats to get a signal to the other side of the planet? They never heard of using one of their OWN ships for a relay, or directional antennas, or even moonbounce?

  - Their entire network is susceptible to a Macintosh worm? If there's ONE THING that is technology specific and guaranteed not to operate on a separately-designed computer built by people from another planet with no previous contact with Earth. it's a worm. What did these guys do? Steal the plans from Woz and Jobs? GIVE the plans to Woz and Jobs?

Gimmie a break.

= = = =

I understand that one thing which surprised the filmmakers was the audience reaction when the aliens blasted the Whitehouse: A standing ovation! (During the Clinton years no less.)

Re: Beacuse they couldn't get the tech straight.

[ground.zero.612]

You forgot about, you know, aliens.

You could have saved yourself the majority of the length of your post and simply said "that movie was sooooo fake it had aliens from another planet in it!".

I have an idea, the next time Hollywood produces a film about things that can't be proved to even exist, you could just, you know, not see it. At least, use the entire premise as the main reason, not a bunch of filler material. Aliens existing, or even visiting Earth; that should be your main nerd rant...

ID is a guilt pleasure

[thetoadwarrior]

I did watch ID at the theatre and I do own it on DVD so I've watched it once or twice over the years. It's acceptable enough to watch once in a blue moon but one sequel, let alone two, would be fucking awful.Especially since Will Smith continually gets worse, imo. I hope this is a joke.

Obama Biplane

[Anonymous Coward]

Does he do what the hero did in the first movie?