Just saw the movies. I liked it pretty well. It was what I expected, a good, violent, action-packed throwaway film. In some ways it's reminiscent of Cloverfield and, of course, Independence Day.

Some nits:

So the alien invaders traveled all the way to Earth for one resource: water. They use it to fuel their drones and ships. Okay, first of all, an engine that runs on water has been the pipe dream of many an amateur car designer for decades now. The problem has yet to be solved, it's doubtful that even an alien race capable of interstellar travel could do it.

But even if they had, they were indiscriminately using both sewage water and ocean water to fuel their vehicles. Really? The two are hardly interchangeable, much less pure H₂0. One has fecal matter and urine in it, the other salt. So unless the invaders' engines have a filtration system of some sort (which would use up the energy created by the water in the first place), I don't see how they could use both sewage and sea water. It'd be sort of like running a car with fuel that had sand in it or trash in it, I would think.

And if the vehicles are fueled by water, uh, how'd they manage to travel all those light years to Earth? That would have to be a helluva payload to carry just for a trip to invade and conquer the Earth. How did they carry it? Did they have a refueling station somewhere along the line? (Doesn't this make it seem like conquering Earth just for water would be a massive waste of time?)

Then again, how'd they learn Earth had such an abundant supply of water? I could be wrong, but I don't think we can tell how much water distant planets have. Can we? (At one point, a scientist claims that Earth is the only planet to have such an abundance of water. Well, no. Obviously the invaders' homeworld is well hydrated. They must've found other worlds between here and their home planet to refuel.)

Of course, given how large the invading force is, they must've used up their water supply on their home planet just to make the trip here. *

At one point, a scientist makes the claim the aliens have used up a large supply of Earth's water, causing a noticeable drop in the ocean levels. Yeah, considering the coasts are a war zone, I'd love to know how that scientist made that determination. "Uh, excuse me, Mr. Alien Invader type-person, could you give me a moment to measure the water levels? Thank you."

*I'm using hyperbole here, folks. I don't mean it really. Well, maybe...

Oops. In my first sentence, I meant to say, "Just saw the movie" - singular - not "movies", plural. My bad.

A few more things:

The invasion begins with an asteroid shower that NASA says just suddenly appeared. First of all, isn't it fortunate that NASA - or somebody - just happened to have a telescope or two aimed where the invading force "suddenly" appeared? You'd think NASA would start going over some of the older photos to see if they could spot where the invaders came from - roughly. Unless the aliens had a cloaking device of some sort. Which they, for some reason or another, failed to use during the invasion itself. (I mean, seriously, an invisibility shield of some sort would be a helluva tactical advantage. Just ask the Romulans and the Predators.)

The movie takes place, by the way, 5 months from now - in August of 2011. I'm going to play Amazing Kreskin here and say, "I don't remember an extraterrestrial invasion happening in August of 2011.


SPOILER ALERT

It turns out the drones for the invading force are controlled by a huge mothership type vessel. Seven Marines hold off the aliens so some missiles can be launched into the mothership, shutting off the central control. For the west coast, anyway. The movie ends with the U.S. military spreading the word about the aliens' weakness, with the implication the rest of the world will use similar tactics, defeating the aliens. Yeah, that'll work. As long as the alien invaders are stupid and don't learn anything from the L.A. skirmish slash defeat, the Earth will stop the alien invaders in no time at all.

Water as fuel for spacecraft is much different than a "water powered car".

Case 1: Spacecraft runs on fusion. Water can be split to create hydrogen for fuel, and oxygen for breathing.

Case 2: NERVA type spacecraft. Fission plant heats what's called "reaction mass" and ejects it out the rear. Water is a very good reaction mass.

Given the aliens' desire to plunder our resources, and Benn's description of the plot in his last post above, it sounds an awful lot like Independence Day. Is there really any substantial difference between the two?

Yeah: Battle: Los Angeles does not have all the movie references that ID4 had. That's why, at least right now, I like B:LA better. Those references to other films get annoying about the third time you see ID4, IMHO.

But, yeah, from the first time I heard about this movie, I couldn't help wonder why it existed since it sounded way too much like Independence Day. I almost didn't go see it, but then I decided I wanted to see a mindless, violent, action-packed, "them things blowed up real good" type of film. I expected nothing else out of it, and got nothing else. So for that reason, I liked it. Beyond that, it's idiotic.

What movie references were there in ID4?

I'd really have to watch it again, but the two that stand out in my memory are the shot of the Statue of Liberty's head seemed to be lifted from the original Planet of the Apes. And of course, Jeff Goldblum's computer saying, "Good morning, Dave" is 2001. IMDb has a list of some of the references. You'll have to scroll down to find them. But, really, I'd have to go back and watch the film to list the scenes I thought referenced other films. I just remember watching it and playing, "Spot-the-Movie-Reference".

I don't recall seeing Liberty's head. Wasn't it the entire stature shown destroyed?

It was shown toppled. If you go to this page and scroll down to a comment by "Bahimiron", you'll read, "ID4 is all references to old sci fi movies, so of course they'd stick a reference to Planet of the Apes in there. It's the opening shot of the day after the attack." So, I'm not the only one who felt that way about the film. (Seems to me I read a review of the film that mentioned ID4 being filled with movie references, too.)

Incidentally, while only mentioning one example, Craig Rohloff in his Tuesday, May 14, 2002 - 3:01 pm post on the Independence Day thread, mentioned the film makes references to sci-fi films of the past.

If some alien force destroys New York City in a movie, it's only logical that they'll show some of its landmarks, so I don't see why any shot of the Statue destroyed is automatically a reference to Apes.

No, I guess you wouldn't. Even taking into account that as of 1996 (the year ID4 was released, destruction of the Statue of Liberty was a rarity, you wouldn't be convinced. I've learned long ago arguing with you is pointless, so we'll just say you're right.

Here's a list of some of the homages/ripoffs ID4 commits. Scroll way down to Mario Bruzzone of Bekeley, CA's post. (Though some Star Wars references are mentioned in other posts.

Sorry, that should be Shane Tourtellotte of Westfield, NJ's post, not Mario Bruzzone's.

I've learned long ago arguing with you is pointless

No it's not. You're completely wrong to say that.

D'Oh!