rapidviper54 said:Brilliant movie. Sure, some parts are absolutely moronic and aggressively pro-American—total overkill—but overall? It’s two hours of pure, unadulterated entertainment.
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 The history of mankind. "Mankind." That word should carry a whole new weight for everyone today. We can't let ourselves get bogged down by petty little differences anymore. We have to stand together for our shared interests. Maybe it’s just fate that today falls on the Fourth of July, and you’ll find yourselves fighting for our freedom once again... Not against tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but against total annihilation. We are fighting for our basic right to live. To simply exist. And should WE win The day , The Fourth of July will no Longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the entire world spoke up as one: "We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight!" We are going to endure! We are going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!
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Every single time he delivers this speech, I get goosebumps.😁 ....man, those were the days.....I remember being a little kid watching this in the theater for the first time (it was packed every single day, people were absolutely starving for this movie, just like back in the old cinema days in New York City) and I actually covered my eyes when those aliens snatched the doctor away—reminded me of that "boo!" scene from *The Fog* where they dissect him, haha.😍 ...
A cult classic in every sense of the word....when I was a kid, I wanted to be just like Will Smith, step up to one of those aliens as it crawls out of its spaceship and tell it—welcome to Earth!🙏
Wait, what? Are you serious right now? Hahaha, I have absolutely no idea what you’re even trying to say there. David Price5, you completely lost me. 😁 😁 Haha—so you're telling me he's actually Paula??? What on earth are you talking about?
Heh, I don't know 🙂... this one is from England... and I feel like there might be a few extra scenes or moments added in, or maybe I’ve just completely forgotten how it goes. Help me out here—in the "standard" version, when Beth takes the necklace from Sarah, does she actually say, "It's from Juno... Paul (that's the husband's name, right?) gave it to her"? Because I distinctly remember in the DVD rip I had, she just mentions Juno made it for her, and then later, when Sarah reaches for it, she accidentally snatches it right out of her hand and sees the inscription. There wasn't any dialogue about it back then...
That's what's bothering me. I vividly remember how subtle it was when Sarah realized he was cheating on her... just by glancing at that necklace. Anyone watching closely caught onto it immediately. Doing it through explicit dialogue feels a bit weak to me... unless I'm just misremembering how it originally played out. 😁
Don't you dare spoil the ending for me, I haven't even seen it yet....
But honestly, just the mere fact that Juno survived completely ruins the whole vibe for me. The entire point of the struggle was that Juno lost her life; vengeance had to mean more than just staying alive. That’s what makes the ending so powerful. Instead, they immediately undercut all that tension at the start by revealing she actually made it. To me, it just feels pointless....
They really should have just had Sarah head inside with them alone. It would have felt like a natural sequel to Alien—just her, the military, and the chaos. That's an angle that actually works for me.
I’m on the same page as Martyrs regarding the pacing. The first half of the movie actually holds up, but then it just devolves into a relentless parade of pure gore and revolting imagery. Look, I get it—they need to depict extreme torture to drive the point home—but they dragged it out way too long for my taste. In my opinion,
That tunnel scene where Sarah gets stuck? That was the absolute peak of claustrophobia for me. Maybe it's because I deal with a bit of claustrophobia myself, 🙂 but honestly, if I were in her shoes, I would have completely lost it. I’d be terrified, sobbing, thrashing around, probably hyperventilating until I passed out and died right there on the spot. 😁 I see why Donna Gray4 is comparing The Thingo to Alien; you can definitely draw that parallel when it comes to that feeling of being trapped with no way out and zero chance of escape. But for me, the fear here isn't about the creature—it's the raw, suffocating terror of the space itself. I think that’s what David Price5 was getting at.
I haven't actually sat down to watch it yet... I'm going to have to force myself to sit through his entire body of work 🙂 ...and I really wanted to add one more thing. Honestly, the cinematography in this movie is top-tier. The camera angles, the way they captured that suffocating sense of claustrophobia and pure hopelessness—it was masterful. And the theme of revenge? It takes center stage, becoming far more important than even basic survival in Sarah's case. Watching how the characters evolve and seeing how everyone reacts differently when the pressure is on... it's intense. Every single time, without fail, I find myself just sitting there with my jaw on the floor. Truly phenomenal.
So, I finally picked up this film on Blu-ray—honestly, one of the best horror movies from the last decade—and just sat down to rewatch it. And yeah, I was scared shitless. Again. Watching it in Blu-ray makes such a massive difference; the picture quality is absolutely phenomenal. If you have any way to watch this in HD, do it. Seriously. You can actually see all those subtle color nuances Marshall uses—the red from the flares, the greens, the whole search for an exit, the play between light and shadow... I’m speechless. It’s captivating. With a decent home theater setup, this is a total sensory experience.
And what else is there to say about the movie itself? This is probably my seventh time seeing it. I’d go as far as saying it’s right on the edge of being a masterpiece. The way the themes and emotions weave through the story—so subtle yet so heavy—is incredible. The acting is top-tier across the board, especially from Juno and Sarah. Their dialogue and their struggle, both external and internal, felt so real to me. Everything is just phenomenal, from the small details to the character development. One more thing... people ask why I find the crawlers so terrifying. It's because they feel human. They reflect us. When they attack, it’s primal, animalistic. But fighting them isn't like some stylized fight against an alien or a slasher who just guts you and moves on. With the crawlers, you're actually wrestling for your life. You're fighting, they're lunging at you, hitting you, biting you... it feels visceral. There's nothing unrealistic about it. Death feels slow and agonizing because you know you actually had a fighting chance. That's why they get under my skin every single time.
My only real gripe... the absolute only thing that felt off to me was Bec's death. Every other character's death felt well-executed, like it had weight and purpose. But hers? She just gets ripped away suddenly, like some cheap trope you see in every generic horror flick from the last few years. That's it. Just that.
Right now on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s sitting at a 75% and it even has that Certified Fresh label... which honestly means it can't be a total disaster. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
Wait, wasn't his last one the one with the werewolves? Which, if you ask me, was a total disaster... so I'm definitely not holding my breath for this movie either.
Look, I get it, it’s a remake, but let’s be honest: God of War set the gold standard for anything touching on Greek mythology 😁. ...The second I saw Liam Neeson cast as Zeus, I thought, "Hell yeah!" But then I had to wonder... why on earth doesn't he have the classic white hair and beard? 😁 Hehe... And if I'm reading the trailer correctly, Ralph Fiennes is playing Poseidon... though I think IMDb already confirmed that, and honestly, I can't be bothered to go check right now.
Looks decent enough... I just hope they don't blow it at the finish line. If this ends up being nothing more than a blatant rip-off of God of War—and considering the third one drops in less than a month, 😁—it might actually pull some numbers. But then again, we all saw how that movie adaptation turned out, haha. 🙂
Hey, where did you manage to track down those complete recordings? I’ve already downloaded my own set, obviously, but I’m really aiming to get my hands on the full original versions somewhere. 😍
I always say, if any ring is ever going to end up on my finger, it’ll be the lord of the ring. 😁
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve watched the theatrical cuts—I’m being dead serious, I counted at least 50... and the extended versions? Those are a mandatory ritual for me every two months since they were released. I even went as far as getting a sentence from the first movie tattooed in Tengwar script...
They might not be the greatest cinematic achievements ever made, but they are hands down my favorite films in existence...
That first one... it holds a special place in my heart. That’s where it all began for me, and honestly, it has the most "soul" of them all...
And man, I absolutely lose my mind whenever a new Blu-ray edition drops. 😁
Anthony Smith3 said:And they work perfectly just like that.
So... my answer to the question in the title is a hard NO. This guy does exactly what he’s built for: summer blockbusters. If he had actually tried to direct a drama after all those explosions and turned out to be a total disaster—like, someone with zero grasp on emotions, character arcs, or actual human connection—then maybe this conversation would even be worth having. Otherwise, there's no point.
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If every single action movie today—well, okay, not *every* single one, because then we'd be stuck in a loop of mediocrity 😁—was as solid as Armageddon, Rock, or Bad Boys, life would be great. When I just want to kick back and watch a high-octane action flick from start to finish without any filler, I know exactly whose name to look for (along with a few other directors)
Instead of digging through a pile of modern wannabe "action movies" that rely entirely on CGI and special effects but fail to even deliver on being decent entertainment
Jack Bauer... because he's literally the only guy Chuck Norris is actually afraid of. 😁 I mean, Liam Neeson is getting close, but he’s still got a long way to go. He needs a lot more training before he hits that level. :P 🙂
I honestly have no idea what they’re planning to pull 28 weeks from now. Are they just going to let it spread? Or maybe they’ll finally roll in the SWAT teams. Just throw some sheep in there and watch them get torn apart... honestly, what a waste of time. If it turns out to be even half as intense as what happened in the first one, I guess I'll be somewhat satisfied. 😁