the best alien invasion movie

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Alien Invasion movies are my favorite! I know it gets alot of hate, justifiable of course, but I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Independence Day. The scenes of the massive ships blowing the crap out of American landmarks was amazing to me as a kid. The aliens looked cool, and the cast was great! I think I've watched every decent alien invasion movie, but I'm curious what everyone else thinks is the best.



The trick is not minding
The first two Invasion of the Body Snatchers are great. Still need to see the third version, by Ferrara. Independence Day is fun, as well.



Independence Day takes the giant ship thing and turns it up to 11.
Instead of just having flying saucers, Emmerich had ships that were about 15 miles wide that were part of an even larger mothership and destroyed entire cities like they were nothing. At the time I don't think we'd seen anything like it before.
Independence Day basically set a standard for the action based invasion movie.
Before Emmerich came along, I think the largest scale we'd seen was maybe War Of The Worlds in 1953... and even then it was mainly sets and stages with small scale battles here and there.

Agree with Wyldesyde though on Snatchers. Sometimes the best ones are the low-key low budget movies.
I've always preferred the Kaufman Body Snatchers movie to all the others.
Carpenter's movies They Live and The Thing still stand out too.



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
Does District 9 count?



Attack the Block is a fresh take on the alien-invasion trope, setting the invasion in a low income neighborhood where there are already messed up power dynamics and mistrust.

Honeymoon couches alien invasion in a psychosexual-thriller type mold. Very chilling film.



The trick is not minding
Independence Day takes the giant ship thing and turns it up to 11.
Instead of just having flying saucers, Emmerich had ships that were about 15 miles wide that were part of an even larger mothership and destroyed entire cities like they were nothing. At the time I don't think we'd seen anything like it before.
Independence Day basically set a standard for the action based invasion movie.
Before Emmerich came along, I think the largest scale we'd seen was maybe War Of The Worlds in 1953... and even then it was mainly sets and stages with small scale battles here and there.

Agree with Wyldesyde though on Snatchers. Sometimes the best ones are the low-key low budget movies.
I've always preferred the Kaufman Body Snatchers movie to all the others.
Carpenter's movies They Live and The Thing still stand out too.
How could I forget They Live and The Thing? Both good films yes



The MCU and DC movies have taken over this genre of late. If aliens from other planets or dimensions are invading Earth, groups of super-powered beings will save us.

Haven't updated it in a while, but I have a whole thread devoted to the "Body Snatcher" subset of Alien Invasion flicks. I prefer those to battles with guns and spaceships. More insidious and psychological.

Clicky HERE.
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Aliens is my no. 1 desert island choice, but as far as aliens invading Earth goes, I guess the best I've seen is the 78 Body Snatchers, unless you want to count Close Encounters as an "invasion" when it's really more of a preparation for a visit.


Oh, what abouy Star Trek: First Contact?



ID4 really was a special moment in time



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
"Independence Day" had some great visuals for sure. Just couldn't get past some of the hokiest dialogue ever put to film.

If only we had someone to --- I CAN FLY IT, SIR!! --- fly it.


That's the movie that turned me off of Will Smith.

To the topic, I have to agree on The Thing and Alien/Aliens. Mars Attacks! is great fun too, for different reasons.



Victim of The Night
I'm not gonna say it's the best but I'm gonna put in a plug for...


I really liked this movie, I felt it had a lot going on and some really interesting things to say before a lot of other movies said them.
Plust, f*cking triffids!



The War of the Worlds (1953)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell (1968)

It's a spoiler to know there are aliens in this film, so be mindful of clicking the spoilered text.
WARNING: spoilers below
God Told Me To (1976)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Alien (1979)
The Thing (1982)
They Live (1988)
The Abyss (1989)
Men in Black (1997)
Signs (2002)
Under the Skin (2014)
Arrival (2016)
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