Those mean, mad and massively destructive aliens from Independence Day are back, this time in spectacular fashion on DVD.

Roland Emmerich's sci-fi thriller, the biggest hit of 1996 and the movie that made Will Smith into a superstar and the White House into a pile of charred rubble, is making its DVD debut tomorrow, along with a re-release on VHS.

Fox Home Entertainment is hyping the DVD as "a breathtaking two-disc special edition set" and the hyperbole is actually justified, especially if you already enjoy this kick-ass adventure flick that is Hollywood excess at its best.

The extras are generous -- and lots of fun as they take us behind the scenes or into mock documentaries about alien invasions. Tongues are planted firmly in cheeks.

There are two versions of the film on disc one, both of them (thankfully) in widescreen. The first is the original 153-minute release version and the other has nine minutes of interesting character-driven footage restored, including a funny-sweet scene between Jeff Goldblum and Harvey Fierstein that ends with a brief kiss on the cheek.

An option allows you to choose two feature-length commentaries, one a hilarious verbal tag-team match involving Emmerich and his producing partner Dean Devlin and the other a more tech-oriented session with the Oscar-winning special effects team of Volker Engel and Doug Smith.

Disc two has the bonus extras, hours of materials that has this DVD release rivaling The Abyss in terms of both quantity and quality. The presentation in the menus is not as imaginative as on The Abyss but they are well organized.

There is a sense of delight and play by the filmmakers and some of their cast members, such as interesting oddball Goldblum, who hosts HBO's First Look: Independence Day, the 33-minute cable TV teaser show included on the disc.

Among the best extras, Devlin shows us the original ending sequence, which had Randy Quaid destroying the aliens' mother ship in his biplane, not in a jet fighter. Devlin explains how the scene was changed because it seemed illogical, if whimsical, and also robbed the film of drama.

For special effects junkies, an excellent 30-minute documentary called Creating Reality strips away the magic.

There are also storyboards, production stills and a special link to an internet-only 3D space combat game called ID4 Online. I haven't played it but the ROM-enabled DVD includes a one-month free subscription to the game.


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