What memes are common in alien landing movies?

They always seem to come in disc-shaped craft.
They are never friendly, or when they seem to be, their motives are much more sinister, only using cooperation as a smokescreen.
Terrified New Yorkers running down the street. Every single movie.
Mankind finally unites against a common enemy.

Blowing up beloved landmarks to piss off the audience.

Oh, and the aliens weakness/downfall is usually something simple. Like water, or bacteria.

The alien invaders have no real objective, simply seem to enjoy blowing shit up & frightening the masses, just because they can.

There are always some high level humans who are convinced that they can encounter the aliens friendly and peacefully, only to find out they didn’t come in peace.

… and they always land in the US… destroying 1 or 2 europeans cities, but the world is always saved by american heroes… Hollywood… :)

The aliens are always slimey.

Aliens are scary
They want to speak with our leader
They have very destructive weapons
They lack personality
The hold Man in contempt
They have a weak point which isn’t obvious
Their planet is in a worse state than ours.

Aliens are basically human-shaped, but with big heads, lean limbs and no muscle tone.

The robot and scout ship make perfect sense; it’s how we would do it, too. Having an invasion and / or transport fleet in orbit is also plausible, considering the energy and engineering that would be required to make a spacecraft able to withstand entry and landing in Earth’s atmosphere and then overcome gravity to leave.

Yeah, that the aliens always have robots that resemble humans is interesting.

Some wispy guy in Washington has an idea for a “peace initiative”.

A general opposes that as he clenches a cigar in his teeth. He’s also fat, and swears a lot.

The “general public” either panics to run away, or euphorically embraces the ideal of “peaceful aliens”. No one simply ignores the whole hubbub and goes to work.

The aliens really do have super-duper technology and discipline, but a single cowboy (or maverick fighter jet pilot) can best at least one of them against near impossible numerical odds – not to mention the aforementioned technological superiority.

The president’s wife is always beautiful. The president is always heroic.

Method of arrival:
Mother ship
Mother ship + smaller ships
An armada of all types
Single escape pod

Common personality dispositions:
Tyrannical
Angry
Self-Entitled
Curious
Fearful

Attributes of Aliens:
Odd looking, animalistic, slimy (if not slimy, then furry), well armored, advanced intelligence and often telepathic, sometimes robotic or cybernetic, well armed and almost always misinterpreted and misread by humans, completely different speaking/writing language, confused upon landing on Earth even though they are clearly the dominant species.

Alien Tech:
Advanced weaponry (often ‘plasma’ based, with every projectile being immensely explosive)
Teleportation
Advanced spacecraft and tactical aircraft
Interstellar Travel
FTL Travel (that’s faster than light, kids)
Planet-Destroying devices
Planet-Creating devices
Terra-forming devices (making Earth habitable to them)
Standard Tech Feature 1: Almost all tech controllable by thought
Standard Tech Feature 2: EVERYTHING has a self-destruct – nearly nuclear at that.

Motives for invasion:
Mining precious resources (they’ve run out on their home planet)
Overpopulation of home planet
Enslavement of lesser race
Extermination of lesser race (interstellar supremacy)
Expansion of Empire (interstellar supremacy)
Procurement of human hosts for parasites (Stargate, Aliens, Halo e.g.)

Response of Humans (Pre-warned):
Global panic
Shoot ALL our weapons at them
Reason with them
Unite the entire globe and Fight
Exploit some sort of ironic paradoxical weakness, such as water, common cold, etc.
Hide in underground bunkers

Response of Humans (No Warning)
Get vaporized
Hide
Enslavement

One need look no further than one of the greatest alien invasion chronoloogies of all time – the Stargate series (namely SG-1), as almost all memes/themes are present throughout.

I’ll try to think of more for later. :)

The unofficial welcoming committee that gets blown away… Except the protagonist who is apparently phaser proof.

One person knows how to defeat the invaders but nobody wants to listen to him – at first.

Words from Independence day “why would they fly millions of miles to pick a fight?” Thank God they did not use AVG, Avast or any antivirus programs or the aliens were using Windows.
The day the earth stood still “we are here to help Earth” how did that work out for them?
Clue believed in the good nature of humans…
War of the worlds – A bacterial infection killed them, that made sense our germs can kill if you are not from Earth.
Signs with Mel Gibson – A jar of water saved the day.
My favorite movie a South African movie, that’s right people in Africa can make good and original movies as well, and even at the same standard of Hollywood – “District 9” – Story goes like this an alien ship landed by accident in Johannesburg South Africa and none of the crew members have any clue how to fly the thing. And as we know Africa and it’s inhabitants they exploit the aliens.
Species another good idea – give the humans their DNA and see how humans can destroy them selves, and don’t forget the government they always looking for a new soldier or a weapon.