Independence Day

Released: July 4, 1996

Director: Roland Emmerich

Run Time: 145 minutes

Rated PG-13

Cast:
Will Smith: Captain Steven Hiller
Bill Pullman: President Thomas J. Whitmore
Jeff Goldblum: David Levinson
Robert Loggia: General Grey
Vivica A. Fox: Jasmine
Margaret Colin: Constance Spano
Mary McDonnell: Marilyn Whitmore
Randy Quaid: Russell Casse
Adam Baldwin: Major Mitchell
Brent Spiner: Dr. Brakish Okun
Judd Hirsch: Julius Levinson

Aliens have been a main staple of science fiction films for the better part of six decades.  Movies such as The Day The Earth Stood Still, War of the Worlds(the original), and Invasion of the Saucer Men just to name a few.  These are some of the classic films in the genre.  While we have seen a lot of them over the past 30 years, we’ve only really seen a resurgence in the genre in the past decade.  With movies like Skyline, Battle: Los Angeles, Pacific Rim, and Edge of Tomorrow, the genre has garnered more interest.  Obviously, the quality of the films I mentioned have ranged from excellent, like The War of the Worlds, to absolute crap films like Skyline.  I did enjoy Skyline for the slick visuals, but that movie was not very good.  Some are beyond reproach like the original The Day The Earth Stood Still.  During the 90s, we saw a lot of excellent movies from every genre in the world.  But there was one blockbuster film that came out in 1996 which became one of the biggest movies of the decade.  The title of that movie is the same as the day it was released: Independence Day.

The film opens at S.E.T.I(Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence, it’s a real organization, look it up), where one of the workers begins to hear an unusual signal that seems to be originating from the moon.  The military assumes that it might be a meteor when one of the officers says its slowing down.  After President Whitmore is informed of the situation, the object splits into 12 or more separate pieces, that are smaller than the main object, but over 15 miles in width themselves.  After witnessing some mysterious cloud formations, the actual alien vessels emerge over several major cities across the globe.  A cable repairman in New York, David Levinson, stumbles on a signal that is actually a countdown.  Rushing with his father Julius to Washington DC, he informs the President that the visitors are about to attack.  After the White House is evacuated, mostly, the ships begin their assault, firing a main beam of energy which sends a wall of fire in every direction, destroying everything in its blast radius.  Afterwards, the people of Earth decide to fight back.

Story-wise, this is nothing new under the sun.  In fact, it’s pretty similar to the main plot of War of the Worlds.  More to the point, there’s a lot of stuff in Independence Day that feels very familiar to people who seen those older sci-fi movies.  The Day The Earth Stood Still, is directly referenced in one of the scenes in the movie.  It was awesome.  In many ways, Independence Day feels pretty old-fashioned.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing.  The film knows exactly what it is, and goes full throttle.  It takes a little while for things to get going, but when they do, it’s spectacular.  During the 90s, we got a lot of high-profile movies that really pushed the envelope in terms of visual effects.  Terminator 2 pushed what we could with CGI when Cameron created the T-1000, Jurassic Park showed how realistic dinosaurs can be portrayed using both CGI and practical effects.  Independence Day doesn’t actually push the envelope in terms of visual effects, but what it does do is use a combination of several different techniques, including CG, miniatures, and actual props.  It’s extraordinarily well done.  When the cities are blown all to hell, that is one of the big action pieces of the film.  It was incredible.  But then, we also have the incredible air battles.  So, the film not only takes its cues from the older sci-fi classics, it borrows a bit from Star Wars, and it feels that way during the air combat scenes.  The film is incredibly fast-paced as well.

All the visual effects in the world can’t prop up a movie by itself, so you have to actors who are willing to act against a green-screen and use their imaginations, and most of the actors in this film are fantastic.  This is Will Smith’s show, through and through.  While Bad Boys put Smith on the map, it was Independence Day that really made him a superstar.  Jeff Goldblum is fantastic as David Levinson.  His deadpan delivery is absolutely hilarious at times.  Bill Pullman plays the President and is pretty reliable as a fighter pilot-turned-politician.  Judd Hirsch almost steals the show as Julius Levinson.  A lot of what works here is the interactions between the characters, and it’s fun to watch.  Getting to see Brent Spiner play an actual human being is fantastic.  He’s really good at it.  Randy Quaid plays the resident drunken pilot.  It’s Randy Quaid, so not much can be said for that.  Vivica A. Fox plays Steven Hiller’s stripper wife-to-be.  Margaret Colin plays David Levinson’s ex-wife that left him for her career.  The music by David Arnold helps give the film its life.  It’s very grand and bombastic, and when the good guys start winning, we get some really great stuff.  Some of it comes across as a little over-the-top, but considering the nature of the movie, it’s to be expected.

Yeah, there’s a lot of patriotic stuff flying around with awesomely cheesy pep talks and otherwise terrible dialogue.  Will Smith can take some of the worst dialogue in the movie and make it hilarious, he’s good at that.  As I said before, this is a movie that knows what it is.  It proudly wears all those cliches on its sleeves.  Roland Emmerich has definitely crafted a pretty memorable action film that really doesn’t overstay its welcome unlike some of his later movies….(I’m looking at you 2012).  He had previously directed the magnificent Stargateand the awesome action flick, Universal Soldier.  He definitely knows his way around grand scale action sequences and explosions.  For a movie that’s nearly 20 years old, Independence Day holds up surprisingly well.  Sure, it’s cheesy, but it’s the kind of cheese that doesn’t get moldy.  Make no mistake, this is mindless entertainment, and it would be very wise to shut your brain off for 2.5 hours.

One of the reasons why I wrote this, is because Roland Emmerich is going to be doing another 2 Independence Day films.  Only a handful of cast-members have been announced.  Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, and Vivica A. Fox are the only members of the original film confirmed to be on board at this point.  Truth be told, I’m not entirely sure how Emmerich’s going to pull this off, because the first movie ended pretty definitely.  Yeah, there were books that took place right after.  I’ve read them, and they weren’t really that good.  So, Emmerich needs to have something up his sleeve to make this work.  I had heard rumors that they were going to attempt to make at least one sequel, and those rumors had persisted over the years.  It seems now that the project is gaining steam, with a projected release date sometime in July of 2016.  I’ve honestly enjoyed Emmerich’s work over the years, so I’m kind of interested where he goes from here.  That being said, I’m giving Independence Day a solid 9/10.  Yeah, it’s cliched, but damn if it ain’t fun.

Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.