'Independence Day' - Review

Sometimes, it sucks to grow up. Work, taxes, relationships, and many more responsibilities land in your lap as you become an adult. However, what is most tragic is that sometimes revisiting cherished things from your childhood no longer have the impact they once did and now have a negative connotation towards it. Hence, my opinion on the film Independence Day. I will always have a nostalgic connection with this movie, but after watching many other films and four years of film school, I can safely say that this film is very dumb.

Now before anybody gets all triggered and offended by that statement, I still enjoy watching this movie. However, when I say that this movie is dumb, I am not insulting it's audience. What I mean is that everything is spelled out and there isn't much room for subtlety. For example, right off the bat we start with someone playing mini golf at S.E.T.I. and a giant red buzzer starts flashing indicating that they have heard an alien signal. The guy calls his boss and gets him to come down to the station to see for his own eyes along with a very cliched line like, "It's the real thing! A radio signal from another world." And while there is nothing really insulting or technically bad about that line, but it's just an example of how this movie really feels the need to hammer everything onto it's audience. It's like we just saw the space ship's shadow over the landing site on the moon, I'm pretty sure the audience isn't dumb enough to not guess that there is an imminent danger ahead from a gigantic spaceship coming. But we also need a scene of explaining it. You see what I mean, it's just kind of unnecessary. And that brings up my next problem with this movie.

There is a ton of unnecessary things in this movie. The First Lady, Randy Quaid and his redneck family with their group of RV's, Jeff Goldblum's wife & father plus Will Smith wanting to get into NASA but not getting accepted cause he's dating a stripper. I believe a good portion of all that could be cut. When watching this movie again, there is a scene where after the destruction of Los Angeles, Will Smith's fiancé and the First Lady of the United States are talking. Even though I was watching the film alone, I said out loud, "I don't care!"

Which is a shame because this film's first act is actually pretty well executed. The pacing and the structure for the build up of the alien invasion is all really great. Roland Emmerich loves scenes of people constantly being interrupted from their everyday lives to be warned or informed of the current danger. The president being phoned to which he replies, "Could you... say that again?" Cut to next character living their everyday life and them finding out about the alien spaceship. All of that is exciting and when watching it again, I again said out loud, "I didn't remember liking this section of the movie so much." I don't know, I like scenes in movies where people turn on the news to find out that bad things are happening and it cuts to various situations all around the world. On top of that, even though there are a ton of subplots that this film juggles, they at least were able to cast three actors that have great charisma on screen. Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith.

Bill Pullman as President Whitmore, while sounding like William Shatner at some moments, does have a demanding screen presence and plays a pretty believable United States President. By the way, that speech is still one of the best speeches in Blockbuster film history. Jeff Goldblum plays a MIT major working at a television company in New York who catches on to the alien's plan before anyone else does. Which, although a nitpick, is pretty unbelievable, but you let it slide because Jeff Goldblum is an extremely likeable and quirky actor and the people in charge of the military and CIA are portrayed as idiots. So in this universe, sure, I'll buy that Jeff Goldblum could figure out a solution. As for Will Smith, again, like Jeff Goldblum is one of the most charismatic actors of his generation. I especially like how he always maintains the frame of every scene he is in. What I mean by that is that he always puts himself as the alpha male even in situations where he isn't in control of what's going on. Jeff Goldblum asks, "You really think you can fly that thing?" putting Will Smith's Captain Hiller into a position of trying to prove himself to Jeff Goldblum's David Levinson, however, he turns the table back to him and asks, "You really think you can do all that b****** you just said?" It's subtle, but he always let's you know that he's the coolest and most dominant figure in the room. Also, it's fun to see Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum on screen together because they mesh really well in the final act of the movie.

Which brings me to my next point. These two characters work well together, however, we don't see them together until the end because we need to make room for all these boring stories and characters who are not written very interesting what so ever. Because of this, the payoffs each character receives feels forced because we don't get actual time to explore the characters and their arcs. Randy Quaid was supposedly abducted by aliens, so naturally, he gets his revenge. Will Smith wants to fly in outer space and he finally is able to do it. Jeff Goldblum wants to save the world and is so eco-friendly, he actually ends up saving the world. However, via a computer solution and not an ecological solution. That little inconsistency right there, while not completely distracting, does show you that these characters don't have arcs or true character progression, it's simply taking them from point A to B and having the change come as a flipping over a coin rather than steady change.

Lastly, the aliens. What do they want? What do they need? Who are they? Where did they come from? We never know. They simply want to wipe out humanity. When I was a kid, and didn't necessarily care for deep characters or complex storylines and wanted to see some action and destruction, which is still fun to watch to this day, the mere thought of human extinction as an antagonist was terrifying enough for me. Now, I do wish that they gave the aliens a bit more of a purpose and a goal that made a little more sense than simply, "we want all of you to die because you are humans and we are aliens" type logic.

As for a recommendation, it's tough. If you don't mind one dimensional characters, a story that is extremely on the nose with everything and very little subtlety and some big action set pieces, this movie is for you. And to be completely honest with you, regardless of all the flaws I mentioned earlier, I can still watch this movie and enjoy it. However, if I had never seen this movie as a kid and went into it blind, I don't think my reaction would be the same. Enter at your own risk.