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Premise- The Earth is invaded by an alien race. This alien race goes from planet to planet taking up all the resources they need, and then they move on conquering world after world. The only hope for the human race is a small band of humans Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, and The Fresh Prince...
Review- When I first saw Independence Day I thought it was pretty darn good. In fact, it was one of my favorite Sci-Fi films of all time. But now, I look back at it and laugh. Independence Day has a very interesting premise, what with giant alien ships appearing over every major city, and then shooting destructive beams down to wipe them out. It's very interesting, and has a lot of potential...but that's all it turned out to be, a premise full of potential.
ID4 (as it is also known as) gets worse and worse as I watch it on repeat viewings. The special effects especially don't hold up well. They look terrible, some of the worst GCI I have ever seen in a movie. In fact I believe it is right up there with the awful CGI seen in the incomprehensible Dungeons and Dragons movie. This movie really is dumb. But I am guilty because when I first saw this film I laughed at Will Smith's line: "I'm just wanting to go up there and whoop ET's a$$, that's all." I laughed then, now I look upon it in shame.
This is yet another film from Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. This duo is very good at making big dumb blockbusters, with great premises, which are terribly displayed as an actual movie. Stargate is one of the few movies to date that was bold enough to give us a movie about ancient astronauts. But then, it became a stupid movie (flying pyramids...). Then they made a remake of the classic Japanese monster movie Godzilla, which was, and always will be the most disappointing movie I have ever witnessed. The only film they ever did that I liked was The Patriot. In fact I really, really liked that film. But Independence Day is flawed beyond all comprehension.
Bill Pullman (the president) has so many unintentional laughs. His speech: "Today, we celebrate, our Independence Day!" had me laughing like mad. To hear his rusty voice, and the stupid dialogue put a big smile on my face. Jeff Goldblum is in a rut. In The Fly, he plays the part of a scientist. In Jurassic Park, he plays the part of a scientist. Hell, even in Cats and Dogs he was...a scientist. I really believe that he plays a scientist at least 90% of the time. And here he is in Independence Day, and guess what? Yup, you guessed it. He's a scientist. Will Smith thinks he's this total badass, but he's just a punk. Still, I like him over 99% of all rappers. I'd rather watch that Fresh Prince show of his a million times rather than seeing 8 Mile once more. So he deserves that. But still, I do not forgive him for, get this, knocking out an alien in not only one punch, but an alien inside an armor bio-suit, being knocked out in one wimpy punch. "Now that's what I call selling out."
The movie also lets us into a secret. A secret that only a man of immense Jeff Goldblum proportions could let us into. You can, in fact, hack into any alien spaceship with a Fisherprice "My First Laptop Computer". Jeff Goldblum is not only able to hack into all the extraterrestrials' information with his laptop from 1996, but he is also able to make a computer virus that can in fact, disable the shields on the aliens' ships. Too bad the aliens didn't install Norton Anti-Virus Software. Strike 1 ET.
And who knew it! The aliens that crashed in Roswell in the so-called government conspiracy just happened to be the invading aliens in the film. And their technology since the 50's had not improved at all! Because the ship in Area 51 is the EXACT same model as the ships in the movie! Strike 2 for the aliens.
Soon, Devlin and Emmerich run out of ideas and we assume that the alien race was destroyed by a few jet fighters, just because the shields were down, yeah, okay, the shields are down, but what about the thousands of fighter ships? As you can see, this movie was very, very flawed. So many things don't make sense in a 'fact' perspective, and there are millions of pathetic attempts at humor that fall beyond flat. No doubt, Independence Day will continue to entertain people, but, then again no doubt will it also become more and more stupid. It was a summer blockbuster. A true summer blockbuster, that sells you out, makes your ears hurt, and lowers your intelligence.
Fortunately, there is a movie that give us the same interesting premise of Independence Day, and delivers the rest of the movie with a powerful human story. That movie is Signs. That movie was flawed, perhaps even more than Independence Day. But, for the message Shamylan tries to deliver, it was well worth it.
Independence Day ends with Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith smoking cigars. Still, there is a certain entertainment factor to Independence Day that will make my rating go higher. It is enjoyable, but then again, it's very stupid. It, sadly doesn't fall under the "so bad, it's good category", but it does have a charm of its own. Still, it was undeniably dumb.
When Massive Spaceships Begin To Destroy Major Cities Across, The Globe, A Band Of Survivors Must Try To Defeat The Invaders, & Save Mankind.More at HotMovieSale.com
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