A bit late for the July 4th celebration (totally Netflix’s fault), I finally saw the film Independence Day. This is one of those popcorn movies that I don’t generally like all that much, but I figured I’d give it a shot and I’m glad I did. There’s plenty wrong with the movie, but there’s plenty right about it too.
Independence Day, for those who haven’t seen it, is the story of aliens coming to Earth bent on destruction and how we (led by the Americans, of course) defeated them. There’s barely more to the plot, but that’s the gist of it.
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This is one of those times when I really think the director (Roland Emmerich in this case) made a pretty good movie in spite of himself. 1 What I mean is that the faults were pretty outstanding. So many of the characters were just paper-thin caricatures, so many story points depended on unbelievable coincidence that I found my eyebrow furrowing in derision pretty often. And there were so many ham-fisted performances!
Harvey Fierstein’s endless prancing across the screen, Brent Spiner’s “Look how wacky I am!” mad scientist, Randy Quaid acting drunk (poorly) for most of the movie, Bill Pullman talking all gravely voiced for no good reason, Judd Hirsch being the stereotype Jew, James Rebhorn as the mustache twisting Secretary of Defense, Jeff Goldblum as the smartypants recycling guy… The list goes on and on.
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Don’t get me wrong, the positives outweigh the negatives in this case. I was actually impressed with most of the CGI. It’s almost revolutionary for its day. I appreciated that we didn’t actually see the aliens for quite some time, helping to build the tension until we finally did see them. While the bringing together of the different players was a bit clumsy, once they were assembled it seemed to work. And the final battle was laid out pretty well.
Some of the actors did a pretty good job in spite of their direction. Will Smith brought his A-game, and was one of the more three-dimensional characters, stripper girlfriend or no stripper girlfriend. Jeff Goldblum turned in a (I can’t believe I’m typing this) decent performance in the last hour of the movie. In fact, one of the highlights for me was Smith and Goldblum’s scene in the alien craft. Their interaction was believable, their individual reactions to space travel were distinct and honest to the characters.
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So what sets Independence Day apart from other popcorn action flicks like [cref 338]? Why is this one good when that one (for example) was so very bad, especially since they have so much in common? The only answers I can come up with are that the actors elevated the project, and while both were studio-driven, Independence Day seemed a little less conscious of it.
All in all, a good movie. A little on the long side, a bit brainless for my usual tastes, but I can overlook its faults and understand why it was such a blockbuster in its day. I’m not sure if I’d see it again, but it would be interesting to see it in a full theater.
1 A quick look at his filmography bears that out. Since 1996, Emmerich has made 1998′s Godzilla, The Patriot, The Day After Tomorrow, and 10,000 BC. Hardly a winning lineup. ⇧
