Directed by:
Roland EmmerichCinematography:
Karl Walter LindenlaubComposer:
David ArnoldCast:
Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Mae Whitman, Vivica A. Fox, Margaret Colin, Robert Loggia, James Rebhorn, Randy Quaid (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
The spectacle begins when massive spaceships appear in Earth's skies. But wonder turns to terror as the ships blast destructive beams of fire down on cities all over the planet. Now the world's only hope lies with a determined band of survivors, uniting for one last strike against the invaders - before it's the end of all mankind. (20th Century Fox UK)
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Reviews (9)
A visually stunning masterpiece with fantastic music and a likeable cast. The script is packed with action and there isn't a single dull moment, there’s always something happening, one twist after another, and some scenes are truly fantastic (Area 51, city destruction, the scenes after the apocalypse, etc.). In addition, Roland Emmerich brilliantly combines visuals with music in a way similar to Michael Bay, for example. The pathos must be taken with a grain of salt, and whether we like it or not, we have to admit that Bill Pullman has charisma. It's not smart sci-fi, it's popcorn entertainment, but damn well directed, well acted, and decently told. Overall, Independence Day is unequivocally Emmerich's best film, or rather, his only truly good film.
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Roland Emmerich bursts the floodgates with pathos. Bill Pullman is completely off with his heroic president, Will Smith is embarrassing, Jeff Goldblum might as well not have been there at all – and this is all just a minor, overrated mishap. This variation on War of the Worlds didn't work out and despite the gripping scene of the destruction of the White House, I have an aversion towards this film.
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“I steal, you steal, we steal.” Or how Emmerich and Devlin got together, dumped their brain concoctions into a common cauldron, stirred it properly and prepared an inedible slop. I turned off my brain and just wanted to have fun, but even a lobotomy wouldn't have helped. The massive avalanche of clichés and stupidity swept me away in such a way that I wouldn't want to repeat it.
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Switch off your brain, make a big bucket of popcorn for yourself, turn the volume up (there’s no point in watching it anywhere else but at either a home or a regular theater) and make yourself believe the misleading phrase “it’s a spoof" and, mainly, take it easy. If you manage to persuade yourself that it really is meant as a spoof then it is an excellent B-grade catastrophe movie with a huge budget and well known, but mostly terrible actors (with one exception of Will Smith, brimming with snappy lines) and it’s decently paced. On top of all that it’s too long and overflowing with American pathos to an extent that can be trumped only by Emmerich himself in his subsequent movies.
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Honestly speaking, I don't consider myself a fan of the highly peculiar director Roland Emmerich and his pompous megalomaniacal movies. The theme of alien invasion has been seen countless times in B-movie sci-fi films before Emmerich, and Emmerich simply decided that if he couldn't make the first one, he would at least make the biggest alien invasion in the history of cinema. So the sky is filled with thousands of gigantic flying saucers. I mean, why not use the cliché that the movie audience has perfectly absorbed in their blood? These monstrous artificial bodies have dozens, even hundreds of kilometers in diameter, and apparently, neither the screenwriter nor the director are burdened by the problem of maneuvering such oversized vehicles in the gravitational fields of the moons and planets of our solar system, nor the fact that they suddenly appear here. Otherwise, it is exceptionally pathetic, patriotic, and heroic. So, who can get into a fighter jet to bravely face an alien invasion? The American president, of course. Emmerich has not yet made a masterpiece in the genre, and Independence Day is no exception to that rule. Overall impression: 40%.
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Gallery (183)
Photo © 1996 20th Century Fox
![Independence Day - Photos](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/158/139/158139467_19788a.jpg)
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