Review of Independence Day (1996) by Joe R — 10 Jul 2015

While it's not the best movie you could see, "Independence Day" is still a "fun" ride. It works better if you turn off your brain, just to enjoy it a little bit more. Just turn it off and there you go, two hours of mindless, dumb entertainment.

So, a menacing alien ship comes out of nowhere and it subsequently deploys smaller ships, which cover various cities in the world. Ominous music starts playing, people look at the sky, there is panic, chaos befalls the cities, blah blah blah, we meet Jeff Goldblum, who stars as David Levinson, a MIT graduate who happens to discover a signal from earth's satellites. Throughout the movie he will be the nerdish, introvert and awkward archetype. Anyway, these signals are a countdown that coordinate the ships' attacks. Meanwhile in L.A., the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Will Smith plays as Capt. Steven Hiller, who is a jet pilot and the cocky, confident and witty archetype. With the addition of Bill Pullman as Thomas Whitmore, the president of the U.S., you got your three main characters. You should know by now that these three don't really grow as characters, let alone the rest of the cast. These characters are as they are and when the movie ends, they're pretty much the same. Not to mention that the actual plot is bland and surrounded by incoherencies, such as how an explosion apparently ignores a room where Steven's wife, son and dog are, how Steven is able to fly one of their ships just by "having seen them flying before", and how the hell were they able to upload a computer virus on an alien super-mega-ultra computer... I mean, in which universe do aliens have the most advanced extinction weaponry, but don't have a proper firewall/antivirus? I mean, come on! Even I can't overlook that... It's just... silly. Roland Emmerich, why?! Where is your logic?! How is this...ugh, I may be overthinking things, Am I? After all, as I've said before, it's not a movie to think, it's just to enjoy.

Yes, apart from the not so subtle message about patriotism, the story lacks substance. However, the spectacle is gorgeous and there are plenty of explosions to view, even though some of the effects look a bit dated. The musical score is excellent, and perhaps the two best things that this movie has to offer are: the president's inspirational speech, and its two main leads, Goldblum and Smith. Despite the fact that they're both two-dimensional characters, almost cartoonish, you can have a good time watching Goldblum's hilarious stuttering, and Smith's overconfident personality and his delivery of one-liners. "Welcome to earth" indeed, my friend.

As a whole, "Independence Day" serves as a guilty pleasure, at most. What I'm trying to say is that it's an unbalanced movie, and while it has some entertaining moments, it's also poorly written at times. Again, turn off the magical switch inside your head and you'll enjoy this movie much more than you should. Just remember to turn on your brain afterwards, otherwise I'm afraid you'll be stuck in an eternal loop of watching movies like this. Please don't.