I vaguely remember this film being released, but was too young to see it at the cinema. I believe it was played a few times at school, but I don't remember watching it. If this film holds any significance today, it is as a barometer for how much blockbusters have changed in the last two decades. Other than that, I can't think why it is considered a must-see film.
The film is incredibly stupid in so many ways it is impossible to go through them; perhaps the most glaring is the use of the internet to download a virus onto the alien aircraft using Earth internet, but several thousand kilometres away from Earth (what the hell!!). None of the characters have much character development: the president is suitably bland - we get no sense of his political persuasion, only that he is thought to be too young for the job. One woman is shown to work as a pole-dancer, for no reason other than that's something male screenwriters seem to think is a big employer of women (tagent: I'd love to do a survey of all the jobs women are depicted having in films: I bet sex worker and stripper would be disproportionately high compared to actual jobs women have in real life). The disparate characters all eventually and predictably end up meeting and working together. And, of course, America saves the day.
While the film's visual effects have aged, I don't really have a problem as this happens to pretty much every film. And 22 years later they don't look that bad; other films have fared less well. However, the overwhelming Americaness of the whole endeavour (it just happens to be set around America's Independence day) just put me off. Apparently the rest of the world was just along for the ride.
Compared to the recent Arrival, Independence Day looks immensely stupid and violence heavy. If it shows any thought, it is in the rather pessimistic way it depicts conquering forces as destructive. But even this is giving the film too much credit. Its stupid, shallow and ultimately unsatisfying.
I saw it when it first came out and I thought it was highly over-rated. "Incredibly stupid" is a good way to put it.
ReplyDeleteBut my sister in law loves it. She likes to watch it every July 4, so if I'm visiting, I end up watching it a lot more often than I'd like. At least it's not boring. Also, James Duval is in it, and I knew him in Hollywood when he was starting out, so it's nice to see Jimmy again. (He's more famous for playing Donnie Darko.)
Mars Attacks came out about the same time, and one reviewer said ""Mars Attacks" is the movie Edward D. Wood Jr would make if he had a budget." And I remember thinking "No. "Independence Day" is the movie Ed Wood would make if he had a budget."
It is true, its not boring. But it certainly is popcorn cinema - little "nutritional" value.
DeleteI agree about Ed Wood - he wasn't an ironic filmmaker, and Mars Attacks is deliberately silly. Independence Day is accidentally so.
Yes, this is silly. I saw it at the cinema when it was releases and could not stop deriding it back then. Oddly enough I have become more tolerant since. I think that has to do with the incredibly low bar there is on action movies. It could also be the kitsch effect. It is almost sweet.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it is big, very dumb, but at times fun. I don't watch many action films, but most do have a silliness to them. The good ones run with it, the bad ones take it too seriously. This walks between those two approaches.
Delete"Immensely stupid" is now one of my favorite two-word reviews in history.
ReplyDeleteI can't say that I work up enough emotional outrage to hate this movie--it's not worth it. I'm just sort of constantly disappointed by it.
I expected to hate, but I was just left rolling my eyes at the stupidity of it all. But I did laugh, so that is something.
DeleteYou're right, it's not worth hating. It is just a bigger budget version of some of those silly sci-fi films from the 50s.