Independence Day Review

        My first faintest memory of Independence Day was at a Target. I remember seeing the VHS copy that had those front covers where the image “moves”. I kept moving it to see the White House being blown up. It wouldn’t be years later where I catched the reruns of the movie in pieces. Now that I watched all of it, I can at least say it’s one of those movies where it’s the right kind of cheesy. Here’s what I think. 

1. Earth vs. The Flying Saucers

        You can look back at any period in movies and find those sci-fi ones that involves an alien invasion. It’s practically a sub-genre at this point with no name. I mostly call it the “Invasion” movie because it involves aliens wreaking havoc and humans fighting back. Now, there are those which take a unique turn by making the aliens friendly. Films like Close Encounters, Contact, and Arrival have it be where aliens are making contact and we have no clue how to deal with it. 

        Anyways, ID4, as how it was marketed, is very basic in terms of plot. Aliens have descended down to Earth to do what else? Destroy everything, by having massive saucers parked in the heavily populated cities. There isn’t one character that we follow, it’s what I call an ensemble film. Think a really large cast of characters. But an ensemble where the characters aren’t deep but are just tokens of what they are. Like we got the tv operator, a president, a U.S. Marine pilot, and so on. 

        The whole plot is interconnected, inevitable leading up to one location for the obligatory final battle. What I like about this one is that it doesn’t take itself seriously. There are moments of cheesiness where the film has Jeff Goldblum’s character figuring out when the aliens will strike. Now, it’s a bit of the stretch that him and not a guy from the government has it down to the exact minute when the Aliens will attack. 

        More so that he basically informs the president on what the aliens are planning. Instead of you know, his entire cabinet and military officials. Like, the whole film could’ve been crap like a massive stretch of movie logic being thrown out. It goes there sometimes, but not at the detriment of the whole movie. The film works by being active, something goes on that it never misses a beat when the saucers land. 

        Since I brought it up, I might as well talk about the characters. If you don’t know what a token character is, think of them like caricatures. There’s nothing deep or interesting about them, just their qualities practically define them. Among all of them, Will Smith’s character has charisma. I mean duh, he is Will Smith but, his personality separates himself from the others. They’re mostly just there, and the thing I noticed the most is that they all have arcs. 

        It seemed like a checkbox where the characters finally overcome the thing that has them stunted. Such as when the president has a low approval rating, he’s the one to lead a fleet of jets against the enemy. More so with Randy Quaid’s character, he was allegedly abducted. He flies a jet and gets vindicated when he delivers the finishing blow to the alien ship.  

        And I guess that’s where people have problems with the film. I can understand that there’s big leaps in logic, or that stuff happens in the most perfect way you can imagine. To that, I think that’s the point. I think this film is like the next evolution for those pulpy B-Movie types from the 50s and 60s. Like of course it’s silly to have the commander and chief lead a squadron to battle. And that’s exactly the point, it’s a silly movie for people to stuff their face of popcorn. For instance, the way Goldblum’s character figures out a way to lower the Alien’s shield is to give it a virus. It’s so bonkers crazy. A human made virus manages to mess up an advanced piece of intergalactic tech? That’s where it got me sold on the whole thing. 

2. Change in Blockbusters

        This movie made bank in the box office. And probably the downside of this movie is that it led to the dumbing down of the blockbusters that followed. You had for a moment disaster films popping up left and right in the 90s. In terms of plot, it’s extremely convenient how the whole story lines up for the characters to do a heroic thing. And the level of destruction is amped. Those can be mostly attributed to this movie, since c’mon the explosions were the cherry on top for this movie. Hell, the shot of the White House being blown up is one of the most famous shots in special effects. 

        Just the way the story was presented, it was a premonition of what was to come for blockbusters in the coming years. Not to talk smack to the good blockbusters, but I think the impact that this film had it where the whole plot or story had to be simplified. Heavy on the spectacle, but low on the brain neuron trying to process the many, many lapses in storytelling and character developments.

3. Overall

        Independence Day is a product of the time. Not that it’s a bad thing, but it showed the human persistence against an existential threat. In the cheesiest way possible.