Independence Day

Independence Day (1996)

Runtime: 145 minutes

Directed by: Not one of my favorite directors in Roland Emmerich

Starring: Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Margaret Colin, Randy Quaid

From: 20th Century Fox

I saw this movie and the new one yesterday. Tonight I'll post the review to Resurgence. In the meantime, read the review of this:

Would people believe me if I said that my watching a theatrical double bill of this movie then its debuting sequel Independence Day: Resurgence yesterday was the first time that I had ever watched the original Independence Day in full? I am sure many would think such a statement is poppycock and claptrap, but I swear to you it's true. Oh, I've seen parts of the movie before and knew of such things as Bill Pullman's great speech, the LOL stupid way that the alien shields were disabled, and the White House blowing the F up. I just never felt like watching it in full; finally doing so last night... I probably come off as a stereotype of the worst type of serious film fan by stating such a thing, but Hollywood blockbusters (I am mainly talking about the summer ones) just aren't for me, including ones from way back in this period.

I've talked before about how according to my tastes“The superhero movies” from the 21st century inspire little to no interest. Feces like the Transformers franchise I only need to see clips of to realize I need to avoid them like they have the Zika virus. For the longest time I only make rare trips to the cineplex during the summer and this is definitely true this year, where aside from Star Trek Beyond and possibly seeing something old being specially shown, I have no need to go there as nothing looks appealing at all to tastes that probably sound snobby; even as a 15 year old in 1996, something like this I wanted nothing to do with.

But I finally figured I should check out those films.; considering that the main people behind this gave us the “cinematic masterpiece” known as Godzilla 1998, I was not surprised by how stupid this was, and Lord Almighty was this ever stupid. There is a reason why before last night the newest thing I had seen from Roland Emmerich was... Godzilla 1998. The opening act of ID4, I was hating this because there were so many stupid/obnoxious characters braying like jackasses and being dumb, it was painfully bad; Harvey Fierstein's character, I wanted to throw in a woodchipper! As the story progressed, thankfully most of those characters went by the wayside and the focus was put on more tolerable figures. Cliches happened and the characters are the definition of “stock” but sometimes that is OK and Randy Quaid making a huge sacrifice is satisfying. By the way, what an unfortunate state of affairs that Quaid's character here is pretty much Randy Quaid the human being for the past 6 or 7 years; the mental problems he and his wife have: very unfortunate.

What helps make this jingoistic crap, this brainless slop something that I can rate as average (am I being generous? Maybe) is the cast of familiar faces, quality actors most of them. Seeing mostly practical effects is nice in this day and age, and they by and large still look good now. I realize that me not loving this may be controversial, given that on this site there are plenty of high reviews and I know people in real life who say this is among their favorite flicks of all time. No way would I ever agree with such viewpoints. Sorry, but that's my honest viewpoint.