I must come out of the ciao wilderness soon and write another review:-)
I must come out of the ciao wilderness soon and write another review:-)
Member since:31.03.2001
Reviews:107
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Somehow I managed to miss Independence Day the first time round, I recently watched it and haven't been missing much.
On the plus side Independence Day is dramatic in places with brilliant special effects. The downsides are it's predicitibility, melodrama and one dimensional characters. It's a good, but not original idea for a film, the whole idea about what would happen if we made contact with life outside earth and what would happen if there was a hostile invasion of earth.
The story goes something like this, an extra terrestrial signal is picked up near earth. All very exciting, a concrete sign of life outside earth. However, an unidentified object is seen to be heading for a collision course with earth. Cut to high level talks at the white house and lots of generals with uniforms full of medals.
Before a decision can be made the aliens arrive in huge city length space ships which hover menacingly over most of the worlds major cities.
During this first part of the film the major characters are introduced.
There is Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith) a fighter pilot living near California with his girlfriend and her son. He is the archtypal clean cut, slightly gung ho, slightly rebellious young officer that always seems to appear in these kind of films.
David Levinson (Jeff Goldbum) is some kind of unambitious scientific whizz living in New York. His ex wife is one of the president's aides and he still holds a bit of a torch for her. The Casse family live in a Los Angeles trailer park. Russell Casse (Randy Quaid) is an alcoholic Vietnam veteran who says he was kidnapped ten years ago by aliens. He's a bit unstable and often unemployed which doesn't help one of the Casse children who has an unspecified illness. Then of course there is the president an ex Gulf war fighter pilot, brave, resolute and an inspiring leader.
So getting back to the plot, the population panics which is understandable with huge spaceships hovering other their cities, when I say cities I mean American cities, although there is a few brief mentions of panic in Russia and Iraq. There is a massive rush to leave the cities, people firing guns at the spaceships and UFO fanatics standing under the spaceships with big welcome signs.
No one knows the alien's intentions, no one except David the would be scientist. He has noticed a change in satellite signals and manages to interpret this as the ship's communication with each other as some kind of final countdown to destroying the earth. David and his dad, Julius, race to the white house to tell the president and his staff. With the president informed the White House is evacuated onto Air Force One and an order is put out to evacuate the major cities.
Moments after Air Force One takes off with the president and his entorouge on board, the countdown goes to 0 and the spaceships open, black stuff engulfs the people below and fireballs destroy everything in their path as they race through cities. I'ts dramatic stuff, space ships and bright lights, lots of music and panicking crowds.
Will Smith takes part in a disastrous fighter pilot mission to destroy the space ships, where lots of small alien ships are sent out after the fighter pilots and to strike military bases. Most of the pilots are lost, including Will's best friend. Although Will manages to survive, outrun one of the alien small ships and capture an injured alien.
According to David's calculations it won't be long to the aliens wipe out all human life on earth. They have a day or so to come up with something to defeat the aliens and save mankind. I'll stop here with the plot as I don?t want to give away the ending.
I must admit this film dragged, which is not a sign that I thought it was very good. It's a format that I've seen in lots of films, mainly big budget American action films. It's all about a fight between very good and very evil with lots of guts, determination and stirring monologues from the good side.
The characters in this film are one dimensional to say the least. There is the brave young officer, the kooky and brilliant science genius. There are numerous scenes of top secret military bases, There are lots of clips of control rooms with people studying radar equipments and shouted exchanges.
The special effects are impressive, but somehow there aren?t many moments where I felt genuine suspense. Another annoying thing about this film is the music. It? s not background music, more a full blown orchestra everytime anything vaguely exciting happens. It's like a cue that says pay attention this is a dramatic moment, rather than something that adds to the drama.
So to sum all this up I won't be rushing out to buy the video (this was thankfully rented!)
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Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
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![Independence Day [1996] [DVD]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78508494.jpg "Independence Day [1996] [DVD]")
Nov 1st, 2002
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