It was the day when all the big budget special effects and fantasies made real finally came home to roost ... July 4, and the coming of Independence Day, a larger than life recreation of the whole War of the Worlds phenomenon ... it was all about enormous, vivid eye candy and we were all suitably impressed by this over the top greatest story ever told ... except ...
They forgot that there is more to film making than simply giving the software free rein and letting their imaginations run riot, with just the byeline, "So go ahead punk, make my day, blow my mind..."
Count the seconds spent developing characters in Independence Day, and contrast it with the huge chunks of time devoted to in your face action adventure ... strictly no contest.
However, you can't complain at the quantity of characters plastered across the screen, just their two dimensional nature (at a push) and their shallowness, because never has there been a larger number of bland stereotypes without substance ... you get the immature and self doubting young president ... the wise cracking black pilot who has been passed over for promotion countless times and yet contrives to save this planet ... his stripper partner with a heart
of gold and a big, doe eyed kid in tow ... the typical nutty scientist who knows what is really going on and somehow manages to get the ear of pres ... the career woman aide to the pres who used to be the mad scientist's wife ... you get the embittered old drunken pilot who used to be a celebrated war pilot until he got abducted by aliens ... you get the irascible old Jewish daddy eager to provide light relief and a ready stream of wise cracks ... you get the gruff voiced gay TV producer who rushes to tell his mother to flee the country ... you get the doves and the hawks fighting for the ear of the pres ... and you get dozens of little green men with tentacles and flying saucers the size of a small city equipped with miraculous firepower before which nothing can survive ... what more could you want?
Well, for one thing, I wouldn't mind a minute or two, or even ten seconds spent actually imbuing any of these rough sketches of humanity with the slightest bit of depth, feeling or meaning, but no, that's much more than we could ever hope or expect. This is ACTION ADVENTURE writ large with no quarter asked or given and no questions asked.
There was without doubt an audience ready, willing and waiting for Independence Day and lapped up every larger than life second of it, willing to forgive all the flaws and lack of development ... all we really wanted to see was mankind teetering on the very precipice of destruction as the invasion happened and then fighting back with fists and feet to KICK SOME JOLLY GREEN BUTT.
Independence Day is all about the spectacular special effect and larger than life set piece, and certainly scores heavily in that department ... however, there's more, much, much more required to really make a decent fist of things and sadly the focus is purely on action and spectacle and forget the little man. You can see how they got so avidly carried away, because the set pieces are wonderful, enormous, superb, the special effects are very, very special and the whole thing has lesser intellects drooling inanely.
I loved it the first time I saw it, but was left quite disappointed, and, trust me, things get a great deal worse with a second or third viewing. It's just so much froth and substanceless form, with little beneath the front to give depth to events. There are some sentimental bits where the pres thinks he's become a widower and where the whacky scientist and former missus start to explore their feelings, but they're quickly skated over, clumsily handled and pathetically insubstantial. If that was how Independence Day would have handled exploring its characters then I guess we got off quite lightly with the focus on action.
Jeff Goldblum is suitably bug eyed and whacky, Will Smith is suitably courageous and righteous, Bill Pullman is suitably statesmanlike when he stops doubting himself and gets on with kicking butt and the loathsome green men are loathsome and green, despicably evil ("What is it you want us to do?" "DIE!!!") ... but that's about it, apart from a whole ream of clichés and predictable little battles. Mars Attacks satirised the whole Martian thing with a rare wit and camp sense of fun and was so much more intelligent than this bloated, humourless heap of bells and whistles, and is so much more memorable. You will gasp with awe as the shadows of the invading crafts overtake all the classic symbols of American culture - the White House, the Statue of Liberty, even good old Abe Lincoln - or at least that's what the men responsible for Independence Day are hoping, for they've clearly designed this section to drip with meaning and grandeur. I'll give them this - it certainly is pretty well done and impressive - unfortunately, it's just so predictable and self important, much like this entire 'epic'.
I can see why people would be impressed by Independence Day, but the key words are 'impressed by' rather than loved or even liked, because it would be singularly difficult to love or even like this film.
BOOK 'EM DANNO...
PS It says here that the director was Roland Emmerich and he blew a budget of $71million on Independence Day - wouldn't ask him to handle my Xmas party...
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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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InIndependence Day, a scientist played by Jeff Goldblum once actually had a fistfight with ... more
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Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
InIndependence Day, a scientist played by Jeff Goldblum once actually had a fistfight with ... more
a man (Bill Pullman) who is now president of the United States. That same president, late in the film, personally flies a jet fighter to deliver a payload of mis...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
![Independence Day [1996] [DVD]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78508494.jpg "Independence Day [1996] [DVD]")
Jan 2nd, 2003
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![Independence Day [DVD] [1996]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78521554.jpg)
