Jeff Goldblum once again plays a leading role as an eccentric scientist in a movie that is, at best, good looking. I saw this movie as a child when it first came out and have seen it many times since and I have come to the conclusion that it is almost complete rubbish. I say almost because of two things, Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith. Jeff and Will seem a rather odd choice to pair up and if I'd been the skeptical douche I am now when Independence Day first reared its' ugly head I'd have said "it won't work." Finding out what a fantastic on-screen pair they make is like finding out Coco Pops go well with Coca Cola (of which I have no idea, so don't ask). It's a shame that it's really only at the end that the two actually talk to one another and exchange their odd-couple bickerings and witty retorts because it stands as a massive plus in a movie that is far-fetched, overblown and sickeningly patriotic. On that note I feel it necessary to say this, the American President is never, I repeat, NEVER a good character for an action movie. Why? Because then the movie inevitably becomes self-indulgent, nationalistic tripe churned out to wring the money out of your average, white trash American patriot in between watching WWII movies and a documentary on the civil war. The President manages to give a particularly moving/disgusting speech at the end that really nails the last nail in his characterisation coffin.
Moving on from the disgusting characters comes the semi-retarded plot. It's not particularly complex so listen up. One day some alien ships come to Earth and place themselves strategically over all the Earth's major cities. Nobody seems to know what to do at this point but if I were in the movie I'd guess that maybe they were setting themselves up for the Guiness World Record for the World's Most Epic Checkmate? Am I right? Of course I'm fucking right! It's a disaster movie, the aliens won't come in peace. The first to go are the nutjobs and losers who are greeting the aliens in order to dick suck their way into a better life. Most of the plot consists of over dramatised "what's our next move." Their next move is retalliation but apparently the super intelligent beings are well and truely prepared and give the pitiful U.S. Airforce the ego bruising arse-rape it so dearly needs. A whole bunch of blah-de-blah later and Jeff and Will are in space in an enemy/alien ship that crashlanded 50 years ago to deliver a computer virus to the alien mothership before the human race is exterminated to make way for an intergalactic superhighway. Oh wait sorry, that would be far too humorous for this drab, takes-itself-way-too-seriously action wank. Naturally they are an evil race akin to parasites who travel time and space exploiting all natural resources they can find and moving on, leaving a destroyed habitat and many extinct species as their legacy. Naturally this goes against the grain of our very existance as human beings and so we vow to end it. So yeah the plot is shit, although I am ready to admit that the computer virus twist is perhaps a hint at genius in amongst the tired stereotypes and loud bangs.
Another thing I am prepared to admit to liking is the presentation. The alien ships as well and the aliens themselves look genuinely menacing. Most of our impressions of the aliens come across in their large, dark and forboding ships as the aliens themselves get very little screentime and this, I feel, is for the better. It's not that the aliens look silly or that you can see them wearing a wristwatch or anything like that, the aliens actually look very cold and creepy. But they are far more sinister, ominous and oppressive when we can only make guesses about them based on their ship. One gets the inpression that the ship "sees all and knows all" as it hovers above the city, monitoring the tiny world below.
So what's to say about this movie overall? When it's all said and done Independence Day is impressive on an explosion and effects scale but fails tremendously in every other area. The brilliance of Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum bump up the movie, but only from an F to a D.
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