INDEPENDENCE DAY
[Spoilers]
A film review by Ife Hsu
Copyright 1996 Ife Hsu
Twentieth Century Fox Release (1996) Running Time: Approx. 2:20 hr Starring: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Robert Loggia, Margaret Colin.. Director: Roland Emmerich
The idea of alien invasion brings endless plot possibilities. Just describing the far advanced alien technology that permits billions of light-year traveling might have filled up an entire script. But the makers of Independency Day (ID4) chosed to focus on the lives of three characters: An US Marine fighter pilot with aspirations of space-traveling (Will Smith), the American President dealing with negative poll results (Bill Pullman), and a MIT grad/expert in complex-system hacking (Jeff Goldblum).
ID4 covers a three day period (July 2nd thru 4th) observing the alien arrival, its destructive colonization tactics, and the world-wide military convergence that fights back the outer space intruders. Implausible and repeated coincidences bring the three main characters together along with the people they care for.
In the first two days, ID4 never looses grip to its grand entrance. Many faces are introduced and quickly disposed with minimal care. A single strike was all it took to annihilate New York, Washington, and Los Angeles. So, as expected, the counter-measures by the US military force proved meaningless and ineffective.
But in the final day, Smith, Pullman, and Goldblum are converged to devise and execute a survival plan for Earth. At this stage, ID4 loosely introduces a X-File-type government conspiracy and covert operation. It narrows its premise to focus on this group while sketches of the aliens and their technology are quickly shown to satisfy audience's curiosity.
The final strike is again built in total disbelief. World-wide forces are joined together via primitive communication mechanism; alien spacecraft can be intuitively piloted; alien's defensive air force is no longer as agile and efficient; all other areas in the planet have equivalent fire-power that can prevail against the invaders.
Clearly, ID4 is not to be taken seriously. It is a feel-good movie (despite millions of casualties) that is heavily grounded on special-effects. There is simply not enough time to explain much, and ID4 does not have the intention to do so anyway.
*** of ****
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