Fun, but supremely annoying if you're not American

Rating: 6/10 (9 January 2004)

If it wasn't for Will Smith, this film would be one of the most lavishly constructed jingoistic pieces of trash to have hit the screens. Will's on top form in this one, particularly in his early dogfight sequence (one imagines that he was getting in some early practice for Ali...).
The film is obviously aimed primarily at the American market, but if this is how Americans want to see themselves, then the rest of the world has a lot to worry about. It's spectacularly self-centred at times (e.g. 15 spaceships over the world, at least 4 of which are over American cities!). The few foreign characters are reduced to cartoon caricatures of their nationalities (e.g. the two British pilots (shown in short 'cut-to' sequences) speak with the sort of public school accents that show up in American sitcoms all the time, such as the butler in 'Fresh Prince', & make most British people I know cringe). At times it appears that the producers picked out nationalities that they assume are top-of-mind (Iraq, Israel, Japan, Russia & Britain feature most prominently) for the American audience (or at least fairly low-brow elements of it) and then sterotyped them.

I can accept that, in an American film, it's the Americans that save the world. But the impression you get from the film is that no-one else even TRIES to fight back. Yes, the other countries do join in the fight, but NO-ONE else shows any initiative. Would it have been disruptive to show the President consulting with the UN, or to show a Chinese or French plane being destroyed while trying to attack the space ship?
Still, it seems silly to complain about national stereotypes in a film that's chock-full of all sorts of stereotypes. I kept expecting Jeff Goldblum to start talking about chaos theory, and Judd Hirsch even manages to get in an 'Oy Vey'! None of the writers or actors seem to have had to stretch too far, but Smith & Goldblum make an effective enough team.
That said, I still quite enjoyed the film. It's not high art, but at least it made me laugh. Thanks Will...