One Of Emmerich's Best

Rating: 9/10 (5 August 2014)

Roland Emmerich is a somewhat underrated director. Yes, I know he has had a few flops like 10,000 B.C and Godzilla, and even 2012 to some people, but I think Independence Day is one of his best movies. I'm saying that because it is so good all around. For example, the aliens. It's great how the alien ships are so incredibly huge (15+ miles in diameter). In some alien movies the aliens are in tiny ships and they go so fast that you aren't able to follow them. But Emmerich's version of the aliens is huge and slow, so that isn't a problem here. Anyway, the main aspects, as always. First off, the acting. Not the best. Sure, there were people like Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, and Bill Pullman, and they were pretty good, but some of the people like Miguel and quite a few other small characters it seemed like they had no acting experience whatsoever. None. Zip. But the main characters like Smith, Goldblum, and Pullman made up for it. Mostly. Now the special effects. For a 90's action flick, they were really good. To today's standards, they would not be good at all. But they are amazing for 90's standards. In the 15+ miles across ships, there are so many little lights and openings and such, and that most likely means rooms. So that would mean there are probably 10,000+ rooms, not even counting how many floors there would be. Detail like that is not always something you come by in movies these days. Speaking of the aliens, this movie had some really awesome practical effects for the aliens. That means someone put more than one day of effort into making this, which is always good. The special effects people did a wonderful job in this movie.
And now, the writing. I can't say it was the best ever, and it was kind of cheesy, but I am willing to let that slide. Some of the lines were just not needed at all, and if you got rid of all of them, the movie would be about 5 minutes shorter. Things like "We need to pack up" isn't needed. It's kind of obvious when there's an alien invasion that could wipe out the entire world, it's kind of obvious. And other times, there were supposed to be awesome punchlines, but they come out flat and bland because the actors couldn't execute them. But really, that's the only thing I really don't like about this movie. Fourth, the characters. I didn't think this was a good idea, but I didn't care that much because it all ends up making sense. There were four different families/groups of people. There were the people in Captain Hiller's (Will Smith) family and group of friends, and also Russell Casse's (Randy Quaid), along with President Whitmore's (Bill Pullman), and David Levinson's (Jeff Goldblum). If there were only 3-4 people in each group, I'd be OK with that. But there were at least 5-10 characters in each group, and that's a lot to bother keeping track of. It just takes away from the movie. And for the fifth, the plot. Some of it is original, and some of it isn't at all. The part that isn't original at all is the fact that a bunch of aliens have come to destroy Earth. You see that in about 85% or higher of alien movies. So nothing new there at all. But the part that is original was how Hiller and Levinson (Smith and Goldblum) took down the alien mother ship. I won't tell you exactly how because I don't want to spoil anything, but I will say it involved a lot of awesomeness. And lastly, the cinematography. The way Emmerich decided to display the alien spacecraft coming out of the clouds and pretty much anything that involved the spaceships and the mother-ships was just awesome. There was a definite sense of danger and threat in all of those shots, which was nice as well.
Overall, I really liked Independence Day, because it is a great and enjoyable movie that I would watch again anytime. 9/10. And it sure is a lot better than 10,000 B.C and 2012. Anyway, thanks for reading and check out some of my other reviews. See ya!