Forefather to TRANSFORMERS

Rating: 3/10 (18 June 2009)

If you want to know the partial inspiration for the most recent TRANSFORMERS movie, look no further than this 1996 movie INDEPENDENCE DAY. On a lark, I watched ID4 recently again and it is just as bad as I remember it to be back in 1996. Both movies are very similar in that they have a host of annoying, poorly written characters and overly confusing action sequences. In ID4 the action is a tad more coherent, but strangely limited and kind of boring upon repeated viewing. When I originally saw it, I thought the action was the only good part of the movie. Still true, but not saying much.
The story of ID4 is that aliens float down to attack and destroy earth (yadda yadda yadda) and so a core group of humans must band together and brainstorm to defeat them (sound familiar?). Should, because this is the plot of TRANSFORMERS. Of course, as in TRANSFORMERS, a secret part of the gov't knew about the aliens for years already. In ID4, it is the infamous Area 51 (it was Section 7 or something in TRANSFORMERS). The band of heroes include the Pres. and some of his staff, the military (or what is left of it), a computer genius and his crew, and a bunch of nomadic volunteers who SOMEHOW found Area 51! The actors? ID4 stars Will Smith. I'll admit I don't like Smith, but I have opened my mind with several actors and liked them in certain films because I was impressed with their work, even if I didn't like them overall. THIS is not the film to make me like Will Smith! This movie is precisely the reason I don't like him. Playing Air Force Capt. Hiller, Smith is overly cocky, shouts at EVERYONE, and delivers really bad one-liners that make you cringe. I will say, I did like Smith in the original BAD BOYS (ironic b/c Michael Bay directed that movie and he also directed TRANSFORMERS, which I'm connecting to ID4).
Smith isn't the only actor who comes away unscathed. Bill Pullman is terrible as the President, just plain bad. He speaks at a slur/whispery tone throughout and I actually think he is supposed to be a tough guy! Conveniently, the Pres. is a former "fighter pilot" (haven't heard them called that since the 1940s!) and he lead the final July 4th attack against the space invaders. Other victims to the bad acting bug are Brent Spiner (STAR TREK:TNG's Data) looks bad as the Area 51 top scientist who experiments on the aliens to find out how to kill them, Robert Loggia (a usually reliable character actor) as the Pres. top military adviser, Judd Hirsch as an all-too Jewish father to a key person in the film; I'll mention later), Margaret Colin as the Pres. press secretary (who has an obvious crush on him!), Randy Quaid as a bumpkiny cropduster (convenient that he knows how to fly a plane!), and Jeff Golblum (really the film's third lead behind Smith and Pullman) as a brilliant computer nerd (and Colin's ex-husband and Hirsch's son).
I mentioned Goldblum last for a reason: he is actually the only character watchable in this! How Goldblum comes away from this smelling like a rose is amazing. He actually abandons all that jittery, hesitant acting style that he is famous for and pretty much plays it straight and looks good compared to everyone else. And he actually has funny lines that aren't unintentionally funny, but actually funny.
Interestingly also, ID4 is a fairly dated looking film that I've seen it recently. The special effects are surprisingly cheesy for a late 90s film. But the biggest clunker in this whole thing is HOW the humans defeated the aliens (a computer virus!). Sooo convenient that a simple earth virus could disrupt the central database of a highly advanced alien race. The "band of heroes" synchronizes the virus implant (headed by Smith and Goldblum, who use the Area 51 spaceship to fly into the mothercraft hovering above earth) with the figther attack (led by you know who!) so they can penetrate the alien armor and defeat them.
Pretty neat, huh? Well, ID4 is the 90s version of movies like TRANSFORMERS, which insults the viewers intelligence with an empty plot and poorly drawn characters. I hear people all the time say that "it is supposed to be mindless fluff" or "it's just a movie" or "at least the action is great" or "enjoy it for what it is". That's fine to a degree, but a movie ought to have a semblance that the filmmakers actually put real effort into what translated to the screen. The makers of ID4 did not.