Today we celebrate our Independence Day!

Rating: 7/10 (21 May 2011)

Nobody is ever going to confuse Independence Day with any kind of work of great cinema. It's fun though. Sure, it's cheesy and corny. Often absurd and ludicrous too. But fun. As big, huge, visual effects summer blockbusters go you could do a lot worse. The aliens have come and they're gonna blow things up real good. And for this movie that's enough. Yes, the dialogue is mostly inane and terrible. Yes, there are some characters who disappoint, adding nothing of any substance to the proceedings. Yes, the movie goes on too long. For any movie of this type two hours will more than suffice. Independence Day careens well past that two-hour mark with a misguided attempt to inject some actual plot lines, some drama and real human emotion, into the movie. Plot? Drama? Emotion? Who needs any of that? Aliens invade. Humans fight back. The end.
It's easy to bemoan what Independence Day isn't. But you can certainly embrace it for what it is. If you're willing to buy in, and ignore the fact that so much of the movie makes no sense at all, Independence Day can be a rollicking good time. Will Smith is perfect for this sort of thing, Jeff Goldblum falls perfectly into his world-saving scientist role, Randy Quaid makes for an entertaining kook and Judd Hirsch provides some laughs. Some of the other performers admittedly don't fare as well. Harvey Fierstein is an over-the-top annoyance, Brent Spiner makes his bizarre scientist much, much too bizarre to take at all seriously and the key female characters, played by Margaret Colin and Vivica A. Fox are pretty much worthless, total bores. And then there's the President, played by Bill Pullman. Confronted with a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions, not to mention personal loss, the guy seems utterly devoid of feeling. My country's three biggest cities were just destroyed? Eh, whatever. An inspiring figure this guy is not. Until all of a sudden he is as, before humanity's final assault, he gives one of the most awesome movie speeches ever. OK, the speech is totally cheesy and corny. But awesome. Of course that final assault is based around a plan which is incomprehensibly absurd, defying all logic and reason. Logic and reason have no place in this type of movie. If you accept that than this movie is easy to enjoy. It's the end of the world as we know it. And I feel fine.