A movie to love a lot or to spit on

Rating: 5/10 (16 June 2006)

I know that I've recently written many reviews about sci-fi pics or other special-effects-laden movies and that I've inserted several comparisons with "Independence Day", without reviewing the latter movie. Well now, this is a thing of the past and here is my "ID4" review.
We can't talk about "ID4" without talking about the visual effects involved here. From the beginning, ie. with the arrival of the mother ship above the Moon, till the final battle, which leaves every spaceship destroyed, a lot of laser and missile shots, explosions, eardrum-hurting sounds and other surprises occur.
That's because "ID4" primarily is a special-effects machine. These are incredible and harrowing visual effects. I haven't seen this movie in a theater, but I guess it would have shaken the walls and the screen, along with the produced sounds. Sounds are a primordial aspect of the movie. They give to the spaceships a terrifying and monster scream when they come through the atmosphere and hover over the cities (nice wordplay here...). Explosions are eye-catching and the fire waves which break on LA, NYC and Washington are astonishing.
But the problem is you can't do a good movie with over-the-top special effects and a storyline bought in a Dollar Tree store. It's surprising that the movie is called "Independence Day" because it itself depends on its visual and sound tricks... Show the example, they say...
With some very iny-tiny exceptions, the storyline and the actors are no more than weak. The story elements are built like in the Bible: they say a lot of things, but they don't give the details about anything. We know the facts, but that's all. For example, we attempt to communicate with the visitors with a helicopter equipped with powerful projectors, which send light spots that are supposed to be some kind of message. What does the sequential message means? It's so cheesy that I guess it's the reason why the aliens shot the copter.
We're introduced to cheap characters into the movie. Jeff Goldblum, best known for his Ian Malcolm appearance in "Jurassic Park", is David, a Jewish computer whiz who appears to be the only person in the world who's able to find the aliens' signals, how to interpret them and how to defeat them. It's far from a great performance. He's able to track the signals, while the NASA, the ESA and the different armies are not? Talk about something! Bill Pullman is the President of the United States. He's apparently the youngest president that the country ever had and, as we can hear, he was a fighter pilot during the Gulf War, which occurred only 5 years before the movie was released! Other (cheap) performances include Randy Quaid as Russell Casse, an alcoholic ex-fighter pilot in the Nam War, who suffered a post-traumatic incident that makes him believe that he's been abducted by extraterrestrials. Well, guess what? He's about to become the Earth's savior! There is also Brent Spiner as Dr. Okun, an Area 51 scientist who looks like an insane modern Victor Frankenstein, and James Rebhorn, who is the Secretary of Defense, but he acts like if he was in the George W. Bush cabinet, with his words, his ideals and his attitude.
The only actor who delivers a fair performance is Will Smith, who gets his breakthrough role here. He is Captain Steven Hiller, a hot-shot pilot from the El Toro base. He's the most entertaining character of the lot and it's always enjoyable to watch him.
Aliens are briefly described in various parts of the movie. They're mostly a nomad people and their technology is told to be much superior from ours. This is surprising, especially when you watch the end of the movie, when Jeff Goldblum's character is single-handedly able to send a virus into their system. Our technology is already able to produce anti-viruses and theirs is not? Help me, I don't understand...
And finally, let's not forget that patriotic mood that swarms into the movie. It's present from the very first scene, which shows the American flag planted on the Moon's surface, till the very last one with typical fireworks from the Fourth of July's festivities. And among that, you even have the movie's title that's implied into this.
An interesting essay subject for film students, a crowd-pleasing experience and an anti-intellectual presentation. That's what "ID4" is. And while it won an Academy Award and became the highest-grossing movie of 1996, there's not a lot to cherish here. But if you just want to get entertained and to escape reality for a moment, "ID4" is more efficient than smoking marijuana. And that's enough to justify its existence.