Virtually unwatchable now

Rating: 4/10 (29 July 2000)

Ah...1996. It seems as if it were only yesterday. But it's a world away from the cynical, fearful, paranoid, and oppressive times we live in now. ID4 would be rightfully laughed out of cinemas in the present day.
America, pulsating infectious positive vibes with its booming economy, popular President running for re-election, a summer crammed with iconic, action-packed adventures such as The Rock, Mission: Impossible, and Eraser, all while riding high the wave of the Atlanta Olympics, naturally turned ID4 into the biggest hit of the decade. I must admit, I too was suckered into it.
Why do I say suckered? I recall being amazed by the teaser trailer before a screening of Broken Arrow on April 13th, a full 4 months before the release (we had to wait until August 9th in the UK). It promised a dark, scary, and serious film about interstellar war. Then, as we got closer, a new trailer synced to the theme of Crimson Tide came out, mesmerizing audiences with then revolutionary visual effects.
When the film was finally released the dark, scary, and serious film that we were promised across the entire ad campaign quickly descended into camp, corny, stupid nonsense. It's easy to make a terrible film and entertain the masses with flickering images and bright, pretty colors even if it doesn't make a shred of sense. How else would you account for the success of Michael Bay? ID4 is bad across the board. The dialogue is just awful, I cringe at every other line. Despite the fact that an end-of-the-world scenario is potentially very dramatic there is no real acting in the film at all. Each and every one of the actors speak like they're reading from cue cards being held beside the static camera. Will Smith's irregular ad-libbing is irritating and dates the film even further. Bill Pullman, as much as I like him, stumbles through the film like he's drunk and/or unable to understand English.
Principal photography for ID4 wrapped in well under 3 months. I blame the swift shoot for the obvious lack of rehearsals and decent performances. It's like Roland Emmerich got the film in the can as quickly as possible at the expense of everything that might actually make it worthwhile. His non-effort results in almost the entire film being made of static shots with no hand-held camera movements whatsoever, which castrates ID4 of any sense of urgency or realism. Even the extras are bad, which is pretty sad considering all they have to do is run away from very fake explosions. If they didn't work for free then the production was ripped off.
There's not one likable character. The second round of promos sold it as a Will Smith movie. It's not. He's really a secondary character in a cast filled with secondary characters. The worst subplot features Randy Quaid as a drunk pilot. Whenever the film cuts to his family (and his very annoying, moody, Keanu Reeves lookalike son) it threatens to keel over and die. Emmerich really ought to have been a bit more liberal with the scissors. It's astonishing to think that his director's cut is even longer. As if it were not already too bloated and clumsy.
Of all the would-be greatness, only David Arnold's rousing score truly entertains. Though if your very geeky like me you'll realize that it's merely a plagiarism of Richard Joseph's theme to James Pond 3 on the Mega Drive.
Worth watching only as a curious, outdated relic of an innocent time long since gone. ID4's enjoyment has long since expired.