Review Of "Independence Day"

Rating: 6/10 (19 February 2012)

"Independence Day" is a 1996 Roland Emmerich film starring Will Smith and Bill Pullman. Now, let me preface this review by saying that I'm not really a fan of Roland Emmerich movies. I usually find them to be heavy on special effects, rather flimsy on worthwhile narrative substance, and shoddy in terms of character development. Now before I go on, I know what you're thinking - "Well what the heck do I care about those last two things, all I need is explosions." That's fine I guess. It's just that I'd rather have a well crafted story featuring explosions that endanger characters I actually give a crap about than the aforementioned. Now with that said, is "Independence Day" the former or the latter? It's a little bit of both. This movie is not total bad but it does have it's moments. Thankfully the good moments outweigh the bad ones. Yes, the character development is rather nonexistent. This is mainly because of the fact that there are way too many characters in this film altogether, so even the slightest hint of any sort of character arc is almost impossible/undetectable. The plot is rather stale, and there are a handful of plot holes and inconsistencies throughout, but there isn't really any dynamic of this plot that is so flagrantly bad one can't sit through it without feeling entertained. I had mixed feelings about some of the lines in this film. Some of them were pumped with so much 90's action cheese It made me want to gauge my eyes out with a pinecone, but there were others that made me laugh/smile some. As most Roland Emmerich films go, the special effects end up looking unbelievable and it's no different for "Independence Day". The fact that this film came out in 1996 is still a shocker to me. The acting is great in some places, while lacking in others. Bill Pullman had one of the best performances in the film, as did Jeff Goldblum. Overall, It's apparent that "Independence Day" is one of Roland Emmerich's best films, if not his best, and it is indeed very entertaining.