ID4 = One of the coolest action films EVER!

Rating: 10/10 (20 October 2010)

so, once again I'm reviewing a movie that i grew up with. i was a child of the 90's, and i distinctly remember 3 films my mom bought on video when they came out: Mission Impossible, Twister, and ID4. ID4 was my favorite of the 3, and still is. there is a lot more to this film then just the special effects. its got heart. thats why i like it. there is also this kind of innocence to it, a child like sense of wonder that has only been seen in films like the original Star Wars. it doesn't take itself ultra seriously but seriously enough for you to feel for the characters. Jeff goldbloom is one of my favorite actors so it was great to see him in this. Jurassic park and ID4 are 2 of my favorite action films so seeing him in this as well was a great treat. will smith, before he became huge with "Men In Black" the following year, was also great and funny as well. bill pullman is very good as the president, he definitely looks like one here and is very likable and perhaps a bit too "calm" when the aliens take over. if that were me i would have been going crazy, yet Pullman's president stays strangely calm and collected throughout. amazing! we need a president that is that cool under pressure! harry connick junior makes a brief but memorable role as the "biggs" character for this movie (for those star wars fans out there, you know what i mean). there were a lot of parts in this movie that seemed directly lifted from the original Star Wars. the giant saucer ships are like the death star, the F-18's have replaced X-wings and likewise the alien attackers have replaced Tie Fighters. you even have a unlikely hero like Luke skywalker in randy quaids character, especially at the very end in the plane.
the movie has enough laughs and suspense to keep you going and is very well cast. the action however is simply amazing. you must remember, this was in a time when CGI had not yet taken over cinema, so computer effects were used at a minimum. but that is what makes the special effects in this movie GREAT! CGI today is terribly overused to the point where movies have come to look like video games. they look awful. the effects in the 80's and most of the 90's still used practical effects using models and miniature's for the action. and boy did they do an amazing job with ID4. the ships, particularly the mammoth command ships, are a site to see, especially if you have an HDTV on bluray. it is MASSIVE. they cover the cities like a huge shadow. it was obviously a real ship they used, not lame phony looking CGI. and the effect would not have looked anywhere near as real or scary if CGI was used. the explosions were also real. when the white house blew up, or the empire state building, or congress, those are REAL explosions, and WOW did it look impressive. you just don't see that kind of explosions today. take for example the newer Star Wars prequels. EVERYTHING looks fake! every set was blue screen and looked incredibly smooth and unreal. almost nothing was a prop or real set, it was just horrible. why don't they just go back to the way they used to film special effects? it looked 1 million times more real and actually were almost TOO real for comfort! again, they just don't make them like they used to and its sad.
another thing to note is David Arnold's INCREDIBLE music score for this film. no, not that retarded REM song. i mean the film score itself. its very heroic, big, EPIC. it really makes you root for our heroes when the triumphant pro-American theme starts playing. it really gets your heart pumping with excitement when you couple the amazing action scenes with Arnold's superb score. the film wouldn't be anywhere near as good without it. parts that kind made me laugh was when they are planning the attack with all the countries, and when they show Russia, this very slavic sounding version of the ID4 theme is heard, complete with deep male singers and tambourine HAHA. this part was very old school. not to go overboard with the star wars references, but there were many moments in the score i noticed where it sounds very john William's-like, but thats fits this kind of movie perfectly.
in the end, this is one of my favorite movies and despite what cynical reviewers may say, this is a great fun night out at the movies if there ever was one, right up there with original Star Wars trilogy! now go out and SEE IT!