One lone hero saves the world from evil alien ships

Rating: 9/10 (29 May 2006)

I believe that this is the best science fiction film since Close Encounters of the Third Kind and even 2001: A Space Odessey.
Of course, "Independence Day" reminds Americans about July 4---a celebratory day with plenty of fireworks---but the main fireworks were there in the flick---lots of special-effect explosions in the combat scenes between the U.S. fighter jets and the ailen ships. Big explosions, small explosions...enough to make you wonder, when the next explosion will take place, as if you are seeing a real fireworks display.
Yes, the movie is a lot more violent than "E.T.", but there is still a lot of extraterrestrial elements there---from the voices of the ailens---to the sounds of the small alien fighter ships and their laser shots. It seems like the big combat scenes in the flick were taken out of the famous space fights in the Star Wars movies--particularly the "Return of the Jedi".
There was one scene where authorities were trying to establish communication with the alien ships...It may not be the famous 5 notes-- B-flat, C, A-flat, A-flat an octave lower, and E-flat, like in "Close Encounters".....but it was through the help of a helicopter code-named "Welcome Wagon", which showed a visual type of communication through its light panels.
You may have heard about the Japanese kamikaze pilots who crash their planes into Allied battleships in World War II, but this is what character Russell Casse does to completely destroy the monster ailen spaceship. Finding out that his fighter jet's missile failed......he decides to give up his life to save mankind....by going right into the path of the deadly laser beam in the center of the spaceship....with the failed yet armed bomb in it. The way the bomb blew up the whole ship seems like that bomb was a nuclear one. Sort of an unusual suicide mission for that character, isn't it?