Independence Day

Independence Day is one of Roland Emmerich’s “disaster movies,” it’s a series of non-connected films he made that all focus on one huge disaster. He’s the guy that made Independence Day (alien attack), The Day After Tomorrow (global warming), Eight Legged Freaks (giant spiders!), 10,000 BC (ok it’s not a disaster movie but it was still bad) and 2012 (the end of the world). The Day After Tomorrow was terrible, and I didn’t even bother seeing 2012, since it looked bad and I despise anything that makes people believe the world might end in 2012 (as an amateur Astronomer, I cringe whenever someone brings up galactic center alignments or near-Earth asteroids that are coming our way). Independence Day stands out from those, because it is a much, much better movie. What makes it so great is that Emmerich can take any guess he wants about the human reaction to aliens visiting Earth, and I believe he makes the correct guess when he shows hundreds of people gathered in the streets welcoming the aliens (I know I would be out there with a big welcome sign). He also guesses correctly that we would fight back when we are attacked, or when the aliens try and force us to do things; unlike Arthur C. Clarke, who assumes humans have no willpower and will just obey some alien they can’t see (I have a review of Childhood’s End coming up in two weeks, you’ll hear all about this).
The best thing about Independence Day is that it’s just a fun movie you don’t have to think much about. Some of the best sci-fi plots are the simplest: robot from the future wants to kill Sarah Connor, so it shows how she survives; alien monster is running amok on the ship, so let’s see how Ripley and the cat survive, giant alien spaceship attacking Earth, how do we fight back? etc. Some movies with more complex plots that develop their own lore can be really good (i.e.: Star Wars), but if they over-think it, the movie/series suffers or even loses some of its depth (i.e.: 2010: The Year We Make Contact. Watch for a post about that in January).
Overall, Independence Day delivers on the action, aliens and Will Smith. I might find time this Fourth of July to re-watch it, even though I’ll be in the Middle of Nowhere Wisconsin at the fiancée’s cabin.
Independence Day at bestbuy.com