Independence Day (1996)

One of the best sequences of “Independence Day” is in the beginning where one of the massive shadows is cast falling on the surface of the moon. I can still remember the Visitors arriving from outside the solar system. Their ship is enormous, indeed. “One-fourth the size of the moon”, a scientist gasped when he spotted it. It’s astonishing that something that big orbits the earth. It’s close enough to the Earth’s surface that one might expect tidal waves but this is not a movie where minor details matter.

The enormous spaceship called the mother ship is visible to stock characters which include the president of the United States, and the ship is now dropping off saucers that are only 15 miles in diameter. These ships are a lot smaller and plan to hover above cities on Earth in a menacing way to threaten people.

The question is, do they come in peace? Wouldn’t it be funny if this was the case? These vessels do not come in peace and as David Jeff Goldblum learns, they do try to attack, but only after timing, using our very own satellites.

How can he possibly know that? It’s because his laptop picks up the signal and converts it into a digital format. While the countdown is on for Armageddon, I could only wonder, why do the aliens work for hours and minutes? Can a planet such as theirs, support the same length of day and year as Earth? so pleasant.

Not only does ‘Independence Day’ come from the same genre as flying saucers that emerged in the 1950s, but it is practically the same, right down to the panic in the street, where frightened extras run toward the camera whilst some horrifying scene takes place behind the huge buildings which frame them. There are lots of little stories about interesting characters, which are chosen due to their ethnicity, occupation, and even sexuality which is always on display even in the old B movies. Here, representing the entire human race is not only the president and David the tech head, but also exotic dancers, Arabs, Brits, cute kids, generals, homosexuals, Jews, drunk crop dusters, tight-lipped defence secretaries, and even the McLaughlin Group. Every single character even in the movie possesses an invisible label.

In spite of the scale and detail of the special effects in ‘Independence Day’, their execution leaves much to be desired. The large saucers are a dull, dark shape that looms over much of the scenes; and the little grey ‘fighter’ saucers that the aliens use are a letdown- squat, clunky little crafts that look like they came out of Rocket Men of Mars.

Sure, there are windows of the White House and the Empire State Building set for detonation which I am sure will serve as videos of them getting ambushed in an upgraded version of the same, but with giant enemies in the context. If these beings can build spaceships a quarter the size of the moon, why go through the trouble of aerial dogfighting with the US Air Force? And why aren’t there any explosions for anything else? Where’s the fun in blowing up everything at the same time? Perhaps, instead of just drowning TVs in snow and static, a more ‘fun’ approach can be taken by erasing the internet with a neutron bomb. But hey, why do the people not freak out even a little bit? News comes that Los Angeles, Washington, and New York have ceased to exist, so will there be grief? Not quite, the characters pf the film shake their heads in disagreement and move on to the next scene.

I understand we are not supposed to ask such questions. I guess we should be engrossed in the plot, and it does have some interesting concepts such as the one where Area 51, the US military’s secret base in Nevada, actually stores the alien spacecraft everyone assumes the government seized in New Mexico circa 1948.

Deep down within the Earth hides an alien spaceship alongside some aliens that have been embalmed in a lab that is managed by the long-haired Dr. Okun who is played by the famous Brent Spiner aka Data from the acclaimed Star Trek The Next Generation. Just like Okun, they made Goldblum over into a very weird ‘mad scientist’, restating ‘they don’t let us out much’ and even informing the president ‘Guess you’d like to see the big tamale eh?’ With the president preparing Earth’s reaction, it is evident that David, a character portrayed by Goldblum, will provide a makeshift answer. using and hawing plans before Goldblum. And after he, now revealing Steven Hiller played by Will Smith, emerges, his action plan, of course, depends on him. What Goldblum devises, however, I cannot share. No way, I reject that. My only comment is that it is astonishing why these aliens have traversed unspeakable distances over light years, yet did not consider first incorporating a computational virus protection system. (My assumption is that any aliens willing to flag down this particular plan of action likely pedaled across the galaxy on bicycles.) “Independence Day” is very cautious and quite boring compared to other movies, especially with its vast imagination.

The aliens in this film I saw, when I finally managed to see them, were a real letdown, I mean why octopus men. If an alien race ever comes to Earth, I for one hope they have something interesting to tell us. Wow, or, if they are going to exterminate us, then I hope they do it with something we have not come across before, instead of those stupid-looking ray beams that appear to be crafted by the same set of artists who did the covers for Amazing Stories Magazine way back in the forty’s.

At the same time, “Independence Day” is a movie that fits the category of goofy summer blockbusters and on that point, I took a certain level of pleasure from it, as indeed, I take pleasure from any film that dares to say, “It’s the end of the world as we know it.”

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