Year: 1996
Director: Roland Emmerich
Country: US
Language: English
Also cleverly referred to the "Fourth of July", because it takes place annually on July 4th, Independence Day is an federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The Continental Congress declared that the thirteen American colonies should be regarded as a new nation called The United States of America. By doing this they freed themselves from the British Empire and became, well, independent. This movie is not about that famous historical event... at all.
Aliens are coming and their goal is to invade and destroy Earth. Fighting superior technology, mankind's best weapon is the will to survive.
Seriously, how does this movie relate to Independence Day at all? How does this film reflect the American value system? I suppose we can see some parallels to 9/11 (albeit made 5years earlier) and/or World War II in this picture; foreign invaders blow up something Americans treasure and they retaliate by blowing the shit out of their enemy. Is this the most positive aspect of American culture? Why are the aliens attacking earth? How do the aliens have such advanced technology yet can't defeat the US military? Why do the aliens operate on earth time?
I'll give points for explosions, but aside from special effects that look bland compared to more recent pictures, I can't think of much positive to say. Each characters is chosen for their ethnic, occupational and sexual diversity. They embody a stereotype throughout the film and thus it's difficult to connect with anybody, because anytime they appear on screen I want to cringe. The writing is awful, perhaps the worst I've seen in an action film. The plot doesn't make any sense, the dialogue is filled to the brim with action cliches and the ending is quite predictable.
Essentially Independence Day is 2 hours of "hurrah hurrah" pat yourself on the back patriotism. The US army can fix everything & the US is the greatest nation on Earth because reasons. It's a quite hollow picture, but I'll admit it has one great visual that makes it stand out (the white house blowing up) I suppose if you view it as mindless entertainment it could be passable. Signs was a better alien movie, SIGNS. Piss on it! 1.5/5
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