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Independence Day (1996)
When Independence Day was released after a hefty marketing campaign in the summer of 1996, it was intended to be the most humongous sci-fi/disaster movie to date, boasting the most remarkable special effects. And even though the critics found the storyline fairly silly and the characters rather one-dimensional, they also mostly hailed the special effects and the action, while audiences flocked to cinemas and theatres. Seen today, the idiotic storyline and cardboard characters are still present, but the special effects now look not only unimaginative, but also strangely cheap and dated compared to visuals in much older films, such as 2001: A Space Odyssey or Close Encounters of the Third Kind, or even contemporary counterparts like Jurassic Park. Director Roland Emmerich arguably tried to create the ultimate B-movie, inspired by the sci-fis of the 1950s, only with top-notch production values. Seen in retrospect, however, ID4, which the film was also known as, has simply become another B-movie – with effects just as insipid as those that inspired it. And when the visuals don't really hold the film up, all its other weaknesses become much too apparent. The characters aren't only one-dimensional; they're utterly lame − seemingly written by a child. If you think James Cameron's caricature dichotomy of goofy scientists and badass military guys is ridiculous, wait until you see Emmerich's version (Dr. Okun is the worst example). And as if that weren't enough, people here act and react in the most outrageous ways. They are neither authentic under the extreme circumstances that form the premise of this movie nor would they have been in any ordinary in an ordinary interpersonal context. Everything they do is for the camera, and the actors desperately try to make the most of the horrible one-liners written for them. When I first saw and reviewed this film some 18 years ago, I largely panned it for the issues listed above. This time (although I still partly enjoyed the film on some absent-minded level), I'm also struck by its mediocre technical merit. Not only are the aforementioned special effects disappointing, but so is Emmerich's inability to create a convincing spatiality. Despite an ostensible "adventurous" nature, in which the various characters are thrown from place to place, we never get any macro-sense of the settings or the devastations in them (the standard around-the-world news reports are used instead), nor of where the final scenes actually take place. And to finish it all off, Emmerich's flippant stance towards his themes – like war and death, for instance – kills off any thematic value the film could have had. Interesting and valid questions concerning whether or not we're alone in the universe, or whether the characters' aggressive actions are justifiable, are effectively smothered by the film's goofy, unintelligent overtone. There's not much left to enjoy here, unless you can enjoy the antics of a kid with his hand deep in the candy jar – which is how Emmerich comes off, and probably must have felt when he was given the green light for this project.
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