Independence Day

 Independence Day

Genre: Science Fiction/Action

Director: Roland Emmerich

Released: 1996


     Ah, Independence Day. This was a Magalhaes movie mainstay growing up, and over the years I must have taken in the obliteration of New York City, Washington D.C., and L.A. dozens of times. Having just rewatched the film for the Fourth of July, and being old enough now that the layers of foreboding mystery that once enshrouded the film in my mind have all peeled away, I thought I would mark the holiday of Independence Day by imparting my thoughts on the movie that inspired it. 

     Independence Day follows a surprisingly expansive cast of characters, but the most important ones are strong-willed President Whitmore, environmental activist/cable repair man/computer expert David, fighter pilot Steve, and his girlfriend Jasmine. It's the weekend of the Fourth of July, but before our heroes can honor the local veterans by retraumatizing them with colorful explosions a hostile alien race pulls up to the cosmic curb. From orbit the mother ship dispatches a fleet of city-sized ships that take positions over the world's most landmark-dense metropolises where they hover ominously. President Whitmore calls for calm, Steve is called into the nearby airbase to prepare for potential combat, Jasmine is worried, and Dave discovers a hidden code in the satellites that the aliens have hijacked to coordinate what he believes is an impending assault. His theory is quickly vindicated and the monstrous alien crafts unleash mind-boggling destruction, wiping their targets off the map in extended sequences of explosive action and cars flying through the air. From there it's all failed counterattacks, scrunched brows, and apprehensive "my God"s as the characters scramble to repel the invasion in time for the Independence Day barbecue.

     Independence Day is the quintessential cheesy summer blockbuster, and quite possibly the apotheosis of director Roland Emmerich's bombastic style. The movie is constructed around big blowout set pieces and its primary narrative concern is getting our characters in place to partake in those set pieces. The movie will largely live or die on the impact of those moments, and Independence Day thankfully offers up enough flashy spectacle to survive the many shortcuts it takes to arrive at them.

     I was actually surprised on this latest viewing at how effective the first part of the movie is. It's an unusually restrained, slow build up of tension that makes good use of limiting our glimpses of the alien ships and their capabilities until the big reveal. There's legitimately good setup going on here, establishing the characters and their relationships quickly while keeping the looming uncertainty of the threat firmly in the front of the audience's mind. There's some crashing cars and a plane explodes when it makes the curious decision of approaching a massive spaceship that's still flaming from atmospheric insertion, but these relatively laidback moments aren't even directly because of the aliens. We don't explicitly know their intentions until they shoot a welcoming helicopter out of the sky, and even though we all know where this is going I found the movie's efforts to portray a (slightly) grounded vision of what the appearance of mammoth spaceships might look like to be refreshingly controlled. 

     I've always held that restraint is what makes the moments when a movie decides to let 'er rip really hit hard. Getting straight to the good stuff is lame and lazy, and, ultimately, undercuts the emotional impact you could have had with a more patient build up. I think that's part of what makes the first attack by the aliens so memorable, the other part being that it's such a ludicrous spectacle that you can't help but be impressed. The aliens unleash their primary weapon: a big blue laser that ignites an ever-expanding ring of fiery destruction capable of levelling skyscrapers in moments. There's plenty of shots of things going boom and cars landing on each other and people being blasted off their feet, and to its credit the folks responsible for the sound design, digital effects, and pyrotechnics all deliver destruction that's weighty and pleasing. It's appeals to something incredibly base, the primitive delight at seeing large and complex chunks of architecture going boom, but the booms are well-constructed. 

     The movie never gets back to this high point, unfortunately, because after opening Pandora's Box it wants to make sure all the demons issuing forth are well equipped with missiles and energy blasts, but it does manage to maintain that cathartic thrill, sprinkling in plenty of quips and more minor explosions and set pieces to keep us occupied. The pacing is pretty good to be honest, and it even takes a break from the more spectacular moments to deliver a more hushed piece of tension in an alien dissection scene that I wasn't allowed to watch as a child. 

     It's not all good news, though. For as much as the movie delivers on spectacle, it can't always stay out of its own way. It does a much better job of keeping its characters uncomplicated than Extraction did, but simple they remain and it's hard to deny that there are quite a few of them. I found the RV-dwelling country kids to be particularly dull this time around. Like everything else their presence is in service of a huge cinematic moment, and while the moment in question is one of the movie's most famous, I still found them to be largely unnecessary. 

     Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith are charismatic enough to paper over their paper-thin characters, and I laughed more often than not at their wry jokes. Same with Jasmine and President Whitmore, both of whom are fun and watchable and played by professionals who understand their assignment. I can't give them too many points because the writers aren't shooting for big payouts, but I can respect them for what they are. 

     Ultimately, Independence Day is on the better side of big, dumb, loud summer blockbusters. It has a good understanding of pacing, its action scenes are well constructed, and it benefits greatly from a relatively restrained opening. It features more caricatures than characters, but the movie knows this and doesn't try to Extract more depth from them than they are capable of providing. If you're willing to accept the tradeoff, I think you'll find that Independence Day lives up to its side of the bargain by providing a simple, flashy good time.

B+