Independence Day (1996) Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

USA 1996
Director: Roland Emmerich
Cast: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Robert Loggia, Randy Quaid, Margaret Colin, Vivica A. Fox
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: 3 July 1996 (USA); 17 August 1996 (Indo)
Running Time: 2 hours 33 minutes

The Movie Review

Independence Day film still 1


INDEPENDENCE DAY
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Oh this movie is of a great memory! Man, I remember that year '96 almost everyone recommended Independence Day to each other. I think I've seen this movie in the cinemas a couple of times when I and my buddies used to skip the extra lessons in school and hanged out in the nearest mall. Taking your friends to see this movie would garner praise from them, it sure was worth the money and it's a definite exciting popcorn movie. And 15 years later, it is still a freakin' awesome movie which cleverly portrays the worldwide panic and reconciliation to face Earth's sole enemy, Alien Invasion...

July 2nd, Planet Earth has some visitors from outer space. Almost at the size of the Moon, this alien spaceships come in orderly fashion scattered themselves throughout the major famous places around the globe. It appears at first as if they are come without any purpose but as time progresses it is clear they are coordinating themselves and planning something huge to our planet. With such a massive gigantic and breath-taking spaceship hovering above us, people around the world begin to react in such diverse manner, some are panic and there are also some people who "worships" and begs to be carried away :) President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman) then consoles his trusted men to handle the matters and even enlists the help of a genius cable technician working in New York (Jeff Goldblum of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)).

But, it's not until the first strike coming from the pesky-looking aliens that claims thousands of human life that the US government begins a massive-scale attack and even considering using the nuclear missile and entering forbidden Area 51. But will mankind stands a chance against the technologically-advanced aliens with a mission to annihilate human beings?

According to IMDb, Independence Day was released in Indonesia at the exact date of also Indonesian's Independence Day in 17 August 1996 :) Anyway, back then in the mid 90s, Indonesia didn't have many local movies, even there were Indonesian films, but mostly they are about sex drama or sex horror, so they hype was high about this movie. No wonder everybody was talking about it and through that movie some of us learnt that July 4th or better known as ID4 is the America Independence Day. And while we're still talking about it, there were some objections back in 1996 about the date and people complaining saying something like "why does it have to be July 4th as the World's ID from the Aliens?" Well, yes it's something very selfish from other nation's opinions, but considering it's the movie coming from mostly American filmmakers and headlined by mostly American actors, then it's reasonable. All I can hope is for one day Indonesian filmmakers could come up with better movie than Independence Day and title it with something very Indonesian *iwishitotbecometrue* :-)

In 2011, no doubt, some people will not fully enjoy the movie because of one thing, the CGI... Yep, although it still stands high among other movies using CGI but by today's standard it will feel quite fake. But by then the CGI were a blast, mainly because I wasn't a reviewer (read: not Mr. Complain lolz) and it's an ambitious project with an estimated budget of US $75,000,000 and astonishingly shot only in 72 days.

But everything that one would wish from a disaster movie is here... Great action sequences, global panic, disgusting looking aliens, massive alien mothership, aerial battles between Earth's fighter jets and alien small ships, lasers, city destruction and even small amount of humor which is a good thing :-) And also one thing that I personally liked the most about disaster movie like this, is seeing how suddenly those who fight against each other are beginning to start a new friendship and make peace. The scene that unifies a stripper with the first lady is a good example for this. Independence Day was the highest-grossing film of 1996 and the 27th highest worldwide gross of a movie all-time. Those last two alone actually already warrant "Must-Watch" for all moviegoers :-)

> Huge and Expensive Alien Invasion movies after 1996: Starship Troopers (1997) and World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles (2011).

> Memorable Classic Alien Invasion films: The War of the Worlds (1953) and a subtle but creepy kind of alien invasion Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).

© iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com
Twitter: @movielogy
posted: Monday, 10 October 2011 09:18 pm