Independence Day (1996)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1996
	Director: Roland Emmerich (Stargate, 2012)
	Actors: Will Smith (Bad Boys 1-2, Hancock), Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum (Jurassik Park: The Lost World)
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF, War
	Conditions of visioning: 11.10.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: On the 4th of July, alien ships take position above the world major cities. The US president (Pullman) attempts communicating with them.
Review: It is nowadays custom to make fun of and despise this movie, regarded as stupid and overly patriotic. I remember I loved it when it went out around my 18th birthday, I watched it twice and even bought the soundtrack at a discount. People tend to forget that it was revolutionary at that time: alien invasion, massive city destruction, the mix of SF and humour, without forgetting the establishment of Will Smith as funny Action Hero (one year after his cinema comeback in Bad Boys). All the modern disaster movies I can think of (including humor and/or city destruction and/or patriotism) came after it: Volcano (1997), Air Force One (1997), Godzilla (1998), Armageddon (1998), The day after Tomorrow (2004),  Transformers (2007), 2012 (2012), by the way many of them coming from the same director or his equivalent Michael Bay. After the now cult Stargate (1994), Roland Emmerich and his buddy Dean Devlin were still at the top of their game for Independence Day ; for me it all went down only after. Yes the movie contains some "ridiculous" ideas (the US president flying a jet, using a simple virus to defeat the enemy) and coincidences (the wife of the jet pilot hero rescues the wife of the president), but when compared to the movies that follow in the same genre, I find it to be rather well balanced: actors are good, the story simple but solid, the music (by David Arnold) fits, the myth of all-powerful POTUS is present but not as much as in Air Force One, and more importantly the humour is light and not dumb or heavy as it can be in Bad Boys, Armageddon etc. Digital Special Effects were young, so many live mock-ups were still being used (in particular the buildings to be destroyed). When you look closely (and despite the rather poor Blu-ray transfer), you notice that the amount of details in the city destruction shots is not as big as it is nowadays thanks to CGIs, but it is still a hell of a job! So shoot me if you like, but I defend Independence Day. It deserves a better Blu-ray edition. The sequels ID Forever part 1 and 2 (a working title I guess) will be released in 2016-2017.
Rating: 7 /10