Rousse Rant: "Independence Day"

In honor of the holiday, and because a Internet phenomenon I enjoy inspired me to rip him off, TMM takes you back to 1996, when the prime selection on the July 4th barbaque was every major city and famous landmark you could think of.

"INDEPENDENCE DAY"
Directed by Roland Emmerich
Released July 2nd, 1996

THE BASICS
Sometime in the near pre-9/11 future, a ginormous ship with one fourth the mass of Earth's moon parks itself in orbit on July 2nd. It releases 36 much less ginormous saucers that park themselves over cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Washington, New Dehli, Berlin, Tokyo, Paris and London. To continue the theme, a ginormous death ray blasts said cities, starting with prominent landmarks. Can survivors including a wussy New York techie, a gung ho fighter pilot, and the President lead the remnants of humanity to victory, or will humanity bite the big one before the traditional fireworks go off for the Fourth?


THE GOOD
Ah, 1996. I was eleven and I still knew happiness. I remember this movie fairly well even though I haven't seen it in eight years. That and I thought this movie was the best thing since sliced bread. Mostly because I was enthralled by the true plot of SBU, or "Shit Blows Up."

Independence Day set the standard for SFX in its day, and you can still see why if you recall the current standards of the period. Everyone probably remembers the iconic shots that still hold up reasonably well; shadows falling across America's greatest cities, a 15 mile wide city killing machine dwarfing New York and of course, the kablazmoing of the White House. I can't deny that these are still pretty impressive scenes.

Further, the script knew what it was; good, dumb popcorn fun. It never took itself seriously (unlike me a decade later; see below). It was a recalling of the George Pal era, where the handsome young lovers always managed to somehow survive against the odds (even makes homage to that TWICE!) with their silly dialog. The performances aren't all that bad either. Will Smith's always a hoot, and I like Bill Pullman. I think Jeff Goldblum wasn't half bad. And in retrospect, the Trekkie in me liked Brent "Data" Spiner as the crazy Area 51 guy.


THE BAD
Question for you guys. How many other countries are on the planet Earth? 193 or so. What country is presented as the only one that matters? Here's a hint; it ain't Chad.

The jingoism is just... gah. There was literally a sequence where the rest of the world was like "America has a plan? WE'RE SAVED!!" Worse is the fact a British flight officer actually says something to the effect of "Finally!" when he finds out. This partly suggests to me that this guy was patiently waiting for another country to address the fact HIS OWN FUCKING COUNTRY WAS BEING BLOWN APART THE WHOLE TIME.

"America has a plan!"
"About time... I rather liked London, Manchester, Edinborough and Sheffield, too..."

Equally "gah" is the President's stirring speech that the world will forever mark America's independence as the day of humanity's liberation writ large. Sheesh. If I wanted patriotism crammed into every possible orifice of my body, I'd stare at the flag and watch the Macy's fireworks.

I know this is going too far in, but... this just annoys me. You're the ID4 aliens. You want to wipe out the human nest of "New York City." You fly 93 million lightyears to accomplish this objective as part of your overall campaign of destroying homo sapiens. And, what do you do? Painstakingly center your city blaster over the Empire State Building.

Give me a fucking break.

That is completely idiotic. I mean, honestly, think about it... when the Soviets laid siege to Berlin at the end of World War II, did they center all the artillery on the Brandenberg Gate?! Of course not! It's a completely unsound military strategy. If the aliens were serious about slaughtering as many humans as possible, you'd center it on the exact geographic center of New York (and it wouldn't do even if they were trying to just wipe out Manhattan; you'd be aiming more for Central Park). All right, sure, it's cooler to blow up iconic buildings, but it makes me question the aliens' strategy. If I were invading Earth, I'd wipe out the militaries, THEN start wasting population centers. This also ignores other brilliant facets of the invasion plan, such as knowing our satillites (which they're depending on as an advanced spacefaring civilization?!) well enough to use them for their own ends, yet fail to know we have something called "nuclear bombs." Not for the city killers, but more for the mothership...

(This is also the starting point of Roland Emmerich's obsession with annihilating New York City. He claims it's his favorite city in the world... pretty strange way to pay homage to a favorite! Not that I'm, you know, biased about it in anyway...)


...AND THE VERDICT
Yes, yes, I know, it's just a summer blockbuster, but for overanalytical, bitter, cynical people like me, I find it a bit hard to get into at twenty-two. If you check it out, it's best to turn off the brain and watch everything blow up. Other than that, you'll be distracted by the aliens' idiocy and the constant "AMERICA IS TEH R0XX0R!!!!1!1" approach. If you want a good vision of aliens invading Earth, try Spielburg's War of the Worlds (don't worry, Tom's tolerable!).

(Oh, and my being embarrassed about my 1996 review and New York blowing up doesn't help either, even if my faves are related.)

VERDICT: C

BEST SCENE: The arrival of the city killers and their fulfilling their name

BEST LINE: "...oh, crap." -Jeff Goldblum's boss upon watching the Empire State getting eviscerated/a fireball race towards him.

Okay, done ranting. Go enjoy the Fourth, eat many hot dogs, and blow up shit yourself.