INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996)
Back in 1996 my brother and I saw this in the theater and
walked out changed people. No, I am not kidding. This movie literally blew our
freakin minds and left us with a ton of hope about what the future of movies
could be. Oddly I never got this thing on DVD until well into the 2000’s but
alas – it’s in the collection now and I highly recommend it end up in yours at
some point.
This one starts out with aliens deciding earth is next on the “planets to ravage” list. It’s a pretty hard list too get on I hear. Anyway spaceships 15 miles wide position themselves around the planet and prepare to strike. Of course attempts to make peace don’t work out (or we wouldn’t have a movie with near the amount of destruction promised in the previews), so the only thing left to do is launch our primitive weapons at the alien ships. That’s a huge mistake, and now it’s up to the Fresh Prince and David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) to figure out how to take the alien’s ship shields down, and take the world back from the brink of absolute destruction.
With a bit of a side story thrown in about the Fresh Prince’s girlfriend Jasmine Dubrow (Vivica A Fox) the movie tries to round out why we should care about the characters and in that effort it’s pretty successful I did find it strange that they made her an exotic dancer which has nothing to do with anything later in the story. Unless they were trying to tell us that if you become a stripper you will be able to kick metal locks off doors in freeway tunnels. It’s equally strange that a dude as smart as David didn’t use his college degree to get a job worthy of his knowledge. Oh, no wait…I guess that actually happens all the time. The movie also teachers us that a simple trip to your sisters house is the best thing to do in case of alien invasion.
This movie is not without its issues, especially regarding the solution on how to bring the shields down, (see STAR WARS for a course on “BRING SHIELDS DOWN: 101”) but this for me was mostly stuff I overlooked as a kid and have no issue overlooking now. Even the flying toy firetruck scene was just pretty damn cool over all. For newer audiences I can see why IDEPENDENCE DAY could lose its luster and feel a bit preachy on the “let’s all hold hands and fight aliens side” but I thought it was fine then and I think its fine now. It’s also almost as good as ROCKY V or PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN : AT WORLDS END if you are looking for a great motivational speech.
This one starts out with aliens deciding earth is next on the “planets to ravage” list. It’s a pretty hard list too get on I hear. Anyway spaceships 15 miles wide position themselves around the planet and prepare to strike. Of course attempts to make peace don’t work out (or we wouldn’t have a movie with near the amount of destruction promised in the previews), so the only thing left to do is launch our primitive weapons at the alien ships. That’s a huge mistake, and now it’s up to the Fresh Prince and David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) to figure out how to take the alien’s ship shields down, and take the world back from the brink of absolute destruction.
With a bit of a side story thrown in about the Fresh Prince’s girlfriend Jasmine Dubrow (Vivica A Fox) the movie tries to round out why we should care about the characters and in that effort it’s pretty successful I did find it strange that they made her an exotic dancer which has nothing to do with anything later in the story. Unless they were trying to tell us that if you become a stripper you will be able to kick metal locks off doors in freeway tunnels. It’s equally strange that a dude as smart as David didn’t use his college degree to get a job worthy of his knowledge. Oh, no wait…I guess that actually happens all the time. The movie also teachers us that a simple trip to your sisters house is the best thing to do in case of alien invasion.
This movie is not without its issues, especially regarding the solution on how to bring the shields down, (see STAR WARS for a course on “BRING SHIELDS DOWN: 101”) but this for me was mostly stuff I overlooked as a kid and have no issue overlooking now. Even the flying toy firetruck scene was just pretty damn cool over all. For newer audiences I can see why IDEPENDENCE DAY could lose its luster and feel a bit preachy on the “let’s all hold hands and fight aliens side” but I thought it was fine then and I think its fine now. It’s also almost as good as ROCKY V or PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN : AT WORLDS END if you are looking for a great motivational speech.
Please check out the link below by clicking on the picture. Because no one should die buttonless. Until next time.
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