Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996)

From: [email-masked] (Mike Warner)
Date: 23 Jul 1996 15:15:51 GMT

INDEPENDENCE DAY
                       A film review by Mike Warner
                        Copyright 1996 Mike Warner

*  Preamble

For component summary, see http://www.id4.com

* Irrational

** Snapshot

I'm testosterone overloaded and out for bear. Gentlemen, saddle up,
strap me in, and snap my head back. Whaa-- We're in an 8G power-dive
and suddenly the flaps are down. Oh, I'm sorry. Excuse me. I didn't
realize we had to cut to Will Smith's Significant Other shopping for
Huggies.  

** Summary

Velocity Interruptus. Screenwriting Amateurus.

* Rational

** Summary

Margaret, what I lack in technique, I'll make up for in size.

** Theory 

*** Story

Good versus Evil. Cowboys and Indians-from-space with a
state-of-the-art video treatment. How could I not like the White House
getting pulverized? You say Bill and Hillary are on the doorsteps? 

*** Screenplay

**** Structure

Look. If you're going to be the butt-kickingest high-velocity
fireworks show yet, then do it. Don't ALSO try to be Les Miserables.
When you've established a wake and we're all being sucked along at
mach 3, don't stop to smell the roses. 

*****  Space & Time

Linear in time. Thank Christ. I don't think I could have handled
"Captain Steven Hiller: the Formative Years".  Localized in space.
Which is fortunate. If the story-tellers had been Stephen King fans,
we could have been saddled with following the Japanese Brady Bunch.

***** Threading

A story is a set of independent, parallel threads, with a camera
following each thread. A screenwriter must be able to switch between
threads without disrupting the velocity established by the preceding
thread. Trust me, If you don't maintain consistent velocity between
threads, the viewer gets pissed. ID4's screenwriters couldn't pull it
off. The movie had 20 minutes of disruptive sub-threading that should
have been edited out. Come to think of it, maybe these guys ARE
Stephen King fans.

Verdict: Thread velocity mismatch.

**** Characterization

Carpe diem, dudes. Instead, let's go with the most embarrassing
cliches we can remember. Hell, these guys didn't take Screenwriting
101. In the first class you learn: don’t *tell* the audience; *show*
them. Example: Will Smith's incessant carping about how "bad" he is.
Yeh right, Will. You couldn't put a submission hold on the Avon Lady.

**** Dialogue

Again, Carpe diem, dudes. In the world of High Technology, these
screenwriters were in over their heads. But don't feel bad, boys. Most
screenwriters are. Also, many missed opportunities to delight with
things contrasting and unexpected. They should have pulled-in Quentin
Tarantino as a script consultant. In dialogue, Quentin knows about 
Seizing the Moment.

** Practice

*** Hype

This is where ID4 excelled. They had some excellent clips and whetted
our appetites way in advance. Even if the thing had turned out to be
as bad as Eraser, the advertising momentum would have pinned the facts
in a match. The Marketroids rocked.

*** Acting

Will Smith [Captain Steven Hiller]. I got real tired, real quick of
hearing Will Smith tell me how bad he is. Smith's a wimp. Plus, he
can't act. But then, he's not an actor; he's a comedian who can't make
the transition. Should have hired Wesley Snipes.

Harry Connick Jr. [Jimmy]  Here's a musician who *can* make the
transition. His impersonation of The Reverend Jesse Jackson is the
high point of the film. This guy is dangerous. He can sing Frank
Sinatra better than Frank. Have you seen CopyCat? Read my lips: HCJ
will receive an oscar within the next 3 years.

Jeff Goldblum. [David Levinson] His verbal cadence and propensity to
expressive hand gestures are getting him typecast as a techie. See
Jurassic Park, Powder. Jeff's cool.

Judd Hirsch. [Julius Levinson] The film's other title is How The Jews
Saved Earth From Alien Invasion. Judd Hirsch's character is there to
remind us that Jeff is a Jew and that it's Jews who are saving our
ass--once again. 

Bill Pullman. [The President] Mis-cast. Bill, god bless his soul, is a
mainstream non-entity. You find his picture when you look up the word
"uncharismatic." He was pushing his envelope in The Accidental
Tourist. In ID4 he has one shining moment to prove to us that he can
act, AND ---. Sorry,Bill. You can't really act. See if Uncle Pully can
get you into the Carpet business.

Brent Spiner. [Dr. Okun] Mis-cast. Plus, he doesn't play a character,
he parodies one. I guess the Director went out with the Best Boys for
tacos. Spiner should have waited till Emmerich returned, because
Spiner apparently suffers from Judgment Deficit Disorder. Hell,
there's always the Next Generation residuals.

Randy Quaid. [Russel] He could have played the character, but the
Director was off with the Best Boys, so Quaid joined Spiner, who also
suffers from Judgment Deficit Disorder. In the director's absence,
Quaid played a stand-up comic parodying a drunk, something he does
about 80 percent of the time, anyway. He's getting a lot of practice.

And various space-takers who didn't quit their day jobs, hopefully.

*** Direction

What direction? I think Emmerich used some of his bloated budget money
to go to Disneyland. Couldn't he have waited until the movie ended?
There's always the chance that one of the actors would have stumbled
over him and he could have used that as an excuse to interject his
recommendations on characterization.  As Ace would say: loo-hoo-ser

*** Effects

Pretty much the whole gambit: modelling, compositing, computer
imaging, and so forth. I'm beginning to favor the theory that Bill
Pullman's character was actually an animatronic device. Hmmm. Anyway,
Models are cool. You can down-light a model so that it lacks detail.
That way the audience can't tell the blurry thing is a model. You can
do the same thing in Software, but Software Engineers are WAY into
proving that they can ray-trace better than god. Plus, they want you
to see every incredible detail of the texturing on the ten million
edge-softened polygons. You want me to blur what? Blur this.

Hell, with thirty-thousand dollars worth of Amiga/Video Toaster
workstations, networked together ala Babylon-5, they could have had
something viewable. Oh well. Why use what works when you have so many
Effects Studios familiar with what doesn't? 

Verdict: Gag me with a model.

*** Soundtrack

**** Music

Very few Movie Makers know how to use the power of Music to drive the
velocity and create emotional involvement. Michael Mann is the expert.
He proved his expertise in the Miami Vice series. If you want to
experience the power of Music to contribute to the effect the Director
envisions, check out the last ten minutes of Mann's masterpiece,
Manhunter.

In ID4, the Makers were either clueless or uninterested. They may have
been mesmerized by the Video and forgot about the Audio. Or maybe they
had to trim the budget someplace. In the end, when we finally figure
out how to take the Alien Octopi to the mat, a few power chords may
have been in order. 

Verdict: At least they didn't use Rap.

**** Other

THX rules. Some of the low-end notes (the thuds) were quite inspiring.

*** Integration

Not bad, really. Some of the computer-generated explosions were a
little askew of the exploding models, but, hey, captive inertia
carries the audience by many of the flawed details.

* Recommendation

Fuck it!  Go see it!

** Rating

Rating system : -4 to +4, where 0 = better than a blank screen, but
only if you smuggled-in your own candy.

+2