Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996)

From: [email-masked] (Ram Samudrala)
Date: 8 Jul 1996 14:50:09 GMT

INDEPENDENCE DAY
                       A film review by Ram Samudrala
                        Copyright 1996 Ram Samudrala

I suppose it is too much to hope that a movie featuring aliens
attempting to conquer Earth actually achieve their goal.
/Independence Day/, like most other man-meets-alien stories, follows
the tradition of letting the weaker side win.  Given that, how humans
win against the latest threat from outer space is chronicled
elaborately in /Independence Day/ with some great special effects and
sound.

Almost 50 years ago, an alien space ship crashed on earth.  Presumably
the aliens aboard were investigating the potential of the planet for
their eventual consumption.  The U.S. government decided not to
release any of this information to the public and even people in high
positions of political power had no idea this incident occured.  The
truth is brought to light on July 2 and 3rd, 1996 when a massive
contingency of alien spaceships begin to destroy major cities around
the globe.

On July 4th, America's Independence Day, the planet unites to wage war
against the seemingly impenetrable alien forces.  When the U.S.
government's typical strategies ("nuke the hell out of them") fail,
David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) discovers how to penetrate the mother
ship circling in orbit using the alien ship that had crashed in the
forties.  With the aid of Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith), they go
into space with the intention of launching a computer virus to
incapacitate the invaders' shields.

The acting is pretty decent.  Will Smith is his same old charming yet
cocky self.  Jeff Goldblum continues to portray the off-beat
genius-type who saves the day.  Brent Spiner appears in an amazing
cameo as an eccentric scientist who is in charge of the Area 51 base
that houses the aliens (in formaldehde?) and their ship.  Bill Pullman
plays a refreshing kind of President not typically seen in movies (or
real life for that matter), who actually joins in the fight against
the invaders.

The basic plot leaves much to be desired, however.  While
/Independence Day/ is filled with special effects that make the alien
invasion look highly realistic, the whole plot was handled better in
the Star Trek episodes that involved the invasion of the Borg.  I've
pondered the issue of what would happen if aliens really invaded the
earth.  If a race of beings were technologically superior they would
completely and totally annihilate us before we blinked.  What the
aliens are attempting to do in the movie is really no different from
what humans have been doing to each other for centuries.

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