Independence Day DVD: Review By Shelley

THE CAST: Bill Pullman, Will Smith, Randy Quaid, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Robert Loggia, Vivica A. Fox and Adam Baldwin all give good performances in this film. None of them are ‘Oscar’ worthy, but all are pleasant enough.

DIRECTION, CINEMATOGRAPHY and SPECIAL EFFECTS: Independence Day won an Oscar for Best Effects, Visual Effects. So it goes without saying that the photography and special effects for the time period, 1996, were excellent. Certain scenes were not particularly authentic or real looking, but that is mainly due to the lack of special effect technology and CGI. The actual alien creature was nicely done, although I think when they cut the ‘outer layer’ off the alien in captivity it could have been done better. In my opinion they should have made it look different than what typically comes to mind when you think of aliens; the big eyes and head, small body, etc.

The director, Robert Emmerich is probably best known for his box office flop 10,000 B.C. He does a respectable job with this film and hopefully will do an equally good job on his new endeavors, 2012 and Fantastic Voyage.

THE GOOD: Independence Day is a multi-layered film that is pleasant and engaging. Several stories are happening at one time and they are effectively intermingled so they all come together in the end. The film gives you the human perspective and allows the characters to develop naturally instead of feeling forced. By the end you come to know each of them enough that you care about what happens to them. I also liked the fact there was such a wide variety of characters. Some ‘invasion’ type movies only show the story from one point of view, like from the military point of view. This one has military characters as well, but also includes children, ordinary people, the President, scientists and all of their extended families. The film is not without humor either so it is not entirely serious from beginning to end.

THE BAD: There is not much I would consider bad about Independence Day. Certain parts of the script could have been written better thus giving the cast improved dialogue, but that is typical of most films. There are of course your ‘cheesy’ moments but not enough to be annoying. I personally would have liked to have seen more of the actual aliens because they were well done. I believe total ‘screen time’ for the aliens was about 15 minutes which is not a long time considering the length of the film, 145 minutes.

THE STORY(may contain spoilers): Alien space ships have taken strategic positions all over the world. Some think they are here peacefully but others think an attack is eminent. Once it is determined the aliens are hostile and several large cities are destroyed, we must formulate a plan to defeat them. A handful of surviving humans determined to save the human race from complete destruction must develop a counterattack before the aliens attack again.

EXTRAS: These are the extras on the ‘Five Star Collection’ ID4 DVD which you can tell are excellent when it comes to special features.

Special edition with nine minutes of restored footage, plus the original theatrical version

Anamorphic widescreen [aspect ratio 2.35:1] for both versions

Scene-specific commentary by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin

Commentary by Oscar-winning special effects supervisors Volker Engel and Doug Smith

Sound: English 5.1 Digital Surround; English Dolby Surround; French Dolby Surround

Subtitles: English, Spanish

"Creating Reality" 30-minute doc*mentary on the making of "ID4"

"ID4 Invasion" 22-minute alien invasion mockumentary

"HBO First Look: Independence Day" 33-minute featurette hosted by Jeff Goldblum

Original biplane ending sequence

Storyboards, original artwork, production stills

DVD-ROM game "Get Off My Planet"

DVD-ROM link to "ID4" online game: includes one free month of interactive access

Live online event

Theatrical trailers and TV spots

REPLAY VALUE: Independence Day has excellent replay value. It is a film you do not have to wait months to watch again in order for it to be entertaining. Every time I re-watch the movie, I am surprised by how much I still enjoy it.

BOTTOM LINE: Independence Day would be better appreciated on the big screen, but since that is not possible, I guess the television screen will have to do. I think a lot of people that gave the film bad reviews may have just taken it too seriously. It is terrific, fun entertainment that never gets boring. It is a long film, coming in at 145 minutes, but from beginning to end it is filled with action, emotion, humor and great storytelling.

Thanks for reading.