I love post-apocalyptic movies; I love movies that show earth-shattering events happening, and what happens during and after these events. I wanted to love “Independence Day,” but it is just so fricking clichéd and hackneyed that I can hardly watch it (even though I do, every couple of years or so). I think I keep hoping that it will be better than I remember every time I watch it.
So, keeping the premise the same (vastly overpowering alien invasion strikes the earth unexpectedly), what would you change to make it a better movie?
Independence Day, like Die Hard, is the absolute best of its breed. Alien-invasion action/adventures don’t get much better.
Of course, it’s an inherently ridiculous genre, so the pinnacle of its achievement will necessarily be inherently ridiculous. And ID4 is that. And that’s OK, because it’s more fun than a pig in shit.
Are you kidding? This movie wallows in cliches with the delight of a dog wriggling itself all over a dead fish. It marinates itself in cliches the way Bobby Flay soaks a strip steak in a bowl of fruity wine. Independence Day puts the lotion on its cliches, or else it gets the hose again.
For this reason it is one of the perfectest movies of all time.
I’d insert the deleted scene where they actually explained the whole Mac thing. Its still unbelievable, but less so when the scene tells you that much of modern technology was taken from the Roswell ship. And actual nudity in the stripping scenes.
I love this movie. But maybe it’s because I first saw it at a drive in and got a huge laugh at the scene where the drive in gets destroyed by remarking to my friends “How postmodern.” I felt really goddam witty.
Anyway like people above I think this movie is perfect in its being exactly what it is. Dumb and Dumber has the same quality. If you don’t ask anything more than it has to give it is a perfectly delightful, engaging, fun movie that will steal away a couple hours of your life on a Sunday afternoon. Really what more do you want?
I don’t know if it could be bettered; it’s everything I dislike in movies and I love it. Maybe more Bill Murray as it’s been scientifically proven that adding Bill Murray makes a film 10% better.
