A very belated movie review of 'Independence Day'

We have a tradition of watching Independence Day on the titular holiday. I saw it on the opening holiday weekend and loved it. I’m a sucker for disaster movies. I still remember the shocked gasps when people saw the Statue of Liberty toppled over and I still like when Will Smith punches the alien and yells “Welcome to Earth.” I have some other observations. I know it’s been 18 years but I’ve been busy.

If everyone’s talking about how hot it is in New York at the beginning, why are Judd Hirsch and everyone else wearing several layers of clothes? Instead of complaining about the heat, lose the cardigan. People always overdress for the heat in movies and TV. On every beach house scene on TV, people will be wearing sweaters. No one does this in real life.

The alcoholic pilot annoys me to no end. Can’t stand him. The charm of someone flying drunk and endangering not only himself but people on the ground escapes me. He and his desert family are incredibly aggravating characters, like the stupid, stupid kid who destroys his medication because he’s sick of taking it. Great work, moron.  

I like how Will Smith doesn’t notice the alien ship til it’s right on top of him.

Sorry; I can’t bring myself to care about any of the destruction in Los Angeles. In Washington, it’s upsetting because the aliens blow up the center of our government. In New York, they destroy a symbol of liberty and a piece of famous architecture. In LA, it’s … the Capitol Records building. Oh, please, no. Don’t destroy the big cylinder. (OK, I guess there were people in it.)  I only hope the Hollywood sign made it unscathed. I don’t know how America would ever come back from its destruction.

Is it me or does the first lady just kind of … die? It just seemed glossed over.

They mention going to Defcon 3 but don’t say if they’re coming from 2 or 4 so I can’t tell if they used the system correctly. It kills me when movies mention going to Defcon 5 as wartime. People on screen should cheer it. That means everyone is holding hands and swaying and singing about buying the world a Coke.

When the president addresses the troops right before the invasion, it’s a direct reference to the movie of one of Shakespeare’s plays. I forget which but it was a history play about one of the kings. The only reason I know that is because a few months before I saw the movie, I saw the Shakespeare movie in college. We studied the staging of the scene so I remembered it and Independence Day was shot exactly the same way.

Independence Day has the most depressing happy ending in history. “Yay! We defeated the aliens at the cost of only 4 billion lives!”