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List Price: $26.98 | | Label: 20th Century Fox
Salesrank: 18853
Released: September 23, 2003 |
| Our Price: $19.28 |
| Used Price: $9.78 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
One of the biggest box office hits of all time delivers the ultimate encounter when mysterious and powerful aliens launch an all-out invasion against the human race. The spectacle begins when massive spaceships appear in Earth's skies. But wonder turns to terror as the ships blast destructive beams of fire down on cities all over the planet. Now the world's only hope lies with a determinded band of survivors, uniting for one last strike against the invaders - before it's the end of all mankind.
Description of Independence Day (Two-Disc Collector's Edition):
In Independence Day, a scientist played by Jeff Goldblum once actually had a fistfight with a man (Bill Pullman) who is now president of the United States. That same president, late in the film, personally flies a jet fighter to deliver a payload of missiles against an attack by extraterrestrials. Independence Day is the kind of movie so giddy with its own outrageousness that one doesn't even blink at such howlers in the plot. Directed by Roland Emmerich, Independence Day is a pastiche of conventions from flying-saucer movies from the 1940s and 1950s, replete with icky monsters and bizarre coincidences that create convenient shortcuts in the story. (Such as the way the girlfriend of one of the film's heroes--played by Will Smith--just happens to run across the president's injured wife, who are then both rescued by Smith's character who somehow runs across them in alien-ravaged Los Angeles County.) The movie is just sheer fun, aided by a cast that knows how to balance the retro requirements of the genre with a more contemporary feel. --Tom Keogh
Independence Day (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) Reviews:
Theater release -- not director's cut 
2009-12-09 - Independence Day is pretty much a perfect example of a "Summer Blockbuster" done exceedingly well. Sit back and enjoy very well done entertainment. The one caveat on this particular BluRay release is that it's the Theatrical Release and _not_ the Director's Cut. That's a big disappointment because the Director's Cut was significantly better in terms of providing lots of little vignettes which deepened that standard Summer Blockbuster story line. Hopefully they'll eventually release the Director's Cut on BluRay.
A grossly overrated pile of pointless drivel 
2009-12-07 - The most positive aspect of the movie was the fight scenes. I have to say that the fight scenes were very well done, and I actually found them preferable to the space fights in the newer Star Wars movies which are famous for their special effects. There was an element of believability in the Air Force vs. Aliens which minimized the need for suspended disbelief. Another strong point in the movie was the way they depicted the reactions and mass hysteria to the aliens hovering over the cities. The looting, and the congestion due to a disorderly panic induced exodus was a very believable and realistic reaction. Finally, the blasting away of those alien worshiping hippie types was a nice touch, which also added realism. My beliefs about aliens notwithstanding, if a group of aliens came to earth in a conspicuous fashion, no matter how menacing, twisted, or downright evil they appeared there would certainly be groups of hippies coming out with the "take us with you" blather.
Now for the weak points... To make for easier reading I am going to divide the negative elements into subsections.
The Plot:
The best way I could describe the movie, is that it was like a comedy or spoof with all the humorous elements taken out. I did not laugh once throughout the entire thing. I have never cared much for Jeff Goldbloom, never found him funny, and Will Smith is usually funny, but not in this movie. The humor, like every other attempt to generate an emotional reaction from me, was forced. The plot is simplistic and dry. The story is that a hostile civilization is coming to earth to eliminate humanity and drain all of earth's resources. The aliens go to a planet, use up all the resources, then move on and repeat the process elsewhere. They begin by destroying some major cities, and then they reposition themselves to destroy more. They can't be stopped because they have forcefields, but fortunately Jeff Goldblooms character manages to create a virus to sabotauge their computers, they upload it, and then they blow up all the aliens. That is the plot, a simple story which could be wrapped up in less than an hour. Instead, they choose to prolong it, and they way they do so is by adding lots of characters and showing how they all react to the crisis, which amounts to many long protracted scenes of boring pointless dialogue. One thing that was never addressed is what sort of resources the aliens were after. Are they after material resources or energy resources, or both. If all they are after is ore and building materials they could find that anywhere, there is no reason for them to go to earth or any other inhabitable planet for that. If they are looking for an environment to grow crops and raise livestock (food production), then they would need a habitable planet, but the resources involved in that are renewable, so there would be no need for them to continue migrating unless they are either explorers or migrating to compensate for a growing population. If they were looking for habitable worlds to compensate for a growing population then that would actually make sense, and it would allow the aliens to be a continual threat even if the humans won because they are in the business of colonizing. Instead what they have is an enormous plot hole which probably exists for the purpose of getting across some environmentalist message.
The Characters:
I did not identify with a single one of the characters, nor did I particularly care about any of them. Having lots of characters does not work for a movie. For a movie it is ideal to have about two or three main characters, plus a few ancillary characters. The reason for this is that in order to generate concern or an interest in the characters there has to be character development. It takes time to develop characters, and the more characters there are the less time there is for development. I did not care whether Will Smith or Jeff Goldblooms characters got blown up with the alien space ship or survived. I also did not care if Will Smith's stripper girlfriend survived, nor was I in any way moved by their wedding. They interjected that wedding as time filler, why not just have them be married at the onset of the movie, and give her some other occupation besides being a stripper? Then they would not have had to waste time with a wedding. The only time having lots of characters works well, is when you have a TV series. A TV series offers more time to properly develop the characters and build up concern for them on the part of the viewer. The proper way to develop characters is to show them working together, interacting, solving a variety of problems over an appropriate time span (as opposed to cramming a lot into a short period), and gradually making their nuances evident over time. In the first episode of Battlestar Galactica I did not care if any of the characters died, and some of them I actually hoped would die, but as the series progressed and the characters interacted with one another, faced different problems and overcame them, and as background information was added at moments where it was immediately pertinent, I came to care about the characters. In Independence day it was as if they said, "here are a bunch of characters, you don't know anything about them but you should care about them and their plight..." Well, I don't. I did not care at all when the presidents wife died, she was just there. They added her in and gave her a death scene to add drama and create an emotional stir, but I had no connection to the character because of the complete lack of development, and I didn't watch that movie for drama I watched it because I wanted to see a good story plus some cool fight scenes. There were parts of the movie were I considered fasting forward through the lame drama and boring speeches to get on to the scenes where something is actually happening.
The Aliens:
The design of the aliens was highly unoriginal and cliche. They basically took the stereotypical alien design, and added a large useless protuberance at the back of the head. Maybe they tinkered around with the geometry of the limbs, but it was hard to tell because the only full body shots of the aliens were the ragged remains of the crash victims. But regardless of that, the same overused cliche of the grossly disproportionate head relative to their bodies. They also have the same overused, repulsive, demonic, stereotypical and cliche "alien" face. I put "alien" in quotations because I do not at all believe that the stereotypical "alien" face is what aliens would be like if they existed in real life. On the surface, I would say the grossly enlarged head relative to the body is based off of evolutionism, which has often taught that brain size, and consequentially head size, will increase in the future as it has allegedly increased in the past. However, I also say that the features are demonic because there are ancient cultures which have used those features to represent evil spirits. The fact of the matter is, it's overused, it's ugly, it's unoriginal, and it's a poor design.
The structure of the aliens is a poor design because there is no way they could walk. The size of the necks could not support the weight of their grossly misproportioned head. And the large pointless protuberance only exasperates the problem. It is true that the tricerotops had a large bony protuberance emanating from the back of the skull, but that animal had a much larger body and thicker neck. To hold up a head that size and to be able to turn it would require a much thicker more muscular neck. The people who "designed" the aliens could argue that the aliens typically operate in low to zero G settings normally, except that given that an abrupt turn could easily result in a snapped neck. It's a poor design, and it's unoriginal. It is also insulting to my intelligence that they expect I would buy into the notion that such an absurd and poorly designed creature could even walk.
The Message?:
There is a question mark because I am not 100% certain that this movie even had a message, but most movies usually do and there were some elements that could be inferred as messages. What I saw in this movie was a makeshift one world government formed, and it appeared to me as though one world government was being touted as a good thing. I am 100% opposed to one world government, and I do not particularly care for propaganda which advocates that in any form. When the president was giving his speech about a world "independence day" it almost initiated a gag reflex in me. In real life a one world government will inevitably lead to a regime worse than Hitler, with the added bonus of having no place to flee to. I am very leery of anyone or anything which so much as appears to advocating a one world government. Generally people who advocate a one world government hate freedom.
Conclusion:
This movie is not worth the time, it's a complete waste. If you feel that you just HAVE to know about it because of peer pressure, then just read my synopsis and watch the fight scenes. Skip over everything in between because it is slow, boring, pointless time filler.
Independence Day 
2009-11-30 - Great Movie. I have it in vhs and have always wanted it in Blu-Ray. It will look awesome.
Great movie Freedom will Live
2009-11-19 - This was a great movie when I first saw it and now with what is going on in our country I think everyone should view it. It shows America is willing to fight for the right to be free. It is also humorous. Will Smith and Jeff Goldbloom do a great job.
About time
2009-10-17 - I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS FOREVER!!!! Have you ever watched a movie and swear that there are scenes missing? It is soooo frustrating. Everytime I watched my Independence Day movie that was what would happen and then I found this edition and was like HA! Told you! This edition has a seperate edition in it that has extra footage/scenes. It is soooooo much better than the origional boring version! (well it's only boring compared to this but yeah) If you are going to invest in this movie then I urge you to get this version because it is 100xs better.
