according to popular film opinion , a film's greatness is determined by time . take for example " casablanca . " great film , even today . it's still as powerful as it was when it came out and still as romantic and tragic . another example would be " star wars , " which had a very , very healthy box office gross despite the fact that we had all seen it about 3 billion times before . but as i rewatched " independence day " when it came out on video after being the number one hit of 1996 , i kinda felt like it wasn't as cool as when i had first seen it . i had liked it when i saw it the first time ( * * * was my original view ) and basically saw it as a good " escape film . " but when i rewatched it , i felt cheated . thus , the curse of the " event film . " " independence day " is like that kid who come out of nowhere and makes everybody happy at once ( except for a couple kids - the critics , in this situation ) . but after a while , this kid becomes annoying and you just wait for the next one . well , this kid is the " event film " in my little analogy . and when i rewatched " independence day , " not only did it not look cooler at all on the big screen , but i felt insulted the whole time . there are too many gaping craters in the plot and you just aren't sure if it's comedy or hokey drama . one scene , you'll see a hilariously nebbish scene between jeff goldblum and judd hirsch ; the next you'll see a bunch of military uptight guys walking around , saying corny lines . the worst is a scene between brent spiner and bill pullman where spiner is sayinig something innocently funny but is barked like a junkyard dog by bill pullman who gives him the most unitentionally funniest speech since the end of " glen or glenda ? " now this annoying kid's problem is that in the process of trying to make everyone like him all at once , he shows he has no balls . and " independence day " has no balls . it plays it safe everywhere . it throws in a ton of action that is borrowed from other superior films . the chase scene between the alien ship and will smith is straight out of " star wars . " i mean , isn't that devil's den ? and the aliens are about as anticlimactic as demi moore's breasts in " striptease . " they're these octopus men , boring freaking octopus men . i mean , come on . the aliens in " 2001 " were more interesting and you didn't even see them ! basically the plot is straight from a b-movie from the 50s : aliens come to earth and we wonder if they're hostile or peaceful . okay , it's an interesting topic , but it's not handled greatly . now they aren't and somehow a computer geek , jeff goldblum , figure out they're using our satellites as a countdown to destruction . yep . these aliens are not only heavily armed , they're stupid too . they also use the same kind of computer as we do , but that comes about later . the president ( bill pullman ) , who's under attack for being a wimp , decides this would be a nice time to be belligerent , and he decides he'll stay in the white house which the aliens have covered . i don't care if it's bob freaking dole in the white house , get him out of there . i don't care if you have to inject him with sodium pentathol , just get him out of there . later on , he's stupid and wants to fly in the attack on a big alien ship . i think it's time for impeachment for this guy . he's more senile than reagan on pot . then there's a cocky pilot ( will smith ) who is the only person to survive the counter-attack on the second day and becomes moses in leading his children to the elusive area 51 ( the film's only sign of being brave ) . his girlfriend's a stripper sharing a subplot with " striptease " in that she has to do it for her son . come on , she has a fighter pilot boyfriend/soon-to-be fiance . i think she can quit that job and get a more respectable job at long john silvers . she's also the few , the proud , the lucky to survive the igniting of l . a . ( as well as her dog , who narrowly survives ) . there are some bright spots . they tossed in enough old film homages to keep me laughing . the best one is when jeff goldblum ( nicely named david ) turns on his computer and a picture of hal comes up and says , " good morning , dave . " and they even played r . e . m . 's " it's the end of the world as we know it ( and i feel fine ) at the beginning . and judd hirsch steals the film by actually acting great ( he's a stereotype , but i just loved the man anyway ) . but there are no real subtle comic moments . will gets way too many one-liners and he has no one to play off of ( execept jeff towards the end , and the two do great ) . as i said , this film has no balls . it is just aiming for a crowd pleaser and that's what it is . but after a couple months , we all move on to the next " event " film while intaking little films and a couple indy ones for good measure . but at least the indy ones last for a lifetime . this one's short on batteries .
