Independence Day 12 Years Later
A mini review of the movie, Independence Day, (iD4) — and a look at its implications.
Recently, I was at a loss for what to watch during the evening. I had gone through all the new videos, so I had to resort to picking something that I’d already watched. Independence Day, (iD4) caught my eye and since it had been quite awhile since I had watched it, I decided why not.
I must say, that I thought that Independence Day held up really well. It’s been almost 12 years since it was released. It was released in the summer of 1996. Here in Canada it came out on July 2nd, 1996. Which is interesting because that’s when the movie begins; on the 2nd.
The tagline for Independence Day has always captured my imagination: “We’ve always believed we weren’t alone. Pretty soon, we’ll wish we were.”
That tagline also basically sums up my general thoughts or beliefs about aliens in general. I truly don’t think that we wouldn’t actually want to meet the vast majority of aliens that are probably out there. At least, I don’t think I would. I don’t believe that they would benefit us and I don’t think that most of them have benevolent intentions.
Every time I watch Independence Day and this time was no exception, I can’t help but think that one of the goals of this movie is to prepare the general public’s minds to accept the fact that aliens do indeed exist and that there’s some darn right nasty ones out there that are bent on taking over and/or wiping out planet earth and its peoples — Preparing people for the inevitable encounter and battle. A little bit on the conspiracy side I guess but a theory that just doesn’t go away the more I read and watch.
Another thing that struck me was the part in the movie about Area 51 and the activities that go on there. The scene where President Thomas J. Whitmore, (Bill Pullman) questions the eccentric Dr. Brackish Okun, (Brent Spiner) about whether or not he and his scientists actually know anything about the aliens and their technologies is kind of revealing to me.
Here it was, 49 years after the Roswell Crash and although they knew ‘loads of stuff’ about the aliens and their technology and were still actively working on things, there was still a huge gap in their knowledge about it all.
If indeed there was an alien UFO crash in Roswell in 1947 then I think it’s quite probable that the general scenario put forward by the movie is quite true. For over 60 years scientists and industry possibly has had access to alien technology and yet what they know and what they’ve discovered is probably only a drop in the bucket of what they could and possibly, should know.
In the end though, Independence Day is a sci-fi adventure film and a darn good one at that. A highly recommended video if you want to watch a good alien invasion type movie.
Featured Actors/Stars: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Robert Loggia, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Randy Quaid, Harvey Fierstein, and Brent Spiner.
Directed by: Roland Emmerich.
