Rating (1 to 10) : 4
Summary: A ragtag group, from a dust-cropper pilot to a cable technician to the President of the US, find a way to defeat a race of aliens bent on conquering Earth.
The summer is here and with it comes a movie that is all
eye-candy and nothing more. This movie
is just the kind, a nice special effects movie, simple, easy, but not much
entertainment except for the special effects.
Unfortunately, this story lacks originality as it has borrowed from the
"War of the Worlds" story, where aliens invade Earth and get stopped
by a virus (in this case, a computer virus).
David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum, Michael in “The Big
Chill”) is a cable-TV technician/whiz who can troubleshoot anything. The aliens, in their giant spaceships,
appear and hover in Earth’s orbit. No
attempt at contact by the Earthlings is replied to. Yet, the world satellites
seem to be malfunctioning as TV transmissions are becoming garbled. David looks into it and discovers that the
TV satellites are being used by the aliens to transmit a countdown signal.
He tries to warn everybody, including the President of the
US Whitmore (Bill Pullman) about the imminent danger, and with the help of his
former fiancée, who happens to be an aide in the White House, the warning is
given in tie to evacuate the President to Area 51, where unbeknownst to him,
evidence of alien life has been known but covered up. Just after he leaves DC,
the city is blown up. There is a spectacular shot of the White House being
blown up to bits as an alien ship sends down a huge particle-beam ray of some
kind on it.
American pilots, as exemplified by Steven Hiller (Will Smith) can't destroy the
alien ships because of their force field. A nuclear weapon is used but to no
avail. A captured alien says that negotiation is not possible and the aliens
won't stop until all humans are liquidated.
David Levinson finds a way to stop the aliens though. A computer virus that will disable the shields of the alien ships
is created. So he and Hiller fly a
captured alien ship to the mother ship to implant the virus. Action footage follows as they are chased.
And in one moment of bad acting, the President of the US gives a cheesy speech
about July 4th being an Independence Day for the world -- it was uninspiring to
say the least.
But in the end, the humans win and the aliens are destroyed.
There are heroes like Russell Casse (Randy Quaid), the kooky crop-duster, who
sacrifices himself to destroy the alien ship, but that kind of sacrifice comes
off as hokey and hardly a moving sentiment.
This movie certainly wasn’t made to show off acting talent.
The strength of this movie is the special effects and not much else. The plot
is pretty much like the book/movie WAR OF THE WORLDS, along with
ideas borrowed from the TV series “V”. The actors are not very good and
when required to be dramatic, fail. Bill Pullman is not convincing in parts
that require some emotion ... he can't even look remorseful when his wife dies.
There are some great FX scenes though - topped by the Empire State Building
exploding. An overview shot of a destructive wave emanating out from a Ground
Zero is much like a similar shot of a nuclear explosion in "Terminator
2".
All in all, an OK movie. Like "Jurassic Park", another movie
that Jeff Goldblum was in, it's all special effects and not much more.