Review of Independence Day

Introduction

Earth is in peril. Huge alien motherships have positioned themselves above every major capital city on the planet. Do they come in peace? Do they hell. They want our planet and wish to destroy every living thing on it. Earth seems doomed, but there is one hope. A rag-tag group of Vietnam vets, volunteers, air force pilots and even the US President take to the skies to eliminate this threat to Earth`s survival...

This impressive-looking double-DVD package contains one of the most successful films ever made. Taking in excess of $50 million in its first weekend in US theatres, it has taken the disaster movie genre to new heights. This Collectors Edition set includes two versions of the film; the original theatrical release, and a Special Edition cut that contains an extra 9 minutes of newly restored footage (both versions are included on disk 1 of the set). All the special features are to be found on disk 2.

Starring the inimitable Will Smith as our hero, it is a rollercoaster-ride of CG imagery, big explosions and some really corny scripting. But taken as it was intended; a fun-filled Saturday-night popcorn movie, it really can`t be bettered. Basically, don`t think of owning this disk (not even for one night) if your bag is intelligent acting, a tightly-woven plot or subtle photography. This is true wham-bam-thankyou-mam fun. I mean, where else could you expect to see the President of the USA take to the skies as a heroic fighter pilot, ready to do battle with evil, goggly-eyed space aliens? Just trying to picture good ol` Billy Clinton in an anti-grav suit and helmet had me giggling to myself.

Let`s take a look at the DVD`s themselves.

Video

We are treated to state-of-the-art encoding and an anamorphic 2.35 transfer. This is true reference-quality material and is a great showcase for the DVD format. I guarantee that this will be one title that you will use to showoff to your friends. There are no defects, compression problems or artifacting - just an incredibly clean image from the original print. Blacks are deep and well defined with no sign of bleeding and no contrast problems. The colours are fantastic, with extremely accurate hues - just take a look at the indoor shots of the alien spaceship. I found no evidence of colour bleeding or banding. The small amount of noise noticed is most probably due to the type of special effects utilised and is of insignificance to the overall experience.

Basically then, full marks to Fox for this transfer. They have done this flagship title proud and have set a benchmark for their other titles.

Now, how does the audio fair when compared to the fabulous visuals?

Audio

Dolby Digital 5.1 is utilised with great effect in this movie. Real gut-busting bass, powerful surround effects and vivid vocals combine to make this as involving as the eye-candy. Surround is used to great effect, for example, in the scene where the house collapses - close your eyes and listen to the debris falling around you. You`ll be cowering under your coffee table before you realise it!

The musical score is more than a match to the sound effects and creates an atmosphere of impending doom that is well suited to the action on-screen. Again, the DD5.1 mix is well implemented and surrounds the viewer with sonic imagery. There is also a Dolby Surround track that, although obviously not as impressive as its 5.1 cousin, is still involving and spacious (pardon the pun).

Again, top marks for the audio element. Can this disk get any better?

Features

With two DVD`s to fill, the scope for extra features is immense. Here, they do not disappoint.

Commentary tracks are either good or, more commonly, very bad. The ones included here are both, thankfully, of a good standard. The first includes the producer, Dean Devlin and the director/writer/executive producer Roland Emmerich. This is an involving track and offers the viewer information on what we see on-screen as well as what happened during the initial shoot. The flow is good, there`s never really a dull moment and it stands up well to repeated listening.
The second is more concerned with the visual components of the film and includes comments from the two special effects supervisors. Due to the film`s complex visual nature, their commentary can be slightly `heavy` but remains easy-to-follow with good pace. It is always interesting to hear how such complex scenes are constructed and this commentary adds much to the overall appreciation of the effects in this film.

Both these commentaries are squeezed onto disk 1. "What`s on the second?" I hear you ask?

Well, firstly we have an "HBO First Look: The Making of ID4" documentary. Headed by Jeff Goldblum, it`s an entertaining and fun piece that takes a look behind the scenes during production and is well worth a viewing. Next is a 22-minute ‘mokumentary’ (their phrase, not mine) entitled "ID4 Invasion". This pseudo-documentary even has fake newsreaders and is brilliant fun. It ends up with a brief introduction to he film and a quick look at its production.

Next up is a massive stills gallery. I spent ages working my way through the seemingly endless pictures on offer here. They vary in quality and detail and cover all aspects of the film`s production. For instance, there are over 100 sketches of the original alien spaceship design to plow through! Several storyboard sequences are included and make interesting viewing, if only to see how the end result differed from the artist`s initial designs.

The features on disk 2 also contain quite a collection of trailers - teaser trailers, theatrical trailers and TV spots. There are also some alternative endings to enjoy.

But the best feature of all, in my opinion, is the 30-minute feature "Creating Reality". Fans of special effects technology start rejoicing now, as this is a thrilling look at how the film`s many spectacular effects were created. It has feature stops that allow the viewer to select certain chapter segments and has comments from the key effects supervisors. It contains information on the film`s models, details on the CG wizardry used and shows how the spectacular White House destruction scene was created (in detail). Great stuff!

Finally (phew!), we have some DVD-ROM only features that are pretty throwaway but do include a “Get Off My Planet” game and a web link to the on-line "ID4" game (one month’s free access included).

Conclusion

This must rank as one of the best DVD releases, ever. I was impressed initially by the features list on the box and then more so when I saw the images on my TV. And then once again when the DD5.1 soundtrack kicked-in. This is a real must-have DVD and comes highly recommended (even if you didn`t initially rate the film in its theatrical and VHS incarnations).

Right, that`s the review done. I`m off to watch the White House go boom again (in slow-mo of course!).