I think at the time ID4 was seen as a really dumb brainless action movie.... however since action movies have got a whole lot dumber since then... I think the Movie has actually been improved retrospectively. It does not overdo the disaster movie tropes to much the only bits that had me eye rolling was the scruffy guy in the caravan and his tedious family, and the president's cheesy speech... but like the codebreakers in TF2007 or the cave dancing in Matrix Reloaded those bits are easily spun past or chapter skipped to make a much better experience. A sequel might work..
The president's speech physically had the audience cheering when I went to see that movie opening day on the Fourth of July. It was awesome. It was a huge movie in it's day. I think most B movies and sci-fi movies tend to draw from that movie's usage of the military. I can count on one hand how many movies I've been to in my lifetime where the audience actually cheered at a scene like that. Cheesy it maybe was, but it was legendary at the time.
When I saw it, they cheered when the missles finally got through the shields & when the city destroyer started blowing up from the main weapon getting destoyed. Of course clapped when the credits started.
Ugh. Between endless remakes, remakes of remakes, reboots, reboots of reboots and this latest Hollywood trend of shoehorning in sequels to 10+ year old used-to-be-stand-alone movies, it's a wonder how we can possibly get excited about anything anymore.
Like Tyler, I loved Independence Day. It's a classic to me like Jurassic Park. The President's speech still gives me chills and is definitely a "hell yeah" moment of cinema comparable to Ripley finally killing the first Alien or the Avengers assembling. However, I don't really want a sequel. I know they'll screw it up.
Wait, what? Solid? They win by hacking an alien civilization's computer and giving it a virus. If you gave Anon a week and all the coffee they'd need, the entirety of them couldn't pull that off.
ID4 was one of those movies, that made us kids feel patriotic for America. Only we never were in America
Independence Day is a great popcorn movie that has so many awesome patriotic moments. It hasn't aged well in terms of special effects, but it is still a really fun action movie. I honestly don't want sequels. I don't think they can pull it off and it feels like too much.
To be fair it manages the amazing thing of getting iraquis, israelis and western folks getting along.
So if not Will Smith then who? perhaps this will end up a reboot rather than a sequel? Deadline Confirms Will Smith Has Officially Declined INDEPENDENCE DAY 2
Fox Gives INDEPENDENCE DAY 2 Green Light; Filming Begins In May "It’s a parallel history. Humans rebuild whatever they have – bigger, newer, shinier – and then they forget. 20 years later…" Wow.
Dean Devlin On INDEPENDENCE DAY 2, Will Smith & The STARGATE Reboot "Roland is back to direct." Now that Devlin and Emmerich are moving forward with Independence Day 2 that means their reboot of Stargate will have to be pushed back, but it'll probably be their next project. Devlin explained, “Unfortunately, we have to wait until we finish Independence Day for that. Roland wants to direct that one too. Hopefully we go into that right afterwards.” Regarding STARGATE, I just hope they bring back Richard Dean Anderson (MacGyver) as O'Neill and Christopher Judge as Teal'c. They were the best.
The sequel should feature some ground battles. Those were alluded to in the original, while Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum are flying about the alien command ship, and they see entire columns of aliens boarding what are clearly landing craft. THAT would have been a somewhat better third act than what was given, not that I love the movie any less. Battle: Los Angeles was the sort of thing I'd have liked to see from Independence Day in terms of ground battles. There's ground combat in the tie-in novel Independence Day: War in the Desert and the aliens themselves are expanded upon somewhat. It's a good read, though it's been long out of print. It would have made a good sequel, if it were turned into a movie.
I have to say, I'd rather them not reboot Stargate. The TV shows added a ton of lore to the franchise. Just make bigscreen further adventures of SG-1.
