'Independence Day: 20th Anniversary Edition" Blu-ray review

(C) 2016 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Director Roland Emmerich’s 1996 alien invasion film “Independence Day” is a high tech retread of 1950s-era movies such as “The War of the Worlds” and “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers.” Co-written by Emmerich with his long-time collaborator Dean Devlin, “Independence Day” pits a motley crew of characters led by Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Will Smith, and Randy Quaid against a horde of spacefaring aliens and their armada of enormous flying saucers.

Set in the late 1990s, “Independence Day” (or “ID4”) takes place between July 2 and July 4. The Cold War is over, and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq has been defeated in Operation Desert Storm. With America’s national holiday coming up, much of the U.S. military is on leave, and everyone is getting ready for barbecues, fireworks, and rowdy Fourth of July parties.

But out in space, trouble looms as a gigantic flying saucer – described by an alarmed scientist as being “one fourth the size of the Moon” – flies ponderously toward our unsuspecting blue planet. Unlike the benevolent spacefaring aliens of Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” the crew of this enormous UFO “mothership” isn’t visiting Earth to establish a friendly relationship with humanity. Its mission is to conquer the planet and exterminate our species.

As the befuddled American defense establishment (personified here by James Rebhorn’s Secretary of Defense Nimziki and Robert Loggia’s Gen. William Grey) tries to figure out what’s going on, the mothership deploys an armada of 15-mile-wide saucers which station themselves over the world’s largest cities. The aliens don’t bother trying to communicate with us, thus leading President Thomas Whitmore (Pullman) to hope that their intentions are peaceful.

And just as in those cheesy 1950s “invasion from space” flicks, the only one who figures out what is going on is the Nerdy Scientist, David Levinson (Goldblum). Levinson is a brilliant MIT graduate with a computer science degree. A diehard environmentalist, he works as a satellite tech for a New York City cable company. Using his Apple Macintosh laptop, David discovers an alien signal that ominously heralds a countdown of some sort.

Meanwhile, out West, ex-Vietnam War fighter pilot Russ Casse (Quaid) and Captain Steven Hiller (Smith) are each coming to grips with the newcomers. For Russ, a widowed crop duster with a drinking problem, the UFOs stir up memories of his abduction by aliens 10 years earlier. For F/A-18 pilot Hiller, the arrival of the E.T.s is an unwelcome interruption of his holiday leave from the Marines.

All of these characters’ story arcs will converge after the inevitable alien attack that destroys at least 30 major world cities. And in the tradition of the 1950s “invaders from space” movies that “Independence Day” takes its cues from, the initial score is: Aliens 1, Earth Defenders 0.

Jimmy: You scared, man?

Steven: No. You?

Jimmy: Nope. [pauses] Hold me.

Steven: Hey, pay attention.

Colonel: Something you wanna add to this briefing, Captain Hiller?

Steven: No, sir. I'm just a little anxious to get up there and whup E.T.'s ass. That's all.

[everyone else laughs in agreement]

Colonel: And you'll get your chance. You'll all get your chance. Good hunting. Dismissed!

Jimmy: Let's kick the tires and light the fires, big daddy!

Unlike Spielberg’s gentler examination of the “we are not alone in the Universe” concept, “Independence Day” is not a movie about ideas of deep cosmic import. Its science is, like that of many Hollywood space epics, iffy. (Wouldn’t a giant UFO one quarter the size of the Moon affect Earth tides?) The aliens’ tactical choices are also questionable: Why do the big flying saucers have to hover so low over their target cities to use their updated version of H.G. Wells’ heat ray from “War of the Worlds”?

Emmerich and Devlin aren’t interested in these bits of plot nitpicking, however. They want to dazzle the audience with spectacular images of the White House and Empire State Building being blown up. They also want to show fast-paced (if perhaps unrealistic) dogfights between advanced alien Starfighters and overmatched and technologically inferior jet fighter planes. “Independence Day,” after all, is a summer action movie without pretense or hidden moral messages other than perhaps “we all share the same planet, let’s save it.” It’s a fun movie, plain and simple, full of sound, fury, and droll one-liners from Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith.

President Thomas Whitmore: Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. "Mankind." That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night!" We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!

The Blu-ray – “I have got to get me one of these!”

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has released “Independence Day” several times on DVD and Blu-ray disc (BD) over the past few years. The latest BD release is a two-disc 20th Anniversary box set that presents the film in two versions – the original theatrical edition and the extended version that restores material that was cut to appease the running time gods.

Although sometimes these “extended versions” don’t add anything meaningful to the overall viewing experience, in this case, the restored scenes help flesh out some of the film’s characters and fill in a few plot holes.

Released several weeks before the premiere of “Independence Day – Resurgence,” the 2016 20th Anniversary set comes loaded with extras that were absent in Fox’s 2007 single disc Blu-ray edition. In addition to carryover features from the DVD and earlier BD releases, the new version of “Independence Day” offers new extras, such as a new making-of documentary, theatrical trailers and TV spots for “ID4,” and even simulated news reports about the alien invasion used in the film itself. There’s even a theatrical trailer for “Independence Day – Resurgence.”

Okay, so “Independence Day” is not in the same league as, say, “E.T.: The Extraterrestrial” or its thematic cousin “The War of the Worlds,” both by Steven Spielberg. It’s corny, unrealistic, and has an ending that viewers can see coming from a light-year away. Its characters are thinly developed and the plot has holes that one can fly a Death Star through.

It matters not. Devlin and Emmerich aren’t here to reinvent the summer blockbuster or appeal to the snooty “cinemaphiles” that look dismissively down at movies such as “ID4” that are made to let viewers escape from the grim realities of life – at least for two hours. Sure, “Independence Day” is silly at times.

But it’s also fun!

The Extras:

Disc One:

• Audio Commentary: Director Roland Emmerich and Producer Dean Devlin.

• Audio Commentary: VFX Supervisors Volker Engel and Doug Smith.

• ID4 Datastream Trivia Track (Theatrical Version Only)

• Independence Day: Resurgence Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2:07).

Disc Two:

• Independence Day: A Legacy Surging Forward (HD, 30:40)

• Original Theatrical Ending (SD, 4:16)

• Gag Reel (SD, 2:05).

• Creating Reality (SD, 29:19)

• ID4 Invasion (SD, 21:57)

• The Making of ID4 (SD, 28:29)

• Combat Review (Random Destruction Clips) (HD)

• Monitor Earth Broadcasts (Video Playback Newscasts) (SD): News clips created for the film. Included are Static Report (1:35), Blue Acolytes (0:44), Sky News Russian(3:05), Team 1 Russian (3:46), Vox News Germany (0:47), Katja Scholl, Berlin (2:45),Farsi Report (2:52), Fields/Dunphy (2:54), Press Conference 1(2:05), Press Conference 2 (1:38), Chinese Broadcast (1:40), Post-Conference (1:00), Engel on Fox (2:44),Hal Live: Modelmaker (2:48), Traffic Report (1:30), Russell Casse Arrest (1:58), U.N. Report (2:30),Alien Lovers (1:07), Rooftop Parties (0:35), Fields/Engel Debate (3:40), Welcome Wagon Report 1 (4:35), and Welcome Wagon Report 2 (4:40).

• Gallery (HD): Still images. Included are Welcome Wagon Storyboard Sequences,Destruction Storyboard Sequences, Biplane Ending Storyboard Sequences, Alien Beings Conceptual Artwork, Alien Ships Conceptual Artwork, Sets and Props Conceptual Artwork, and Production Photographs.

• Teaser Trailers (SD): Included are Teaser Trailer 1 (1:09), Teaser Trailer 2 (1:33), andTeaser Trailer 3(2:26).

• Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2:30).

• TV Spots (SD): Super Bowl TV Spot (0:32), Apple Computer TV Spot (0:32), 15-Second TV Spot (0:17), 30-Second TV Spot 1 (0:31), 30-Second TV Spot 2 (0:30), 30-Second TV Spot 3 (0:31), 30-Second TV Spot 4(0:31), and 30-Second TV Spot 5 (0:31).