Directed by Roland Emmerich
Written by Roland Emmerich, Dean Devlin

Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Vivica A Fox, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Robert Loggia, Randy Quaid, Margaret Colin, James Rebhorn, Harvey Fierstein, Brent Spiner, Adam Baldwin, James Duvall, Lisa Jakub, Ross Bagley, Mae Whitman, Kiersten Warren, Giuseppe Andrews, Harry Connick Jr.

Aliens have come to Earth, and are lauching a full scale attack. They have set up dozens of “city sized” flying saucers – that have been sent from a mothership that is about a quarter the size of the moon. Several groups of people, including fighter pilot Smith, a satelite technician Goldblum, and his ex wife’s boss – The President of United States Pullman, come together in order to bring them down, and save mankind.

It had been many years since I last watched this, and so going in with a ‘reviewer’ brain I was expecting to be let down. But I was wrong, I really quite enjoyed it this time around. The action gets going very early – with multiple storylines taking place at once, and the eventual interconnection between them. Even at almost 2.5 hours, it feels exceptionally well paced.

What this does well, and sets itself apart from other movies in the same genre is the human element. The characters that are introduced are all so likeable, we desperately want them to succeed, and when some of them (spoiler) don’t make it, it is quite sad.

How some of these characters are interconnected, are at times somewhat cliched, and I wasn’t even annoyed at the forced emotion of this either.

The score from David Arnold is exceptional, and this is the first time I’ve come across him so far on my reviews.

In not only Roland Emmerich’s first of many disaster movies, this movie also paved the way for the ‘modern’ full scale destruction that we have come to love about these types of movies.

Aside from a few ‘plot armour’ moments for a few characters at moments within the film, the action stays almost constant. Some of it, is a little now.

One other part that sets this apart from other films is also the dialogue. President Pullman’s motivational speech will leave goose-bumps, and I’m not even American!

I enjoyed this even more this time around, and it still holds up today as an exceptional way to lead the world in the the full scale disaster film.

Followed by a less than average sequel 20 years later.

3.5/5

Image from Google Images