Guilty Pleasures: Independence Day

Guilt-Free Enjoyment of Sci-Fi Flicks ID4 and Starship Troopers

Sep 22, 2008

Independence Day and Starship Troopers: some will say these movies are little more than box-office fluff. But these "guilty pleasures" can be enjoyed, if you know why.

Of all film genres, most guilty pleasures seem to come from the Sci-Fi genre. When you give directors a big budget and a handful of well-know actors, they think that they can do no wrong. Often, their first mistake is that very thought. The result is a film that, while not exuding the same level of awful as a classic turkey such as Plan 9 From Outer Space, still manages to catch the universal ire of the critical circles. Yet, these movies will often end up making mega-bucks at the box office. And some, not. But there is something about these films that make fans pop the DVDs in or flip over to the movie networks when they are on, and watch with more enjoyment than any critically-acclaimed indie flick ever could.

Mega-star Will Smith's first semi-serious turn after his stint as the Fresh Prince, Independence Day joins the ranks of films that share one ominous characteristic: they've destroyed New York. But creative team Devlin and Emmerich went one further with their alien-invasion opus: they destroyed Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Houston, and countless other major cities around the globe.

But it's not the massive destruction that qualifies this movie for "guilty pleasure" status. Nor is it the brief appearance of a post-The Next Generation Brint Spiner as an Area 51 scientist who doesn't get out much. What makes this film a joy to watch is Jeff Golblum as neurotic genius scientist-turned-cable technician Jeff Goldblum... I mean David Levinson. There's something about watching Goldblum bumble his way through the entire film that makes you wonder, did they have to use the first take for all of his scenes? But it's that exact quality that makes Goldblum's characters so likable. If you're not rooting for him by the end of the film, then you've probably seen Earth Girls Are Easy one too many times.

"Join the Mobile Infantry and save the Galaxy. Service guarantees citizenship." With PR like that, who wouldn't want to join up and fight a race of warrior bugs bent on destroying every living human in the known galaxy?

Starship Troopers had all the trappings of a blockbuster: cutting-edge CGI, up-and-coming stars in Casper Van Dien and Denise Richards, and a holiday-season release. But gratuitous violence-master Verhoeven and screenwriter Edward Neumeier made two fatal errors when adapting Robert A. Heinlein's classic novel for the big screen: they completely ignored ninety-percent of the novel, and they left out the power armor. These two misteps turned away two important demographics, namely the critics and fans of the novel. The movie was turned into "90210 in space with bugs." Even the presence of sci-fi staple Michael Ironside couldn't save the film from a bloody death.

• Big guns, big expolsions, and flying body parts (both bug and human)? Check.

Throw in everybody's favorite kid-genius Neil Patrick Harris, and you've got 129 minutes of pure fun. They're doing their part, are you?

The copyright of the article Guilty Pleasures: Independence Day in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Films is owned by Marcus Albers. Permission to republish Guilty Pleasures: Independence Day in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.