Friday 2 October 2015

Is Independence Day a comedy spoof?

I haven't seen it since I walked out of the theater disgusted in 1996, but I've recently been wondering if the movie Independence Day was intended to be a comedy.



I was 19 then, and I went to see Independence Day expecting a serious sci-fi-action movie. Perhaps I had been led on by the super-cool previews that showed the aliens blowing up key Earth landmarks. In any case, my fan-boy soul was pretty much crushed by the movie's sheer ridiculousness, including:



  • when Will Smith punched an alien and then got excited about it

  • how the plot hinged on a human computer being able to plug right in to the alien mainframe and upload "jollyroger.exe"

  • the shameless product placement surrounding that human computer

  • everything involving characters played by Brent Spiner and Randy Quaid

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I don't remember too many details, but I do remember thoroughly despising the movie, cursing its makers, and casting a dismissive eye on the many people who gushed about how cool it was.



But did I miss something? Was Independence Day intended to be a comedy -- a spoof of the sci-fi-action genre? Maybe the moments that made me cringe were meant to make me laugh? Anything out there on this?

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