Watched on Blu-Ray (Extended Cut)

German director Roland Emmerich had already proven in 1994 with "Stargate" that he has a happy hand for sci-fi movies. Despite some flaws, he laid the foundation for an entire saga that was continued in several TV series. In his next film 2 years later, "Independence Day", he stayed true to the genre and once again delivered a megahit that went down in history as one of the biggest material battles of the 90s.

In the same style as Michael Bay in "Armageddon", Emmerich begins "Independence Day" with a detailed introduction of the various characters and their everyday lives. These turn out to be just as diverse as they are successful and are also appropriately cast. With a running time of 154 minutes in its Extended Cut, "Independence Day" has the opportunity to tell all the storylines cleanly, to bring them together and to show a corresponding development of the characters. But since so many storylines have to be told, this leads to an overlength and also to the fact that "Independence Day" progresses very slowly and loses much of the intensity it could have developed. However, it makes up for this with a good story that is told in a very balanced way by multiple characters from multiple perspectives.

Negative points can be found in the overlength, the many small production flaws - which I regularly have to smile about - and as usual with such disaster blockbusters, in the area of realism. The biggest blunders, however, can be found in the plot and the storywise almost cultishly ridiculous finale: "Let's load a virus into the mothership, that will turn off the shields!" A joke that has been parodied and quoted in countless films since. Another point that many - especially non-Americans - complained about is the almost penetrating patriotism, which gets on the nerves of even tolerant moviegoers in some places. Otherwise, "Independence Day" is clearly a disaster film on an epic scale, which even today has a timeless effect and visually delivers great material.

"Independence Day" is without question one of the greatest sci-fi spectacles of the 90s and deserves its place there. With well-cast and well-balanced characters, a story is told with spectacular images, which allows you to experience all emotions from total loss to the final counter-attack and offers a visually and action-wise just as spectacular, as intense finale. Funny dialogues and likeable actors round out the package. Despite some minus points in terms of patriotism and realism, "Independence Day" is great cinema that no sci-fi fan can afford to miss.