I remember seeing this on opening night with my school rriends and this was an physically exhausting movie (in the BEST way). It started and never ended, and the effects blew us away. I think we will never get another movie experience like this again, as we see basically everything these days.
In the early 2000s, I bought a D-VHS player, and it was the first format to offer HD/1080i at home, before HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. They only released a handful of titles in the format, so the $1500 or so for the player didn't end up being a wise purchase, but of the movies available, Independence Day was one of them. It made the whole endeavour worth it at the time!! Was kinda disappointed with the 4K release, but I think the reason the quality is a bit iffy, is that there was a ton of miniature work and digital compositing to build shots. They couldn't always go back to a pristine negative, like you can when the entire frame was captured in-camera, rather than built from individual elements and combined using digital compositing.
After hearing Siskel & Ebert trash the movie, I made no effort to see this in theaters. While picking up some items in Sears one day, I saw the display and said what the hay & picked the VHS. Very happily surprised at how entertaining this was. I have since upgraded this to blu-ray. Emmerich & Devlin got their revenge I guess by making Gene & Roger characters in Godzilla( Mayor Ebert & his assistant Gene). Also I I think this was one of the biggest films that year.
Bought this today. Its not amazing but a step up from the normal bluray. Some of the scenes look good some of them due to the age and old special effects are passable but glad I got it.
Hi Adam I had the blu-ray copy of Independence Day for a long time and when I heard the 20th Anniversary Edition was heading to 4K I went out and found it. I’ve always enjoyed this movie like you said it’s a good popcorn movie but I really enjoyed it ever since I got my Home Theatre. Great review keep up the good work.
Great review,I wish they would release an updated cgi version of independence day,some of the cgi hasn't aged well,but still one of my top 20 movies though.
Actually, they used very little CGI in Independence Day, in favour of miniatures, matte paintings, and practical effects. Digital compositing was heavily used, but the elements used to build those shots were not computer generated. Some of the beams of light, force fields, and far-away jets were CGI, but were talking only a few minutes in the whole film.
If you want a lot more depth, check out Roland Emerich's NEXT movie, The Patriot, his Revolutionary War epic, starring Mel Gibson, perfect for 4th of July!
Awesome video!! I can't watch 1080p blu ray's any more. They seem way too blurry. I guess i spoiled myself with too much 4k material. Can you make a video about people being sensitized to 4k movies where the 1080p stuff seem blurry and none watchable? That would be good.
Yeah, it's not blurry, just not as punchy. I still love my Alien movies on BR, including Prometheus and Covenant. The upscaling from my Sony player is unbelievable.
So maby a few kess extras on the 4k disk, o they could compress the movie a bitt less, or naybe let the 4k movie span to disks, foes it cost that much extreato oress an aditional disk ? Oh well this is a summer action so it might not be all important
As always great review, but I don't agree when you say you should be a little forgiving because it's an early release. 4K costs an arm and a leg, it should be the best it can be, no compromises. The reason 4K still hasn't caught the attention of the general public is the cost. At the very least they should deliver their absolute best for that price. I for one only buy the big action blockbusters and war movies on 4K (special effects need a good picture and sound to make it interesting), so seeing blocks in action scenes is unforgiveable to me.
