Product Description

Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Randy Quaid, Robert Loggia, Mary McConnellDirector: Roland Emmerich

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3645 in DVD
• Brand: Blu-ray Science Fiction
• Released on: 2007-12-24
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Format: Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .26 pounds
• Running time: 139 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
If you’ve got your high definition television set up, and your Blu-ray player or Playstation 3 at the ready, then surely home cinema demo material rarely comes in better shape than Independence Day.

The spectacular 1996 blockbuster stars Will Smith in the early part of his movie career and, of course, tells the tale of invaders from other worlds bringing mighty ships to the Earth. And particularly in the first half, Independence Day wrings so much tension and style from their arrival that few films have equalled it since. The sheer spectacle of set pieces such as the blowing up of the White House, or the massive battle in the skies, simply deserves to be seen and enjoyed in high definition.

Independence Day, of course, does go a bit daft as it goes about wrapping up its simple-yet-compelling premise, but it’s really very hard not to forgive it. So ambitious were the effects at the time that they still stand up now, and as far as science fiction blockbusters go, this remains one of the finest in recent memory.

Of course, high definition does it wonders. The film looks razor-sharp, and coupled with a punchy sound mix, Independence Day is quite superb demo material. That it’s also a fun blockbuster too is an added, and very welcome treat. --Jon Foster

Synopsis
With a 71 million dollar budget and mind-blowing special effects, INDEPENDENCE DAY is a grand, high-tech throwback to such films of the 1950s as THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and WAR OF THE WORLDS. Here, aliens, in numerous gargantuan spaceships, arrive without warning and hover over the world's most important cities, creating global panic. The nasty visitors use death rays to blow New York, Washington D.C, and Los Angeles to smithereens. A handful of plucky Americans, including the Clinton-esque President, a gung-ho fighter pilot and a computer geek named David, attempt to devise a strategy against the invaders. On July 4th, their risky plan is put into effect, as dozens of fighter pilots (including the President) wage an assault on the spaceships. However, their success (and the fate of the world) depends on David, who is attempting to disarm the aliens's mothership.

Customer Reviews

Nice one...
...for damning the film because of a technical issue. To the chap who gave the film 1 star, you realise everyone will see that, for some reason Independance Day has been rated a surprisingly low score? And you've done this because Amazon didn't tell you it wasn't US-player compatible? Grow up! Post your comments in the forums, and email Amazon. I'm all for the trade descriptions act, but putting people off the film because yours doesn't work?
To balance it out, I think the film is great, it's not the smartest of films, but who cares? It's from that era when everything WIll Smith touch turned to gold, with this, Men In Black and Wild WIld West. Ok, not Wild Wild West, but nevermind. A classic 'Hollywood Blockbuster', re-jigged in Shiny-Hi-Def-Vision (c), which ticks all the right boxes on the basic, bright colours and loud noises film checklist.

Stick with DVD.
This is probably the most dissapointing blu-ray release I have purchased. There is nothing really wrong with the quality of print or soundtrack (everything nice and crisp) It's just that the cgi really to me doesn't look any clearer. Special mention has to go to the main battle towards the end of the film where the textures of enemy ships and the mothership just look blurry and unfocused. I think standards in cgi have raised somewhat since the mid nineties and this is a good example.

Film watched in full 1080p (Panasonic Viera) with PS3.

Audio good. Picture not up to Bluray standards
Just bought and viewed this release on BluRay (already own it on DVD). Was very disappointed with video quality on this disc unlike all the other BluRay's I own. Quite simply, it couldn't have been filmed in HD quality, and shows noticeable picture noise throughout (Panasonic PF9 65" 1080P 1:1 pixel mapping so can't get better picture chain quality).

Having said that, the Audio in Dolby DTS HD cetainly is better than the ordinary DVD version (again, through a high end home cinema system).

So... I give it only 3 stars because of the picture quality, and would warn people to be wary of old catalogue releases on BluRay