What, Adam Baldwin was too busy?

by Thom Yee

Independence Day: Resurgence images courtesy of 20th Century Fox

Of all the, globe-spanning, widescreen, blockbuster movie genres, the disaster movie has been one of the most peculiar and inconsistent even as it’s persisted through decades of more contemporaneously popular sci-fi, action, and, lately, superhero movies. In some of them a high concept like hyper-intelligent monkeys are the problem, while many more lean towards environmental catastrophes like tornadoes or even global warming (“We didn’t listen!”). Some have even centred on the arcane, calendar-based prophecies of ancient civilizations, but no matter the premise, most of them find some way to specifically peg modern society as the real problem, and every one of them hinges on the notion that, no matter what’s come before, this time is different, and there’s nothing we can do but pick up the pieces. Sometimes I think that’s what made Independence Day’s alien invasion scenario so popular, because an alien invasion, an assault from outside forces, is an external threat, an easy one, one we can put a face to that isn’t our own and one we might be able to fight back against. The rest of the time I know that its popularity comes from the fact that most disaster movies are terrible. Of course that doesn’t necessarily mean Independence Day was good. Continue reading →