Independence Day

DVD Details: Anamorphic Widescreen Audio Tracks: English 5.1 Digital/Surround, French Surround Director/Producer Commentary, Visual Effects Commentary Subtitles: English, Spanish Various Featurettes Original Ending Productional Stills Storyboards PG-13, 153 minutes

In 1996, the first big blockbuster of the summer was Independence Day. Released on July 4th (well, 3rd... with sneak previews on the 2nd), the movie was a big effects movie, but also had a great story that was futuristic and patriotic. Aliens come to invade, and the people of earth must pull together to survive. A movie with a lot of star power, Independence Day had space battles, explosions, snappy dialog, and even a doggy. A real hit in it's day, the DVD is another special edition that's been created by FOX.

This is another 2-disc set that puts the movie on disc 1, and a ton of extras on disc 2. The movie is presented in anamorphic widescreen with a THX approved transfer. The picture is very clear, and shows all the details very well. The sound is top-notch and really blasts you during some of the fight scenes. There are two commentary tracks that you can listen to while you watch as well, one with the director/producer team, the other with some visual effects guys that let you in on how the different shots were created. The effects commentary is nice, although it does get quiet for a bit in the middle. They spend time discussing how a lot of the shots were constructed, and go into more detail about upcoming shots when they hit a point in the movie without many effect shots.

The packaging boasts three featurettes on disc two, of 30, 22, and 33 minutes apiece. After watching all three, I would estimate there is about 38 minutes of content between the three. If you watch the first one, you'll see just about everything these three have to offer. I was disappointed to see the same clips over and over, I guess Fox was afraid to show more of the interviews or something. Seeing as how these are the bulk of the extras, I was a bit disappointed. However, all is not lost.

The original biplane ending is also on the disc, along with a nice commentary that explains what's going on and why the whole ending was changed. Not a better ending, but still neat to see where the movie could have gone. A bunch of Production stills are also available to browse; there were too many for me to go through, and I think I saw some repetitions, but nice nonetheless. Some other artwork and storyboards, along with some trailers, round out the disc. I think there's some DVD-ROM stuff too, but I didn't bother with it.

So let me think, how do I summarize this disc? I'd say it's a great buy for anyone looking for a good action movie, with its only flaw being that a couple of the extras aren't really up to par. Overall, there's a lot of information on these two discs, and they really couldn't be improved much. Congrats to Fox for another great DVD!