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Roland Emmerich is a somewhat underrated director. Yes, I know he has had a few flops like 10,000 B.C and Godzilla, and even 2012 to some people, but I think Independence Day is one of his best movies. I'm saying that because it is so good all around. For example, the aliens. It's great how the alien ships are so incredibly huge (15+ miles in diameter). In some alien movies the aliens are in tiny ships and they go so fast that you aren't able to follow them. But Emmerich's version of the aliens is huge and slow, so that isn't a problem here. Anyway, the main aspects, as always. First off, the acting. Not the best. Sure, there were people like Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, and Bill Pullman, and they were pretty good, but some of the people like Miguel and quite a few other small characters it seemed like they had no acting experience whatsoever. None. Zip. But the main characters like Smith, Goldblum, and Pullman made up for it. Mostly. Now the special effects. For a 90's action flick, they were really good. To today's standards, they would not be good at all. But they are amazing for 90's standards. In the 15+ miles across ships, there are so many little lights and openings and such, and that most likely means rooms. So that would mean there are probably 10,000+ rooms, not even counting how many floors there would be. Detail like that is not always something you come by in movies these days. Speaking of the aliens, this movie had some really awesome practical effects for the aliens. That means someone put more than one day of effort into making this, which is always good. The special effects people did a wonderful job in this movie.

And now, the writing. I can't say it was the best ever, and it was kind of cheesy, but I am willing to let that slide. Some of the lines were just not needed at all, and if you got rid of all of them, the movie would be about 5 minutes shorter. Things like "We need to pack up" isn't needed. It's kind of obvious when there's an alien invasion that could wipe out the entire world, it's kind of obvious. And other times, there were supposed to be awesome punchlines, but they come out flat and bland because the actors couldn't execute them. But really, that's the only thing I really don't like about this movie. Fourth, the characters. I didn't think this was a good idea, but I didn't care that much because it all ends up making sense. There were four different families/groups of people. There were the people in Captain Hiller's (Will Smith) family and group of friends, and also Russell Casse's (Randy Quaid), along with President Whitmore's (Bill Pullman), and David Levinson's (Jeff Goldblum). If there were only 3-4 people in each group, I'd be OK with that. But there were at least 5-10 characters in each group, and that's a lot to bother keeping track of. It just takes away from the movie. And for the fifth, the plot. Some of it is original, and some of it isn't at all. The part that isn't original at all is the fact that a bunch of aliens have come to destroy Earth. You see that in about 85% or higher of alien movies. So nothing new there at all. But the part that is original was how Hiller and Levinson (Smith and Goldblum) took down the alien mother ship. I won't tell you exactly how because I don't want to spoil anything, but I will say it involved a lot of awesomeness. And lastly, the cinematography. The way Emmerich decided to display the alien spacecraft coming out of the clouds and pretty much anything that involved the spaceships and the mother-ships was just awesome. There was a definite sense of danger and threat in all of those shots, which was nice as well.

Overall, I really liked Independence Day, because it is a great and enjoyable movie that I would watch again anytime. 9/10. And it sure is a lot better than 10,000 B.C and 2012. Anyway, thanks for reading and check out some of my other reviews. See ya!

Just as it says above, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is possibly, maybe even most likely, the best sequel I have ever seen. From start to finish, I was 100% interested. It is in the top five movies I have ever seen. Anyway, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is one of the rare cases that a sequel is better than the original. Seriously! I loved this movie more than Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Don't get me wrong, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a fantastic movie, but somehow Dawn bettered it. Possibly because Matt Reeves is a better director than Rupert Wyatt (sorry Rupert - it's only my opinion, though). Even though Wyatt is a great director, he just isn't even with Matt Reeves. Reeves directed other great movies such as Cloverfield and Let Me In. His way of purveying all of the scenes was great, just like in his other films. OK, so, the general aspects of the movie. The story, first of all. The whole story was so great at following the first film that it was almost as if they were both the same movie, just in two parts. It is very rare to see a fun and interesting story in an Action/Sci-Fi movie these days, because all of the good plots are used up already. However, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is an original story and stayed fun to watch until the end. The fact that the writers came up with a way to display the apes as a civilization, just fantastic. It made the apes easier to sympathize with. Next, the characters. As with the first movie, there were apes such as Caesar, Maurice, and Koba. The human characters were completely new, and they included the always awesome Gary Oldman as Dreyfus, the great Jason Clarke as Malcolm, and Keri Russell as Ellie. Since the last movie, the motion capture has increased dramatically in quality, which made the apes even more believable, surprisingly. Now, all of the characters were either fun or despicable. Just like in the first movie, the writers and actors worked together to create characters that you really cared about, or hated. In fact, they even did that with the apes, which is awesome. As with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, there were quite a few characters that you could just flat out hate, and that is another thing that should be in a good movie. Now, the acting. The acting in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is just as good as it is Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The acting is actually the only thing that didn't improve at all in Dawn. With stars such as Andy Serkis, Gary Oldman, and Jason Clarke, you would think the acting would improve, but it didn't. Everyone displayed their emotions and said their lines very well, still. Now the visual effects, of course. Rise of the Planet of the Apes had extremely good visual effects throughout the whole entire movie, and so did Dawn, but Dawn had better, because it was made three years after Rise, of course. The detail is so amazing! You can make out the hairs, the facial expressions, the muscles moving, even the difference in skin tone. Rise had great effects, but they were much, much, much better in Dawn. Lastly, the music. The music is catchy and fun to listen to while watching the movie. Michael Giacchino did a wonderful job making it intense and serious. I thought the music helped intensify the action sequences, which included some of the best battle scenes I have ever seen. The battles appear so realistic because the apes are so human that it is almost as if the battle was going on between different countries. The battles were also sad, because a lot of people die. The fights were so intense that I caught myself gripping the arm of my seat a couple times. That doesn't happen a lot for me, so that's saying something. SO, overall, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was an amazing movie, and I was not disappointed at all by it. It might be the best summer movie this year. See ya!

Rise of the Planet of the Apes, in my opinion, is one of the best movies of 2011. Even though it is 2014, I think I can safely say that. It is so entertaining and enjoyable that I could watch it again any time. One of the reasons I like this movie so much is because it is so well put together. Rick Jaffa (writer of Relic, Eye For An Eye, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes) made such an interesting and original plot that I didn't sense "copycat" at all. I was very interested in the story throughout. The dialogue was great and not cheesy at all, as well. Another thing I like about Rise of the Planet of the Apes is that it is so much more serious than 1968's Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston. There is a much more serious atmosphere in this movie, in my opinion only. If you think vice-versa, fine by me. But throughout the movie I felt a deep compassion for all of the apes (not monkeys, as Franklin says). A compassion for main characters is a thing a lot of movies lack these days. I have seen a lot of movies that make you not care at all for the main characters, especially with horror movies and comedies. But thankfully, that was absent here. In fact, this is one of the very few movies that has made me really sad for the characters. That is extremely rare for me. One reason that is is because the acting is so great. James Franco, for instance. Like always, he did a fantastic job. In his movies like Spiderman and 127 Hours, he did such a great job acting as his character, and he did it again in this movie. Not only James Franco. Every other actor did a wonderful job in this movie except for some of the extras. Tom Felton, for example. He did an absolutely marvelous job being the person in almost every good movie that you absolutely hate, and despise. He also did that in the Harry Potter series. Quite well, I might add. Another thing I like about this movie is that it is so full of detail. You can make out the definition of the apes down to the last hair, even in the action scenes. The actors did a great job interacting with the CGI (meaning pretending it is there during the shoot). I could tell that in some parts they used real apes for the shoot, but I couldn't tell the difference between real and fake in some of the scenes. Yeah, it's that good. Also, the animators put variations into a lot of the apes, so you could tell who was who, which was extremely helpful because there were so many. Not only that, but they used different species in that apes such as orangutans and gorillas, which was nice. To another thing. Rupert Wyatt (director of Subterrain, The Escapist, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, of course) did an amazing job directing this movie, I think. The camera angles throughout were interesting and fun, because a lot of them let you take in the grandeur of the apes, and the movie all together. Another thing as well. To Patrick Doyle, the composer of this movie, kudos. You did a wonderful job. You know how with some music, it is so awesome you get chills down your spine? Yeah, well Doyle did that. Well, some of it did for me. I hope you found this review helpful, and I'll review Dawn of the Planet of the Apes soon for you guys. See ya!