Ok, see here's the thing. I also hate this film. I find it annoying. I don't really know if/why it's a classic, aside from the fact that it made fiftybazillion dollars. Here are some of the things that annoy me about the movie:
1) Plot holes big enough to drive a friggin truck through, and weird plot-ideas that are so patently moronic I can't even suspend my disbelief enough to go along with things. (Yes, it makes TOTAL SENSE that we would be able to bring down an alien mothership with a computer virus that we engineered with our tiny human non-faster-than-light-travel-having brains. WTF.)
2) As you said, SO VERY MANY over used an terrible tropes. A few thrown in for what HAS TO BE comedic effect (the one moment that stands out here is a HUGE explosion, gigantic loss of human life, but we are shown a DOG escaping unscathed, because you CAN NOT KILL DOGS ZOMG.)
3) The whole thing is so crazy-overwrought, nationalistic to the point of near jingo-ism, and naturally it's the scrappy Americans who save the whole goddamn planet, because lord knows the French couldn't do it! HA HA!
4) Shortly after this film came out, there was another round of "Hollywood is so violent it is harming the childrenz society is collapsing ZOMG." One of the loudest voices in this tired discussion was then-Senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole. When asked if there was a film that portrayed the kinds of values he would like to see Hollywood show more of HE NAMED THIS FILM, AND NO OTHER. ?!?! My brain exploded from the cognitive dissonance. This film has a crazy-high body count, the whole US capital is a-sploded, we witness a number of high-profile US monuments being destroyed, the First Lady DIES on screen [but it was the Clinton years! SO HA! Or something], and THIS is the movie that has emblematic values? Uh, yeah, that's our problem as a culture right there.
See? I do go on. I will say that I saw this film opening weekend in a packed theater, and that was a fun viewing experience. (Hey, remember that one time when Will Smith punched an alien! GOOD TIMES!) But that all of this stuff nagged at me afterwards, and on repeat viewings I just... I sort of seethe with rage. I tried, once, to get people to talk about this film in film class, and no one wanted to take me up on it... with the usual B.S. excuses that it was "just a fun summer movie" etc. I think this film is actually really, alarming telling about a lot of what goes on in our culture -- a lot of stuff that became overt in our culture after 9/11. So yeah. I really do not like it, but it sure gives me something to rant about!
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1) Plot holes big enough to drive a friggin truck through, and weird plot-ideas that are so patently moronic I can't even suspend my disbelief enough to go along with things. (Yes, it makes TOTAL SENSE that we would be able to bring down an alien mothership with a computer virus that we engineered with our tiny human non-faster-than-light-travel-having brains. WTF.)
2) As you said, SO VERY MANY over used an terrible tropes. A few thrown in for what HAS TO BE comedic effect (the one moment that stands out here is a HUGE explosion, gigantic loss of human life, but we are shown a DOG escaping unscathed, because you CAN NOT KILL DOGS ZOMG.)
3) The whole thing is so crazy-overwrought, nationalistic to the point of near jingo-ism, and naturally it's the scrappy Americans who save the whole goddamn planet, because lord knows the French couldn't do it! HA HA!
4) Shortly after this film came out, there was another round of "Hollywood is so violent it is harming the childrenz society is collapsing ZOMG." One of the loudest voices in this tired discussion was then-Senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole. When asked if there was a film that portrayed the kinds of values he would like to see Hollywood show more of HE NAMED THIS FILM, AND NO OTHER. ?!?! My brain exploded from the cognitive dissonance. This film has a crazy-high body count, the whole US capital is a-sploded, we witness a number of high-profile US monuments being destroyed, the First Lady DIES on screen [but it was the Clinton years! SO HA! Or something], and THIS is the movie that has emblematic values? Uh, yeah, that's our problem as a culture right there.
See? I do go on. I will say that I saw this film opening weekend in a packed theater, and that was a fun viewing experience. (Hey, remember that one time when Will Smith punched an alien! GOOD TIMES!) But that all of this stuff nagged at me afterwards, and on repeat viewings I just... I sort of seethe with rage. I tried, once, to get people to talk about this film in film class, and no one wanted to take me up on it... with the usual B.S. excuses that it was "just a fun summer movie" etc. I think this film is actually really, alarming telling about a lot of what goes on in our culture -- a lot of stuff that became overt in our culture after 9/11. So yeah. I really do not like it, but it sure gives me something to rant about!
(Thank you for listening to me rant, btw. -_^)