Birthday Wishes: Roland Emmerich

Today we are sending out those Birthday Wishes to Roland Emmerich! Emmerich made a name for himself with Universal Soldier in 1992, but became a staple and helped usher in the modern summer blockbuster with Independence Day.

From the iconic teaser trailer Independence Day was primed to be the hit of the summer. Adjusted for inflation, this completely original property staring a still unproven Will Smith made almost $91.5 million dollars in its opening weekend (That’s more than Thor: The Dark World did this weekend.) Still adjusted for inflation, no original feature not directed by James Cameron (Titanic & Avatar) sits higher than Independence Day on the all-time box office since its release at $557 million, with the next closest being Finding Nemo a cool $60 million behind it. You can see why they want to bust out a sequel (or two?).

Box office aside, the film’s big budget, set-piece first, special effects driven epic spectacle paved the way for the future of summer films that still resonates today. Whether you think that is a good thing or not is a whole other debate, but Emmerich’s Independence Day is right there with Cameron’s Terminator 2 and Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park as signposts for the future of the summer blockbusters.

I am a fan of Independence Day, it has been years since I’ve seen it, but I saw it in my formative years and rented it plenty and caught it on cable many a time years after its run. I can’t say the same for his follow up film, Godzilla, as I remember being disappointed after so much anticipation for it that I made it the centerpiece of my birthday celebration that year. I’m not going to pile on Godzilla here, I don’t know if I’ve seen it since briefly after its home video release, but unfortunately I can throw some hate at his later disaster epics.

The Day After Tomorrow is not a good movie, it is very silly, and while it is visually impressive it’s just too much to take seriously and too dumb to just have fun. 2012 on the other hand is an abomination of stupidity that infuriated me for some reason in the theater. Not only does it feel like a retread of the disaster porn of the aforementioned The Day After Tomorrow, but it throws logic even higher into the wind. Like DAT, this would be fine if the film had any sense of fun or winked at the audience, but it plays it all too serious.

Sadly, Emmerich’s career hasn’t been as successful commercially or critically since Independence Day, but I feel like he might be heading in the right direction. Anonymous was more warmly received than his previous epic offerings and his latest, White House Down, I feel is an underrated gem of an action movie. I just watched it again for a second time today coincidentally and it was one of my favorite blockbuster offerings of the summer.

While Emmerich’s cache of good will has increased as of late, and part of me would like to see him keep mixing up genres, but I would definitely be excited to see him take a go at the proposed Independence Day sequel. Still, Emmerich has a special talent for epic destruction and I can’t wait for the day when he gets a stellar script that calls upon his particular set of skills. I feel like he needs to go to space.