The characters like the film are typical to sci-fi films, David (Jeff Goldblum) is one of the protagonists, he is a scientist and a bit of a nerd, he is the flawed hero who is imperfect and who the audience can relate to while captain Steven (will smith) another protagonist is the typical hero who is cool, confident, well liked and seems to be perfect .In this sci-fi film there is also the comical character/village idiot who is Russell (randy quaid), he is a failed father, a drunk and is ridiculed by all ,this makes the audience feel sympathetic towards him .He claims to have been abducted by aliens but no one believes him ,this is ironic because there are really aliens and he ends up being a one of the heroes who helps defeat them.
I have chosen to analyze the first 15 minutes of the film, which is probably the most important part, this is because it is when the main characters are introduced and the story begin, without it you cannot fully understand the film
The film starts with a close up of the moon, the camera zooms in on a plaque that reads earth came to the to the moon in peace, we hear mechanical sounds and a shadow slowly drifts over the moon. The audience expects to see some type of alien ship; the camera moves up so we get a view of the earth with the alien spaceship heading towards it and are thoughts are now confirmed. The way this shot is done and the lighting makes it dramatic, the viewer now knows that the aliens are either going to earth in peace or to invade it. When there is a change in scene, computer text appears at the bottom of the screen with date, time and place, this all adds to the theme and genre, which is sci-fi. Similar techniques are used like at the start of the matrix with the streaming computer text.
We are then introduced to the first protagonist called David, we see him in his place of work .Nothing unusual is happening and for him it is a normal day at work. This allows the audience to experience his life style and decide whether he is a character they like or not. We also get a insight in to the presidents life at the white house ,he is also a protagonist .we find out that he is married, has a young daughter, and is very young for a president which seems to be causing some problems. Then the scene cuts and we see the third protagonist, Captain Steven. He is very relaxed and does not no what is going on until his girlfriends son points outside to the sky ,we do not no exactly what he is pointing at but we can get a good idea by the reaction captain Steven gives ,he is shocked and just looks up. When his girlfriend arrives she is totally oblivious to what is going on and until she notices Steven looking up and decides to her. The camera angle then changes and we can now see what they do, a large cloud with fire coming out moving very fast towards the city.
These scenes just introduce us to the characters and there partners ,it makes us feel like we no them better and later in the film makes us hope they do not get killed.
Throughout the rest of the film we see more conventions of the sci-fi genre, when we first see the aliens, they are slimy, have abnormally big heads, have some characteristics of bugs and slightly resemble humans, this is similar to the aliens we see in other sci-fi films like Alien. In the final sequence tension builds up thanks to the conventions of sci-fi and action films, when David and captain Steven upload the computer virus to the mother ship, we expect the film to come to a end because the alien defenses are supposedly down But when the US military attempt to shoot the alien ships, nothing happens. We think they have failed in their attempts to break the alien defenses but in the end it turns out the virus has worked and the alien defenses are down. More tension is then created simultaneously when the scene cuts to David and captain Steven who are stuck in the mother ship, as heroes they decide to blow the ship up with themselves still inside it, when they release the bomb to blow the ship up they are set free and are involved in a high speed chase with smaller alien ships, this type of scene is often associated with action films, this is the resolution of the film.
In conclusion the film is typical of the sci-fi action genre and the audiences expectations are met by all the usual conventions of this type of film.
