The Noah’s Ark Principle (1984)
Dec 3, 2000Action Aboard a Weather Satellite
Roland Emmerich's first film, made while he was still a student, involving intrigue aboard a weather control station
Centropolis
Moon 44 (1990)
Jan 7, 2000Interstellar Prison
Early Roland Emmerich film with Michael Paré investigating pirates targeting a mining moon. As usual with Emmerich, the focus is on action while neglecting the plausibility of the scenario
Universal Soldier (1992)
Nov 19, 2000Undead Super-Soldiers/Action
The first studio film from Roland Emmerich, a loud, noisy action featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren as Vietnam Vets resurrected as super-soldiers
The High Crusade (1994)
Nov 17, 2000Bumbling Crusaders in Space
Roland Emmerich produced comedy about a group of crusaders abducted by aliens where their bumbling ends up accidentally winning a space war. A promising idea rendered as idiotic knockabout farce.
Independence Day (1996)
Apr 12, 2003Alien Invasion
The film that made Roland Emmerich's name as a specialist in mass destruction spectacle. At heart, this rehashes a 1950s alien invasion film on a big-budget and adds blatantly sentimentalised American flag-waving
The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
Jun 16, 1999Virtual Reality
A Roland Emmerich produced Virtual Reality film that toys with some ideas that almost make it a great SF film before cliches and a bad twist ending take over
2012 (2009)
Nov 14, 2009The End of the World/Disaster Movie
Roland Emmerich mass destruction spectacle loosely based around the supposed Mayan prophecies about the end of the world in 2012. Mostly just an excuse for massively scaled disaster sequences.
Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)
Jul 2, 2016Alien Invasion
Roland Emmerich returns with more of the same. The problem is how to top the first film and here everything is so big and with so much happening that it cannot be taken in and slips into tedium