Independence Day: Critic Reviews

It's the first futuristic disaster movie that's as cute as a button. Which, when all the special effects blow over, is what we Americans like in a monster hit.

The film has a genial it's-only-a-movie attitude that sets it apart, quite emphatically, from other blockbuster action movies.

Though the movie isn't too deep, it's certainly a rousing state-of-the-art cartoon capped by an aerial-combat climax that, to its credit, isn't anti-climactic.

Maybe the moviemakers' mission was to boldly go where everyone in Hollywood has gone before: the bank.

You know going in that Independence Day will have terrific effects and loads of action. But the filmmakers have also carefully crafted appealing characters and several good relationships, which they develop as the story unfolds.

The aliens, when we finally see them, are a serious disappointment; couldn't they think of anything more interesting than octopus men?

The earnestness, the effects, and the notion of a whole world forgetting its differences to defeat a common foe carry a certain charm.

As unavoidably entertaining as it is hopelessly cornball.

There's precious little reward in plumbing the world-historical implications of the screenplay.

Unfortunately, and perhaps not unexpectedly, it doesn't live up to the hype.

So much about ID4 is so old it's inevitable that homesick audiences, eager for familiar scenarios, will embrace it as if it's nothing but new.

Spending a scant four weeks on script versus 13 months on physical production, as happened here, does have its drawbacks.

Independence Day Restores Order to the Millennium.

Basically, this is almost perfect realization of the movie you eagerly anticipated when, as a kid, you saw some poster or coming attractions trailer for a 1950s-style alien invasion movie ...

No matter how ludicrous and coincidental the plot gets, it never takes itself seriously.

Insanely pompous and brilliantly exhilarating in equal measure.

Splendidly cheesy entertainment.

If I were a 10-year-old boy, I'd probably think it was the coolest movie going.

Forget government conspiracies about aliens -- what about the entertainment media's conspiracy to persuade America that this movie doesn't suck?

No one who wants to see this movie needs me to recommend it to them, but if anyone wants to know, I say stay home and rent one of those other movies on video.

Everything feels anti-climactic after the fireworks, but the moral is clear: it's the end of the world as we know it. And we feel fine.

No brain, no pain, but a heck of a lot of fun.

The most spectacular and intriguing sci-fi action film since the 'Star Wars' trilogy. (published 7-6-96)

Finally, science fiction the way it used to be: rousing, cosmically xenophobic and ferociously patriotic... Take that, space bullies!

One of the prime guilty pleasures of our time.