Independence Day Reviews

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

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

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

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

Big, dumb, glossy blockbuster designed for mass appeal is massively appalling.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5

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

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4

Independence Day is Hollywood's poster child for the design-by-committee blockbuster.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

Switch your brain down and enjoy it. And take along a barf bag for those excruciating American patriotic scenes.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

At least Mars Attacks tried to be funny.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5

It coulda been a contender.

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Independence Day Restores Order to the Millennium.

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

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As for the human characters, they give merely adequate back-seat support to the special effects that drive this big-budget thriller.

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Independence Day backs up the commonly-heard claim that movie success often has little to do with a good story and compelling characters and everything to do with big stars, big production values and good timing.

Full Review | Original Score: 68/100

The movie is like an advertisement for more defense spending.

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A gasping, bloated roller-coaster ride that veers from scenes of truly awesome destruction to stretches of numbingly bad melodrama and back again.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

Director Roland Emmerich has a knack for belaboring a point, explaining everything to us in dialogue and visuals often and repeatedly and over and over.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

Independence Day is woefully short on anything that rouses the imagination.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10

Does the hype monster ID4 live up to its massive buildup? In a word, no.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

This one's short on batteries.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

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

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