So…there are some classics that I still haven’t seen and Independence Day was one of them.
Now, I have seen bits and pieces of it but because I had no interest in the film when it was on TV I pretty much had no idea what was going on. So yesterday, while searching for something to watch on HBO Max, I decided to finally watch the film and well, I enjoyed it!
I am not going to say the movie wasn’t cheesy because it was but it embraced its cheesiness and found a way to tell a compelling story that had me on the edge of my seat.
I can see why the film made Will Smith a superstar because he did such a great job in the film. I was often blown away by how dire the film was and how many people perished during the movie. I hate to admit it but I even cried when the First Lady died. Yeah, I’m sentimental and that scene was sad.
All in all, I understand why this movie has become iconic and like its title, it surely embraced the spirit of patriotism and bravery. Man I was cheering at the end. What a fun film.
I’ll give it 85 out of 100 and 4 out 5 stars.
I thank you for reading and I hope you have a spectacular day.
Annlyel Online 
Yeah. Independence Day is one of those old movies where, if I ever watched it again and wrote it up, I would also likely give it a 4. It’s a bit cheesy, and it sort of started the Hollywood trend of humans hacking alien computers and getting away with it, but it’s probably the best example of “we’re going silly and we don’t care.” And yeah, Mary McDonnell’s death scene was quite sad. This movie probably is what got her the part as Laura Roslin in BSG, which is, ICYMI, one of the better “doomed leader” acting jobs I’ve ever seen in sci fi my life.
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I didn’t see it when it was new, because I found it cheesy from the trailers, and the reviews I saw seemed to back up that perception. I eventually watched it, and thought it was pretty horrible. Just makes me angry how inane the writing is, how one-dimensional the characters are and how the director transparently uses the special effects to prop up his complete lack of skill at doing anything else. It would be exhibit A in my argument that the 1990s were the worst decade for big-budget Hollywood movies. Too many movies seemed to take on the attitude that the writing didn’t have to be good as long as they spent a ton of money on special effects. Roland Emmerich stood apart as the worst of the worst. His entire filmography is a stain on American cinema. Will Smith didn’t show any growth as an actor here. I think his real breakthrough as an actor who could make a good movie work even better was in Men in Black, which stands far above the pack as one of the most charming and ingenious special effects movies of the 1990s.
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Yeah, the writing is pretty bad. I enjoyed it though. It just felt really popcorn flick and I dug it in all of its ridiculousness.
But it’s an easy movie to despise for sure.
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That’s how I feel about Tomb Raider (2001). I can tell the writing is bad and the story doesn’t work, but it’s really fun to look at, has high energy and the actors are putting in slightly more effort than they need to, while never taking the movie more seriously than it deserves to be.
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