Basic, incoherent and lame sci-fi flick

Rating: 3/10 (26 January 2001)

"Independence Day" was a hyper-commercialized, predictable, and scientifically inept movie. Sure, it was packed with a load of great images, but frankly I expected even more, since it was supposed to set new levels for special FX (and it did not). But I can put up with that. What makes this a god-awful movie, in my opinion, is the pathetic look at technology we are supposed to go through. I firmly believe that sci-fi movies, as unlikely as they can be, should have decency and SHOULD NOT show downright ignorance -- but then again, how many times are we supposed to be presented with space ships that make noises in empty space? Here we are supposed to learn that aliens whose technology is thousands of years ahead of ours still use floppies, program their computers in our programming languages (despite the fact that they have a completely different alphabet and speech) or in a compatible format anyways, and that we can upload a VIRUS to their HUGE computer when Windows viruses can't affect machines that run a different operating system like Unix here on Earth! Sorry guys, I cannot get into something downright laughable like that. And what's up with that "America is always the only Country that matters" thing?
This movie deserves, IMHO, a 3 out of 10, and ONLY for the special FX, as the acting was very mediocre, too.