They won't make this movie again...

Rating: Null/10 (22 September 2003)

Roland Emmerich is overrated, I'll start my review off that way. StarGate was a made-for-TV flopperoo, Godzilla was...nevermind, you know, and the Patriot tried repeating most of the formula elements from this.
Would they make a movie these days featuring the White House and other prominent American landmarks exploding in a cacophonous fashion? I doubt it.
Furthermore, ID4 is so loaded with sappy gung-ho patriotism reminiscent of that summer's other blockbuster, The Rock, that I couldn't help but gag. Do they have to make such messages so painfully obvious to the audience by whacking them upside the head with it every five minutes?
Another problem rests in the gross excess of characters. While trying to create a microcosm of America (read=the world), the script only gets to be one titanic logic headache after another. If 1/3 the characters and "convenient" relationships existed then this might've been something better.
Overall, War of the Worlds for the Information Age, but just as mind-numbingly bad as Wing Commander and Supernova. I can't hate Jeff Goldblum though. 1.5 out of 5 stars.