For all the pizzazz, a very generic film

Rating: 6/10 (25 August 2001)

With all the money spent and earned, you would think that "Independence Day" might offer something different from other run-of-the-mill action movies. Not so. Despite the gung-ho attitude and Will Smith's sense of humor, there's really nothing unique about it. The aliens are given no background whatsoever; all we know is that they have the power to blow things up with powerful rays. The story is standard shoot-em-up with several interesting action sequences thrown in to keep our MTV-damaged attention on the screen. Yes, I did say "interesting;" I won't try to be a snob and say that none of the action scenes impressed me. In fact, a lot of them did. But I walked away from the film with an empty feeling inside, as if I had eaten a bowl of pasta without any sauce.
Back in the mid-90's, audiences attended these things in droves, watching the same homogenized schlock from May to August. It can easily be argued that not much has changed in the last five years, with "The Mummy Returns," "Hollow Man," and anything else that would insult the intelligence of a five-year-old still holding the #1 box office spot. But there are glimmers of hope, with idealistic films such as "The Sixth Sense" and "American Beauty" pulling in cash from the audience. Then again, such movies could be showered with all the success in the world and it still probably wouldn't pull Hollywood away from making routine movies like "Independence Day." Worse, it probably wouldn't keep people from paying admission price either.