Ad campaign: a masterpiece! Movie: a total waste of adequate special effects

Rating: 3/10 (28 October 1999)

The triumph of this movie was its advertising campaign. It somehow managed to convince me that I wanted to see the movie, even though everything told me it would stink. I went. It stunk.
The special effects were adequate. Technically, they were very well done, but uninspired. They had a huge challenge, making a stupid plot into a visually interesting movie, and failed.
The "science" in this pitiful space opera was consistently stupid. Spoiler (as if a movie this bad and widely-seen could be spoiled): Computer virus? Give me a break. The only way those aliens could have failed would have been a War of the Worlds defeat by infection -- a virus that actually hurt the aliens themselves. Sure, it's been used before, and isn't very biologically plausible, but it's not as stupid as jet engine technology defeating starship technology.
The acting was decent, but the movie would have been more fun if it had been terrible. That would have at least given the movie some camp value.
Comparisons: The plot of The Fifth Element was silly, but not a "same old thing" story. The visual effects in it were sometimes well-made, and sometimes cheesy, but always interesting. Independence Day's effects were well-made, but still not interesting.
Independence Day came out around the same time as the excellent The Arrival, and almost entirely overshadowed it. The Arrival is the anti-Independence Day, an intelligent alien invasion movie with a plot of subversion rather than destructive conquest. Its special effects were very interesting, and almost never just another way to show something explode. Don't waste time on Independence Day -- See the outstanding The Arrival instead.