Awesome disaster-action movie

Rating: 10/10 (18 November 2018)

Independence Day is (in my opinion) one of the two greatest disaster movies ever made, alongside Deep Impact. The movie begins on July 2nd, when an enormous alien space craft is seen passing by the moon. The US military soon detect the anomaly. A series of city-sized craft are released from the mothership, and take up position over many of the world's major cities. Electronics expert David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) decodes an alien signal indicating they are going to attack. He manages to warn President Whitmore (Bill Pullman) and flee Washington - just barely escaping the city's destruction. The heat rays in the alien craft obliterate all of the major cities that had craft parked over them - and almost all of their inhabitants. They then begin moving from city to city, intending to exterminate humanity. The survivors must regroup, band together and fight back against the alien invaders.
The movie is very exciting, with brilliant tension (especially in the half hour before the cities' destruction - man, is that a breath-holder!). The acting is splendid - especially from Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum. The movie is also brilliantly plotted. It has a considerable air of mystery about it, which adds to the delightful experience that watching it is.
But the special effects in this movie are INCREDIBLE. Quite honestly, this movie contains among the best - and certainly most real-looking - effects I've ever seen (the only movies I've seen with more real-looking effects being the first two Jurassic Parks). They're so real, they're almost scary.
And, by the way, I highly recommend viewing the Extended Version. It's better - and makes more sense.