Independence Day

"Comrades, ugly enemy agents have landed in our country from outer space in order to plant potato mandelins in our harvesting pools. Comrades, we're not going to subvert the States! Moreover, we have the victorious July, so get them!" Capitalist realism in full force, as demented as Bolshevik agitations, as spectacularly pathetic. Plus, the characters. A good-humored "nigga," a heroic president-pilot, a drunk with the heart of a Don Cossack...an... intrepid cowboy... Just a case of brilliantly making a stinking ball out of a pathetic fart. A film about nothing with nice effects. The glamour and misery of Hollywood in full swing. It wasn't custom made for the White House??? Edit 2011: I have to admit that (like many Bolshevik agitations) I enjoy this film and fills me with a special pleasure of absolute foolishness. So, in hindsight, I'm giving it an extra star, compared to Battle Los Angeles, it's royal fun, and it doesn't deserve the same rating... (25/01/2004)

Independence Day is in a typically Emmerich vein, with this film being one of the first pieces to feature the director’s penchant for monster-scale visual effects, as well as the catastrophic-apocalyptic feel and the American heroism of the main characters. The cast was mostly likeable, the plot moved along, although twenty minutes less running time would not have hurt, and from a technical point of view it is a very successful achievement. In short, one of those films that is great for switching off the brain and unwinding. (11/07/2016)

The Hollywood high-budget blockbuster of the 1990s in its full and immaculate glory. I’ve seen it at least thirty times, but the intensity of the experience remains unrelenting and the internal scheme of the narrative as a mediator of a global catastrophe is exemplary. There are dozens of characters, but each of them has an important function in communicating with the viewer, who learns about the alien attack from the point of view of the president, a brilliant scientist, a verbose soldier and the general population, so the presentation of the plot is really incredibly complex and well thought out. It may reek of American pathos and naivety, but Independence Day is simply so well constructed, scored and acted, supported by amazing visual effects and the ultimate adrenaline rush, that I will watch it thirty more times in the future and the general term "Legend" will increasingly come to mind. An incredible romp that will never get old and, above all, will never be surpassed within the genre. (24/09/2011)

Switch off your brain, make a big bucket of popcorn for yourself, turn the volume up (there’s no point in watching it anywhere else but at either a home or a regular theater) and make yourself believe the misleading phrase “it’s a spoof" and, mainly, take it easy. If you manage to persuade yourself that it really is meant as a spoof then it is an excellent B-grade catastrophe movie with a huge budget and well known, but mostly terrible actors (with one exception of Will Smith, brimming with snappy lines) and it’s decently paced. On top of all that it’s too long and overflowing with American pathos to an extent that can be trumped only by Emmerich himself in his subsequent movies. (22/04/2005)

“I steal, you steal, we steal.” Or how Emmerich and Devlin got together, dumped their brain concoctions into a common cauldron, stirred it properly and prepared an inedible slop. I turned off my brain and just wanted to have fun, but even a lobotomy wouldn't have helped. The massive avalanche of clichés and stupidity swept me away in such a way that I wouldn't want to repeat it. (11/05/2003)