Independence Day (film)

Independence Day is an American action movie about an attempted alien takeover of the Earth. The movie features several scenes of major American landmarks being destroyed by the aliens, such as the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles, California, the Empire State Building and the White House. The film's success was partially credited to an extensive marketing campaign which began with a dramatic commercial during Super Bowl XXX. This movie was scheduled for release on Wednesday, July 3, 1996, but due to high level of anticipation for the film, many theaters began showing it on the evening of July 2, the same day the action in the film begins.

Criticism

Whilst a commercial success, it was ridiculed by some critics for the plot, predictable plot lines, and poor acting. Criticism for the plot included the fact that it was possible to cause the aliens' high-tech computers to malfunction by infecting them with a simple computer virus (cf War of the Worlds). Many people outside the United States (and some within) also derided the film for what was viewed as calculated pandering to excessive American nationalistic sentiment, as the film was released in the United States over the Fourth of July weekend and was explicitly titled Independence Day. Fans of the film counter that there is nothing wrong with nationalistic sentiment although acknowledge that it could limit potential audiences.

Related Topics:
Computer virus - War of the Worlds - Fourth of July

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Advocates of the film point out that alien virus protection could have evolved to such a high level that archaic viruses might have passed under their notice due to a need to allocate processor power to more advanced scanning. It may also be that our modern computers may have been developed based on technology recovered from the Area 51 craft, thus making the two systems accidentally compatible. Another set of ideas advocates that the aliens had to modify their own computer systems to interface with the earth's satellite network, thus making them vulnerable to viruses. One of the flaws in this is that the aliens fighter craft are also affected by the virus, craft that would seem to have little purpose in "interfacing" with any satellite. An idea that could conceivably explain a number of the plot holes is that the aliens are to a certain extent a hive-minded race; such an orderly alien society would have no concept of a malicious computer virus or of one of their fighters going "rogue". Other than the seemingly psychic abilities of a captured alien, there is no evidence for this theory other than conjecture, however. Others will note that this debate is interesting, but as with most films the viewer simply needs to suspend disbelief and sit back and enjoy the film.

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According to Roger Ebert, whoever criticised the film in a negative manner lacked creativity.

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