Independence Day
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: July 3, 1996 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
8
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The alien attack, taking place in several cities at once, is breathtaking...All the same, Independence Day is consistently funny. Read full review
88
USA TodayMike Clark
A rousing state-of-the-art cartoon capped by an aerial-combat climax that, to its credit, isn't anti-climactic. [2 July 1996, p.D1]
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
It's the first futuristic disaster movie that's as cute as a button. Which, when all the special effects blow over, is what we Americans like in a monster hit. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The aliens, meanwhile, are a fabulously nasty lot of slimy, tentacled, malevolent telepaths, but all their superior technology is no match for our red, white and blue ingenuity. Take that, space bullies! Read full review
80
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
Two reasons it's impossible to resist "Independence Day": because of its pitch-perfect cartoonish dialogue ("Now you're never gonna get to fly the space shuttle if you marry a stripper!") and because the Captain, like Indiana Jones, is so unflappably tough. Read full review
80
EmpireKim Newman
Like 2001, Star Wars and Jurassic Park, it ups the special effects stakes and gets closer to putting on screen the images you've had in your mind while reading epic sci-fi. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Cities engulfed by rolling walls of flame, sinister aquamarine power blasts turning beloved national monuments to toast, even the roiling clouds the spaceships appear out of, they are all disturbing, unsettling and completely convincing. Read full review
63
San Francisco ExaminerBarbara Shulgasser
Fans of sci-fi, special effects, big explosions, panicky crowd scenes and theater sound systems cranked up way beyond the capacity of the human ear to hear comfortably will love this movie. I am not among you. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
For all of its huge budget, Independence Day is a timid movie when it comes to imagination. The aliens, when we finally see them, are a serious disappointment. Read full review
50
Washington PostKevin McManus
Cruises to an upbeat ending but furnishes no more of the wicked thrills of the initial hour. Particularly disappointing is the human contrivance employed in the defeat of the vastly superior enemy. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The action is fast, furious, and loaded with explosive effects, but the theme is a regrettable return to the us-against-them paranoia that dominated much science fiction in the cold-war era. Read full review
50
NewsweekDavid Ansen
The dialogue is tacky, the characters stock and the special effects no improvement on anything George Lucas did 20 years ago. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthy
The cutting-edge perfection of effects in Cameron and Spielberg films is replaced here by work that looks more homemade, particularly toward the end in some faintly cheesy composite shots. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Once you get past the admittedly breathtaking shots of our national landmarks being turned into kindling, the rest of the film is a tired and empty two hours of feel-good patriotism and oddly cast characters. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
With its hackneyed plot, feeble attempts at characterization, and predictable finale, the second half of Independence Day becomes an extremely dull and lifeless affair. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Emmerich succeeds only in making his previous venture, the marginal Stargate, look positively inspired by comparison. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Overlong but watchable. Read full review
30
SalonScott Rosenberg
A colossally dumb epic that happily traffics in third-hand imagery and ideas while feeding its audience maintenance level doses of humor, adrenaline and spectacle. Read full review
30
Washington PostRita Kempley
An overgrown hybrid of disaster epic, can-do combat adventure and '50s sci-fi movie, this craft has visited our world many times before. And while she's a beaut, the sticker on her titanium bumper reads: "Been There, Done That, Beam Me Up, Scotty." Read full review
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