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So-so
Avg. Critic Score: 59 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
13 OK for kids 13+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick 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 Today | Mike 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] Read full review

  • 83
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa 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
    Los Angeles Times | Kenneth 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

  • 80
    The New York Times | Elvis Mitchell

    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

  • 63
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger 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 Post |

    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
    Variety | Todd 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

  • 30
    Salon.com |

    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 Post | Rita 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

View more reviews for Independence Day on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says OK for kids 13+ Nonstop campy fun. For teens and up.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that Independence Day is an action-packed science-fiction film filled with scenes of the fiery destruction of entire cities and the people who live in them, along with smaller scale personal fatalities and some pretty grisly aliens. The filmmakers take pains to introduce some very likeable characters, only to explode them soon afterward. This movie was the gold standard of sci-fi effects and air battles when it was released in 1996, and older kids and teens that have a firm understanding of the difference between fantasy and reality will enjoy the ride. There's some swearing (i.e. "hell," "schmuck," "ass," "s--t," "bastard," "goddamn"), and one short scene takes place in a strip club with scanty costumes.  
  • Families can talk about stereotypes associated with action-disaster movies, as well as how race, class, and gender are represented in Independence Day.
  • How does this film compare with other alien-invasion films?
  • Do you like the mix of comedy and scariness?
The good stuff
  • message true2 Positive messages: It's clearly stated that the people of earth, divided into nations, religions, etc., have the ability to put away their differences and unite for their common interests. In this case, all the leaders of the world come together to fight for the right of the planet to exist.  Also promotes self-sacrifice for the greater good.  
  • rolemodels true3 Positive role models: Heroes come in all shapes and sizes -- lots of ethnic and cultural diversity. The government, the military, and individuals put their lives on the line to save the Earth. With one exception (a brave mother saving her child and her dog), the female characters serve basically as emotional support for the male leads. Two very stereotypical Jewish men hover around the plot, mostly for comic relief.
What to watch for
  • violence false4 Violence: Buildings, major landmarks, and citizens are destroyed by fireballs; cars careen through the air; airplanes explode; spacecraft, both large and small, wreak jet-ray havoc on the hapless Earth. Then, the aliens appear: tentacled, huge, slimy, and powerful. Scientists perform an autopsy on one that morphs into an even more grotesque creature. There are multiple aerial firefights, one-on-one serpent attacks, and an alien-speaking-through-a-human moment that is truly spooky.  
  • sex false1 Sex: In one of the many subplots, stripper passes some dancers onstage then finds some strippers backstage in very little clothing. A man who claims to have been abducted by aliens is teased with comments like "Did they do any sexual things?"  
  • language false2 Language: Some mild expletives and insults throughout: "hell," "butt," "s--t and bulls--t," "ass," "son-of-a-bitch," "bastards," "goddamn, "schmuck," "Jesus," "Holy God," "booty."  
  • consumerism false2 Consumerism: Coors, Arrowhead water, Minute Maid, Wells Fargo bank, IMB, Reebok, HBO, and heavy on the Coca-Cola.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false2 Drinking, drugs and smoking: One character, a father of young kids, is a slurring, self-pitying drunk through most of the film, constantly swigging from a bottle. Cigars are passed out and smoked as a means of celebrating victory over the attackers, though one character does say, "Smoking is not healthy."
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

Independence Day Movie Ratings + Reviews

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