30 Years Later, Independence Day Is Finally Certified Fresh
Thanks to 77 new reviews from its original theatrical run, the blockbuster sci-fi adventure's critical reception matches its pop cultural footprint.
It has been three decades since Independence Day first landed in theaters during the summer of 1996, arriving on the heels of a blockbuster marketing campaign that helped build incredible hype around the film that made Will Smith a global superstar. And for decades, its outsized reputation in the pop cultural canon has been mildly tainted by the Tomatometer score it sported, a not bad but pretty unremarkable 68%. Today, we’re happy to report that’s no longer the case: Following the addition of 77 contemporaneous reviews published during the film’s original theatrical run, Independence Day is now officially Certified Fresh at 77% with 154 reviews!
77%
75%
When we dig into the new reviews that were added by our Curation team, the reasons for the jump in score become clearer. The majority of the critics were impressed by the sheer scale of the film, its groundbreaking special effects, and its infectious optimism. The aforementioned marketing campaign chose to focus on spectacle rather than story, and most critics were willing to concede that Independence Day delivered exactly what it promised it would. Was it dumb and silly? Sure, but not in a bad way, a lot of critics argued. As the Buffalo News’ Jeff Simon wrote, “There’s something so sweet and innocent and naive in this movie’s desire to entertain us in big, dumb, gaudy ways that you’d have to be made of asbestos not to get caught up in it.”
Of course, not every critic was fully on board with Roland Emmerich’s vision of an alien invasion thwarted by plucky humans. There were some who reluctantly acknowledged the film’s redeeming features after going into the movie hoping for something darker and coming out disappointed. Jack Garner of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle wrote, “Once I got past my disappointment of seeing the film I wanted — the solemn, dark side of Close Encounters — I had to admit that Independence Day is kind of fun. That is, as long as you check your brains at the door.” Others were simply turned off by what they described as a jingoistic tone, like the Globe and Mail’s Rick Groen, who wrote, “The Yanks may be wildly successful at exporting their pop culture, yet their patriotic fervour doesn’t travel nearly as well. In this puffed-up case, their hubris goes beyond the chauvinistic pale.”
But the naysayers were fewer and farther between, as most critics were happy to indulge in a bit of satisfying popcorn entertainment after the mixed bag of summer movies that preceded Independence Day — titles like Dragonheart (47% on the Tomatometer), Twister (68%), The Rock (76%), and Mission: Impossible (66%). Sure, some (if not all) of those films also went on to become touchstones of blockbuster ’90s cinema with cult followings of their own, but none of them came anywhere close to ruling the box office like Independence Day, which went on to become the highest-grossing film of the year with over $800 million worldwide.
In other words, people went out to see this movie, and many of them saw it more than once. It remains one of the defining event movies of the modern blockbuster era, delivering the big-budget spectacle audiences were looking for. Its updated Tomatometer score is less a modern reevaluation than a more complete historical record of its reception, one that confirms audiences weren’t the only ones swept up in the film’s dazzling adventure. In the immortal words of Bill Pullman’s President Whitmore, “Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!”
Independence Day was released in theaters on July 3, 1996. Read reviews for Independence Day here, and rent or buy it to watch at home on Fandango.
Curation of contemporaneous reviews was led by Rob Fowler.
