"Independence Day", is a fun film, which is good science fiction combined with a good story. The film is filled with tributes to other films in the genre, but it pays tribute as opposed to just taking the ideas of others. By definition science fiction takes all matter of liberty with what is believed to be possible, but at the outset there is one issue that is rather glaring. The mother ship of the aliens is said to be between one fifth and one quarter the size of our Moon, if this was the case some things would be obvious. Firstly, there would be no need to use anything high-tech much less science fiction to know something was wrong. You would be able to see the shadow this ship would cast with your eyes, no telescope needed. The size of the ship would greatly affect the world's oceans, weather, and other issues. This is not a stealthy invasion.
This is a great film visually, and Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum are very entertaining, and Judd Hirsch also makes the film even more fun to watch. There is also a fairly small part played by Brent Spiner that will be enjoyed by fans, by this member of Star Trek who has played Data for so many years.
HG Wells first brought this story to the screen, and also created real world panic when he broadcast, "War Of The Worlds", over live radio, and caused a good deal of pure terror from listeners who believed an invasion was actually taking place. The film also includes pieces, or nods to a variety of other films like; "2001 A Space Odyssey", "The Right Stuff", "ET", "Close Encounters", and "the Poltergeist Films", among others.
It is all presented with a fresh and very well done set of special effects, and like the film HG Wells first brought to the screen, the invaders do plenty of damage before being brought down by the modern computer equivalent of what stopped them in the original film. The difference of course is that man, or a few good men and women save the day, instead of the original, when Mother Earth protected herself. I don't point out the parallels to detract from his film, just in the hope people will see out and enjoy the films that inspired today's modern flicks, so many decades ago.
Enjoy this film and watch, "War Of The Worlds", as well; it's a great way to spend an afternoon.