Independents' Day |
USA • 2016 • 91m •
 • Directed by: Laura Beth Love. • Starring: Fay Gauthier, Sal Landi, Johnny Rey Diaz, Matthew Riley, Jon Edwin Wright, Jude Lanston, Jacquelin Arroyo, William Castrogiovanni, Vishesh Chachra, Brian Tyler Cohen, Christos Kalabogias, Jes Selane, Kurt Sinclair. • Music by: Mike Verta.    Aliens invade, this time delivering a clear ultimatum. The fate of humanity hangs in the balance as the U.S. President and citizens decide if these aliens are to be trusted ...or feared.
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Review:
The marginally good news about 'Independents Day' is that there are worse films from The Asylum, ones that are even more amateurish, intelligence insulting and ones that blatantly rip off infinitely superior films more cheaply. There are all the trademarks flaws that make The Asylum so reviled though, and those that hated 'Independence Day: Resurgence' may find themselves appreciating that more after watching this.
Just for the record, as said many times, giving a film the lowest possible rating is incredibly rare for me these days, trying to be a fair reviewer trying to see the good in everything viewed. That rating is only reserved for films etc. that look like no effort or heart was put into it and like nobody was trying, a cardinal sin in film but actually not committed all that often. 'Independents Day' is yet another strong example of this.
Visually, 'Independents Day' looks incredibly cheap even for something made on a low budget. It's very drably and sometimes dizzyingly shot, incoherently edited (bacon-slicer-like) with glaring and unforgivably sloppy continuity errors and even the scenery doesn't make much impression despite being actually the least bad aspect of the film. There are worse special effects in other Asylum films, they still look very cheap though and like they were an afterthought and made in haste. Am aware of the film being low-budget, but there are examples of low-budget films that still don't look awful and manage to be pretty good.
Can remember little about the music, which tended to be intrusive, annoying and out of place. The script makes little sense, sounds awkward constantly and on the wrong side of camp throughout.
There is absolutely nothing thrilling, tense, suspenseful, emotionally investable or fun about the story. The predictability may have been forgivable if the film was actually engaging let alone exciting but it fails to be either throughout. 'Independents Day' is basically non-stop dullness and intelligence-insulting ridiculousness, with unintentional humour because of the excessive cheese, bouts of mawkish and stilted melodrama and irritating character behaviours that makes one endear to them even less in a film with not one interesting or rootable character.
Although there are worse-acted The Asylum films, there is nothing praise-worthy about any of the acting, which was a mix of overdone and phoned in. They do not have much to work with at all, but there are many instances of actorsactresses still making a lot out of little, but that's not an excuse either. The direction is not worth mentioning, due to being a large part of the film's failure.
Review by TheLittleSongbird from the Internet Movie Database.
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