Independence Daysaster

I love the fact that someone came up with the idea of the title and the crew (if there was a crew) went "yup! We'll go with that!"

When Earth is attacked by a hostile alien force, a small town firefighter and a rogue SETI scientist team up to activate the only technology capable of defeating the invaders.

By now, you should have it figured out how SyFy works when it comes to movies. You have an end-of-the-world scenario, throw in some scientific jargon that may or may not be entirely accurate... then, somehow, amateurs get involved with a brilliant scientific idea...

Does anyone else find it ironic that the film was made in Canada but is about the American independence day? With so many films being made in Canada it might not be strange, but struck me as odd. And why are they making a riff on "Independence Day" about twenty years too late? Very timely, folks.

Ffs, when will film makers realise that shaking the camera around in an agitated manner does NOT make a film look any more "real", nor does it make a mockumentary look any less contrived. This pile of nonsense is completely unwatchable, so don't even bother.

Independence Daysaster did have a silly but also intriguing concept and title going for it, so it was definitely worth considering a viewing. As a movie, it is hardly a masterpiece of film-making- far from it- but it doesn't try to be and there is much worse around. For a SyFy original movie, it is neither among the best or worst, there are too many flaws to recommend but it is somewhat tolerable. The acting mostly is reasonably good here, almost everyone seems to be having some sort of fun acting in a way that doesn't try too hard or suggestive of going through the motions. The scenery is nice, simple but not in-someone's-basement sort of quality, the shot of earth from outer space view and what there is of the action is fun and edge-of-your-seat quality. The music was a mixed bag, sometimes rousing, at other times too much of a dirge and the sort of sounds and rhythms that you've heard more than once. While the acting is not bad, Tom Everett Scott was unconvincing as the president, he lacked cragginess and proper authority and seemed bewildered too. Like most SyFy originals, Independence Daysaster is badly hindered by its budget. The special effects look really cheap and are papier-mâché-like in quality, while it was clear from the photography and editing that Independence Daysaster was made in a rush and with not much love. The script isn't too complicated but at the same time comes as too simplistic and never strongly develops the characters, the inspirational speech was really clichéd and not one of those speeches that you want to take inspiration from, Scott's lack of conviction in delivery didn't help either. The story is a case of too much talk and being behind technology and not enough action, there are entertaining moments but not enough and there are too many dull stretches. The predictability levels are also high, and the suspense and genuine-care-for-situation levels low. The characters are not annoying as such and serve a point to the story, but they are never anywhere developed enough to make the audience connect with them. The aliens are under-utilised, not much of a threat judging from how people react to them and they are not in any way relateable. And then there's the science, not as infuriating as other SyFy original movies but far too silly to be believable. All in all, nothing special and not particularly a good movie but it's never really unbearably bad either. 4/10 Bethany Cox

... comes one of the worst films you are likely to see in your lifetime, with (amazingly) a clever idea to the script that is totally lost in translation.

For the benefit of IMDb members not aware of the dynamic that supports Canadian knockoffs like this: these films exist because and only because of a massive tax subsidy at multiple levels of government in Canada, aided and abetted by a weaker dollar (relative to the US buck) which calls out to US producers in search of higher profits like a Siren Song to Ulysses.

The results can be excellent (Eureka) but are mostly horrible. When a film franchise dies in the US, a Canuck producer will buy the rights to a final sequel, a sequel designed to be "in profit" before the cameras even roll.

That said, this is an Indedependence Day knockoff done so poorly that it includes lines of dialog (and actors and special effects) that will make you cringe. This is an ADULT film where alien invaders have wiped out all major cities on earth but somehow the earth is SAVED by a bunch of teenage computer hackers in a BARN.

What more can I say??? The best performance -- the only credible performance -- is by Merriman. The entire 2 hr film has a total cast of about 7 people in all and the other 6 are forgettable.

Is it possible to do a two hour film more cheaply?

Clever those Canadians