Independence Daysaster

When I stumbled upon the 2013 movie "Independence Daysaster" by random chance here in 2024, I immediately figured that this would be a mockbuster from The Asylum. Sure, I had never heard about the movie, but the title alone was just screaming The Asylum mockbuster.

With "Independence Daysaster" being a movie that I had never heard about, much less watched, of course I opted to sit down and give director W. D. Hogan's 2013 movie a fair chance. Were I harboring any expectations? Nope, none whatsoever.

And imagine my surprise when there was no logo from The Asylum as the movie started. So at least it was off to a good start.

Writers Sydney Roper and Rudy Thauberger put together an enjoyable enough script and storyline. Sure, the storyline was generic and predictable, but it made for a fair enough cheesy sci-fi action flick, although in the lower end of the scale. But I will say that I was actually well-enough entertained by the storyline here, though it is hardly a movie that I will be visiting a second time.

I don't think I was familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list. And believe it or not, but that is actually something I do enjoy when I sit down to watch a movie. And it should be said that the actors and actresses on the cast list in "Independence Daysaster" put on good performances, despite the generic material they had to work with.

The CGI in the movie was a mixed bag of nuts, because some of the CGI scenes were fair, while others were clunky and looked like something from a 1990s computer game.

My rating of "Independence Daysaster" lands on a four out of ten stars.

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.

... 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

This is a cheap Canadian made-for-TV alien-invasion movie. It's cheesy and filled with clichés and cheap CGI effects.

As indicated in the camp title, it borrows heavily from similar Hollywood blockbusters. ("America under attack...on the fourth of July!") As in all these movies, we follow only the President and his family (and no one else), nerds play a big role, the government officials argue endlessly ("With all due respect, we don't have time!") and the women and girls are there primarily to be annoying.

However, it's not really that bad for all that. The alien drill-ships are sort of cool. There are a lot of explosions and alien ships whizzing around. This movie is worth about a 5.

Ryan Merriman (playing a fireman who ran into a SETI chick who had a machine that could stop the aliens) seems to be the stalwart hero of the film. As decent eye candy and a fairly good actor, he helped the movie's overall watchability. Tom Everett Scott (playing the president) and his son weren't bad either.

You see a lot of these movies on SyFy. I wish they would show decent programming, rather than new cr*p like this. How expensive can it be to show Star Trek re-runs?

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.