Brian69
Not the Messiah
Independence Day - This is unfair and baseless. I don't think Independence Day should win an Oscar, but it is at the very least enjoyable and action packed. It was easily one of Will Smith's best movies (screw you, Omega Man) and Jeff Goldblum is just freakin awesome. The special effects were sweet by 1997 standards. It's was also one of the forerunners of the "disaster genre." If nothing else, it is probably a high point of Roland Emmerich's career. How you can criticize Independence Day but not bile like 10,000 BC (replace aliens with CGI saber tooth tigers and sweet fighter jets with loin clothes) or The Day After Tomorrow (replace action heavy plot with snow) is beyond me.
Armageddon- This is Spiderman 3 bad. Yea, its dumb, but what did you expect from a movie whose premise is hill billies in space? Throw in William Fichtner and the full frontal assault on physics and reason and how can one help but be entertained? Put it another way, would you rather watch Deep Impact or Armageddon?
It's unfair and baseless if you can objectively tell me why Independence Day is a great movie. "Enjoyable" is subjective, and if action-packed is the criteria then you should be trumpeting the greatness of Catwoman.
You're not getting anywhere with your two examples because I didn't particularly like 10,000 BC either, though the effects were good, nor did I like The Day After Tomorrow (ditto on the effects). I just don't like empty headed movies that try to make it on SFX alone, with Independence Day playing like a parody of rah-rah heroism without giving us the knowing wink at the audience the way something like Mars Attacks did. Pullman's "presidential" speech was gagarific. One of Will Smith's best? It's just hard to see it among the all-star cast.