-Emmerich was openly derisive of the original films(still to this day he is), said they basically sucked and his would be better cause it was mo real n' shit.
-He made a movie that was witless, souless, generic, had shitty special effects (what did that thing look like anyway), and very annoying characters. Also, Matthew Broderick makes for perhaps the worst leading man for an action/adventure film in the history of cinema. Oh yeah, it was also really, really dumb. Really dumb.
-It was massively promoted, everybody thought the team behind Independance Day could produce something even more awesome and wonderful and swell, and it was cross marketed and syngergied up the yin-yang. It got the biggest backlash of any high-grossing blockbuster, yes, even worse then the Hulk movie.
-It ripped off the 70's remake of King Kong for some reason, and it suffered in comparison. Now that's an accomplishment.
-It further popularized Puff Daddy.
+Toho was so embarrssed they were prompted to cut short the planned break in the series and produced a fine series of Godzilla movies. Culminating in the astoundingly bizzare/awesome Godzilla:Final Wars.
I watched it in my pre-movie geek, pre-Godzilla geek days, back when my taste was at its most under-developed and crappy, and I still hated it. I gave it an honest shot last year, I found it practically unwatchable.
Fuck that movie.
