FILM FIREWORKS MARK `INDEPENDENCE DAY'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

Quite possibly the best movie any 12-year-old boy is ever going to see, ``Independence Day'' borrows all the neat stuff from, well, every action film that's come before it, then wrecks half the planet for good measure.

Like its alien invaders, the movie is darn near irresistible, a technical tour de force realized on an awesome scale. In a similar way, the unlikely coincidences, corniness and comedy that mark this mother ship of all disaster movies add up to such grand hokum, the urge to cheer inevitably defeats the impulse to wince.

Writer Dean Devlin and writer-director Roland Emmerich, the team responsible for ``Stargate,'' have done a cut-and-paste job here, but it's an expert one. They borrow the group of varied survivors concept from Irwin Allen's ``Poseidon Adventure'' locker, rah-rah heroism from a hundred patriotic war movies and, of course, the central sci-fi terror that drove uncountable '50s cheese-o-ramas.

But nothing about ``Independence Day'' looks cheesy. Though it doesn't display any jaw-dropping technical advancements, the movie marshals existing special-effects techniques brilliantly (Volker Engler and Douglas Smith were the visual effects supervisors). The aerial footage outzips ``Star Wars,'' the sets are dazzling and the aliens are suitably icky.

And then there's the destruction: huge, detailed and devastating. Simply put, the end of the world has never looked so good.

It begins on July 2, when 15-mile-wide flying saucers appear over Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., and a dozen other cities worldwide. Our President Whitmore (Bill Pullman), a former Gulf War flying ace, urges calm. He is both ineffective and wrong in this.

Up in Manhattan, an engineering genius-turned-cable station troubleshooter, David Levinson (who else but Jeff Goldblum?), figures out what the aliens are up to. He has to warn the president and, implausibly, he has an in - David's estranged ex, Constance (Margaret Colin), is the White House press secretary. David manages to get to D.C. with his kvetching dad Julius (Judd Hirsch) just in time to talk the nation's leaders out of harm's way.

Meanwhile, out in Hollywood, super-duper Marine pilot Steven Hiller's (``Fresh Prince'' Will Smith) holiday plans are ruined when he's called back to duty, leaving his stripper girlfriend Jasmine (Vivica Fox) and her adorable son Dylan (Ross Bagley) to hook up with him later.

You'll notice how elements of both ``Cable Guy'' and ``Striptease'' have slipped sideways into the scenario - and indeed, any two scenes from ``Independence Day,'' which strives to be all things to all audiences, are probably more entertaining than both of those films put together.

Anyway, at one point, the aliens open fire. A counterstrike at the saucers fails miserably - as anyone who'd paid attention to ``Star Trek'' would expect, they're protected by impenetrable force shields.

Stragglers of all types - including an alcoholic Vietnam vet (Randy Quaid) leading a caravan of Winnebagos, a traveling first lady (Mary McDonnell) who got caught in the Los Angeles blast and a wild-haired scientist (``Star Trek: The Next Generation's'' Brent Spiner) who isn't let out much - converge on Area 51, the secret site in the Nevada desert where downed UFOs supposedly have been hidden. By then, we've learned just enough about each of them to care about their fates - which, though hardly deep, is a nice improvement over such early summer favorites as ``Twister'' and ``Mission: Impossible.''

From there, of course, what's left of the world must be saved. As this process proceeds, ``Independence Day'' doesn't strive too hard to broadcast its obvious message: that humankind must overcome petty differences if the race is to survive. We only get quick cuts of what's happening in the rest of the world, such as Israeli and Arab jets scrambling side-by-side for the final assault. For the most part, the movie stays true to its title and keeps the action focused on a cross-section of Americans.

All of whom have something to contribute to the big solution - although the males' efforts here seem to far outweigh those of the women (Sigourney Weaver, evidently, was too busy preparing for next summer's entry in Fox's other mean alien franchise). Such old-fashioned attitudes, not to mention a universe of implausibilities and laughably bad dialogue, would demolish most movies.

But with ``Independence Day,'' any and all annoyances remain minor. They don't even scratch the formidably entertaining surface of this vast, rogue starship enterprise. The movie overwhelms our petty differences with it - it unites us all on that 12-year-old boy, gosh-wow level of simple, awestruck wonder.

THE FACTS The film: ``Independence Day'' (PG-13; violence, language, children in jeopardy).

The stars: Bill Pullman, Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Margaret Colin, Vivica Fox, Judd Hirsch, Randy Quaid, Robert Loggia, Mary McDonnell, James Rebhorn.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Roland Emmerich. Written by Emmerich and Dean Devlin. Produced by Devlin. Released by 20th Century Fox.

Running time: Two hours, 25 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Three Stars.