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| Independence Day: Resurgence - Obnoxious, terrible, pointless. |
Written by: Nicolas Wright & James A. Woods and Dean Devlin & Roland Emmerich and James Vanderbilt (screenplay), Dean Devlin & Roland Emmerich and Nicolas Wright & James A. Woods (story by), Dean Devlin & Roland Emmerich (based on characters created by)
Directed by: Roland Emmerich
Starring: Liam Hemsworth, Jessie T. Usher, Maika Monroe, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, William Fichtner, Brent Spiner, Vivica A. Fox
Rated: PG-13
My rating is simple, Watch It, It Depends, Skip it. Read my previous movie reviews!
Plot
Twenty years after the first Independence day invasion, the Earth is threatened again by aliens.
Verdict
This is laughably bad. The script suffers from trying to cover way too much, shoehorning in actors from the first movie when the only one we really want is Will Smith. Mr. Smith is nowhere in this movie, smart move on his part.
This doesn't just call back to the first movie, it lifts whole scenes, but uses them poorly. This fails to build the story and execute what should be stunning moments. It's a tangled mess of overly complicated plot and way too many characters that had the hubris to assume we'd want a sequel.
Skip it.
Review
Independence Day (1996) had aliens, special effects, and a young Will Smith in what quickly became a summer blockbuster.
In the first few scenes you'll realize the sequel is incredibly cheesy. We already knew it was unnecessary. Why did actors agree to come back to this sequel? The paychecks must have been phenomenal. How did Brent Spiner's character even survive the first movie?
One of the major differences in this and the original, and comparisons are inevitable, is that Resurgence doesn't have a first act. This throws everything at you without any kind of set up. It has way too many characters, many included just as a homage to the first movie and others that are completely pointless. The problem is that not a single one of them has the charisma of Will Smith. The original was part of Smith's run of successful blockbusters. If any of the actors in this were hoping for a critical success they have to be disappointed.
This is laughable in amazing fashion. It has a distinct lack of storytelling.
This fails to build suspense at every step. While it copies large swaths of the original, it just takes the big moments with none of the setup. Because of that the big moments lack gravitas. Not a single moment in this film comes close to the first one. Could the writers not be bothered to watch the original or could they not realize what made the big moments great? The audience has to be invested first.
So much of this movie is pointless, and it gets in the way of what could have been a decent action movie. Troubled but skilled pilot Liam Hemsworth has a pointless sidekick with a pointless infatuation.
Not to be outdone David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) also has a dorky sidekick. Both of these characters provide unnecessary comic relief. Hemsworth's sidekick pines for another pilot, and Goldblum's is in awe of Dikembe who is a Congolese warlord that fought aliens for years with two machetes.He is the only interesting character in this movie.
Judd Hirsh plays David Levinson's father in what has to be the most pointless role in this movie, and that's an achievement.
Bill Pullman's character looks like he was raised from the dead, just to tease us that he might deliver an amazing speech. He doesn't, well he doesn't if don't count the fact that his famous speech and the specific scene from the first movie is included. Copying is easier than creating after all.
The kids have grown up and are our only hope to defeat the aliens. Steven Hiller's (Will Smith) son Dylan (Jessie T. Usher) is the lackluster stand in for his dad and the fleet commander. He's joined by the former president's daughter Patricia Whittmore (Maika Monroe). They bonded in the first movie at Area 51. They and Patricia's fiance Jake (Liam Hemsworth) are the hot shot pilots to lead America to victory.
The aliens from the first movie are back. The movie makes it a lot more complicated, but that's the gist of it. There's also a benevolent alien race that looks like an Apple product.
I liked the idea that low-tech is the route to succeed, but it doesn't play a big role. Instead we get Goldblum driving the most nimble school bus I've ever seen while Hiller and Jake fly alien spacecrafts that despite having no propulsion power, they fly perfectly normal as they shoot the five story tall alien queen.
Can you believe that Roland Emmerich also directed this and the first one? It just proves that the strength of the first movie was the script. Having an idea for a sequel isn't a movie. You have to actually write a movie and come up with a story. Someone forgot that step in the process, yet somehow it took four people to craft this story and five to write it. Zoinks!
This movie ends with Brent Spiner's character mentioning "interstellar travel" as an obvious nod to a sequel that very few people could actually want. This movie is obnoxious.
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