Independence Day: Resurgence

This movie has an amazing cast. Boy did I miss seeing Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Sela Ward, and so on! It begun okay. The script could have been better Kinda lost some interest towards the end. If you like the genre, like myself, it is worth watching. It has its classical lines, funny moments, the excitement (not the best but there). Just don't expect a masterpiece.

Twenty years ago, director Roland Emmerich put on screen an alien-invasion disaster feature with moments so iconic & jaw-dropping that viewers n critics alike were left dazzled by the sheer scale & size of its ambition. Independence Day was a watershed event for its genre and its influence on both disaster films & blockbuster filmmaking cannot be downplayed.

Independence Day was in every way a self-contained film. It never needed a sequel and its legacy was well-preserved for years to come. That was until Emmerich decided to put a dent on it, which is exactly what he does with Independence Day: Resurgence. A strong contender for the absolute worst film of 2016, this sequel is as needless & cringeworthy as movies can get.

Set 20 years after the events of the first film, Independence Day: Resurgence presents Earth to be a much more peaceful & united place than ever before. There's higher transparency in international cooperation and the defence system has benefited greatly by reverse-engineering the technology of the ruined alien spacecrafts. But when the aliens return with an even deadlier threat, mankind is put to test again.

Co-written & directed by Roland Emmerich, Independence Day: Resurgence is a facepalm-inducing garbage from start to finish. Everything that made its predecessor an instant classic is discarded in this sequel. What the writers have done with returning characters is downright embarrassing, while the new additions are even worse. There is neither any sense of logic in what transpires on screen nor any uniformity in its plot progression.

All of Roland Emmerich's trademarks make its way into the final print, be it the utter disregard for science or logic, suffocating levels of visual effects, corny characters, nonsensical set of events, and unprecedented demonstration of global catastrophe. The CGI excess is really overpowering in every sense of the word, and with all the stupidity that takes place over the course of its runtime, there is nothing redeemable about this sequel.

Coming to the performances, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch, Brent Spiner & Vivica A. Fox reprise their respective characters while the new additions include Liam Hemsworth, Jessie Usher, Maika Monroe, Charlotte Gainsbourg & a few more unknowns, and the terrible work they put up on screen is only an extension of their awfully-written characters. In fact, the only one to really admire here is Will Smith, who decided to not return this time.

On an overall scale, Independence Day: Resurgence proves that Roland Emmerich is never so bad at filmmaking that he can't get any worse. Undeniably amongst the worst blockbusters to surface on silver screen, it is a horribly directed, shoddily scripted & poorly performed picture made even worse by its wooden characters, terrible dialogues & lame attempts at humour and sort of makes you wish that the aliens had won the last time. In a sentence, Independence Day: Resurgence is an insult to human intelligence.

TL;DR: It was actually boring. There was a story here that had potential but it was let down by terrible acting, bad dialog, no story or character development at all and, ultimately, no soul to this one.

3 points for above average special effects, -7 for just an awful movie. Netflix this one.

Edition watched: 3D IMAX

In 1996's Independence Day, Bill Pullman's speech hit you emotionally somewhere. Even if that emotion was disgust, you had a reaction. All of Will Smith's one liners made you cringe or laugh. No matter how much you may deny it publicly, Randy Quaid's end put a lump in your throat the first time you saw it. There was soul to that movie, even though it was an ensemble cast, characters were developed, the story progressed and there were heroes you cheered for and aliens you despised.

None of that was present in 2016's Independence Day. All the new actors were either bad or terrible. I didn't care if the aliens won or lost. Not only were the new actors bad but some of the dialog they were forced to work with was just terrible. Jessie T. Usher's character has a few key lines that are supposed to hearken back to those emotional one liners from Will Smith in 1996, such as: "Welcome to Earth!". Yet Usher delivered those lines in such a deadpan, soulless way that made me wonder if he thought he was supposed to be playing an emotionless android. Then you have my favorite emotionless android actor Brent Spiner, who is someone I know to be a quality actor, yet the dialog and scenes with him were so bad I had to wonder for a second if all his previous work was done by a twin.

I could go on, but the acting and dialog were just parts of the problem. There was no character development at all. They simply tried to cram too much into this movie. From the constant pandering to a Mainland Chinese audience (unnecessary scenes that should have been used for any kind of plot or character development) to Vivica A. Fox's minuscule screen time, there was too much shoved into this 120 min movie which ended up making it a big mess that went nowhere. In the end, I formed no attachment to any of the new characters and was detached from old characters that I once cheered for.

The most damning thing though is, despite all the explosions and this alien invasion, there was no excitement. I was bored. There was a girl in front of me texting and using FB messenger and I found myself involuntarily lifting my 3D glasses and reading her text chain and messenger thread till I caught myself and put my glasses back on. Her inane chatter about how boring this movie was, her cat, the guy she was sitting next to and so forth were more interesting to me than the movie on the huge IMAX screen was.

As a huge fan of alien invasion movies, I walked out feeling like this was such a huge opportunity wasted. If you told me the basic story of this move yesterday, I would've been ecstatic to see a trilogy. Now I hope the 3rd one dies in production and they put the money to a Battle Los Angeles 2.

Not as bad as many say but yea set your sights low! I loved the original. This one was missing some of the great acting but I still liked the action and Sci Fi. Goldblum is hard to dislike in any movie. He helps save this from a total bomb. I bought a cheap copy on Ebay and will keep it avail for a double feature come 4th each year.

Independence Day: Resurgence makes a bold attempt to follow up on the legacy of its iconic predecessor, but it falls short in many areas. Liam Hemsworth delivers a solid performance, but the script doesn't give him much to work with, leaving his character feeling shallow and unmemorable. The story itself is straightforward and predictable, offering little in terms of surprises or emotional engagement. Attempts at humor and drama sometimes feel forced, detracting from the overall experience.

While Roland Emmerich's direction keeps the film moving at a brisk pace, it often prioritizes spectacle over substance. The visuals work well enough to support the story, but they don't push any boundaries, especially for a film released in 2016. Given the advancements in CGI and visual effects by that time, the production feels like a missed opportunity to deliver something truly jaw-dropping. Instead, it's serviceable, doing just enough to convey the futuristic and alien elements but lacking the wow factor that could have elevated the experience.

In the end, Independence Day: Resurgence is a decent popcorn flick for fans of sci-fi action, but it doesn't live up to the standards set by the original. It's fun in parts but ultimately forgettable, leaving viewers with the sense that it could have been so much more.