Independence Day: Resurgence - directed by Roland Emmerich
Screenplay: Nicolas Wright, James A Woods, Roland Emmerich, Dean Devlin & James Vanderbilt
The original "Independence Day" seemed to come out of nowhere back in 1996.
A director with only a trio of solid, largely unremarkable minor hit genre flicks to his name made a good old mega-budget popcorn flick that had aspirations of being Star Wars for a new generation.
Whilst I would argue that it fell short of this it was a huge amount of fun and was a genuine blockbuster in every sense of the word.
I re-watched it on the newly released 20th Anniversary Blu-ray before seeing this sequel and I still enjoyed it a lot.
Cheesy for sure with many roll your eyes moments of silly bravado, corny lines and hollow emotional beats but the effects still work and the fun is very much intact.
Now after a host of rumours and false starts in the twenty years since the first film stormed the box office a sequel finally arrives.
Being the modern film that it is a lot has changed.... a lot and a little.
There is a woman President, female fighter pilots, some Chinese locales and actors to keep that burgeoning box office market happy and of course the addition of 3D.
The plot this time is to all intents and purposes the same as the first film with a few problematic exceptions.
Basically - Aliens are coming to destroy all life on the planet by way of stupidly large spacecraft.
This is a sequel so everything is much bigger and holy hell are the ships bigger!
The Mother Ship sits on our planet like one of those small caps that Jewish men wear and covers about the same percentage of round object area.
In the twenty years since the first attack the people of Earth have benefited from the alien technology left behind.
Presidential helicopters now have flash glowing engines instead of rotors and there is a defence base on the moon with travel back and forth an absolute doddle courtesy of tug craft.
For all of this the people of Earth still drive around in present day internal combustion petrol cars for some weird reason.
The trouble is that the aliens have also learned a bunch of new tricks in the interim.
I say trouble because these new things are a lot of what is wrong with "Independence Day: Resurgence".
More on that shortly....
In the early scenes we are introduced to some old characters and some new ones.
Will Smith's Captain Hiller has died in between flicks but his son Dylan and wife are here - you will remember them as the stripper and her son with the slow motion leaping dog!
Jeff Goldblum's David Levinson is also back as is his doddery Dad played by Judd Hirsch.
Former President Whitmore (Bill Pullman) also returns.
Like Hiller Junior the President's young daughter Patricia is now all grown up and she has a job in the White House.
She also has a fiance in the form of Liam Hemsworth's Jake Morrison.
He was formerly best friends with Dylan but almost cost him his life during a fighter training exercise so they now don't speak.
Oh, and Patricia was also a fighter pilot.
In fact pretty much every character it seems can fly a high tech jet and fire an alien assault rifle with great proficiency.
It's all very silly but then that didn't stop the first film being a blast.
What endangers this one is the creakiness of the script.
We are told that there was a whole other aspect to the aliens plans last time that we weren't aware of.
I won't go into detail for fear of spoiling anything but each new revelation gets dumber and dumber until I questioned how smart these inter-galactic bony squids are.
There plan is pure nuts and it seems like they could have finished off the planet in no time if they had just attacked from low orbit.
Ridiculous details are poured on thick and fast from about the halfway point reaching a nadir with the introduction of an entirely new other species!
You can sense how desperate Emmerich and Devlin were to find a way of making a sequel work with their re-writing of history.
The screenplay has the feel of a hastily cobbled together hodge-podge of every idea that occurred to Emmerich and his four co-writers over the last twenty odd years.
The beauty of the first film was that the plot was simple and you always knew the stakes and what was required to win.
The ships arrived, displayed their incredible firepower, a counter attack failed when it was revealed that the aliens had protective shields and the mission was clear..... find a way of defeating the aliens before they defeated us.
There was tension, a legitimate beginning, middle and end and a real sense of triumph when the 'good guys' won out.
In "Independence Day: Resurgence" each time a clear plot is identified it is quickly pushed aside to make way for a new one.
A plan is formulated which fails because of a newly discovered fact about the aliens so another is devised which also fails because of - you guessed it- a new piece of hitherto unknown information.
The script is incredibly clunky and flies off in all directions.
It is at great pains to include as many of the original cast as possible and suffers for it.
Some are killed off in remarkably dismissive ways while others that should have been are given far too much screen time.
Hirsch is the most notable and annoying one although Brent Spiner (who I could swear was actually shown dying in the first film) is close behind,
One character named Floyd exists purely as comic relief but fails to generate a single giggle.
There is a redundant romantic subplot between Travis Tope playing Hemsworths other best friend and a Chinese pilot played by Angelababy who looks very pretty but is honestly one of the worst actresses that I have ever seen.
We don't need a convoluted mess of too many revelations and twice the number of characters that are required.
There are so many and most are completely pointless.
Joey King and her young friends don't contribute anything, the new President played by Sela Ward seems to exist only to show how modern the film is in its thinking and yet she makes bad decision after bad decision.
Both romance subplots fall flat and the tension between Dylan and Jake is cliched and never rings true.
Charlotte Gainsbourg threatens to class the place up but her character is yet another that exists solely to impart a little piece of knowledge before fading into the background for a while.
The less said about Viveca Fox, Brent Spiner, a clearly ailing Robert Loggia and Judd Hirsch the better.
This should have been like the first film - a simple, refined story loaded with action spectacle.
We do at least get the latter.
The visual effects are exactly as good as they need to be and look superb on an IMAX screen in 3D.
With a mix of ground and air scenes in a variety of locales from Earth to the Moon there is no shortage of impressive action.
I loved the design of all of the craft - specially the Mig-29 like jets that Dylan, Jake and their team fly.
It's such a shame that they didn't have a better story to exist in.
There are no moments where I broke into a smile as the humans scored a victory.
No lines that made me laugh and very few characters that I cared one jot about.
I wasn't bored and as disappointed as I am in this film I don't dislike it.
It is technically very well made.
Roland Emmerich knows how to construct and shoot a scene so that it makes sense.
Obviously he is without equal at laying waste to the landmarks of Earth and this film further cements his place.
But ultimately this film is forgettable and it is so within minutes of leaving the cinema (which you can do as soon as the credits roll- there are no extra scenes)
The only thing that sticks in my mind really is Maika Monroe's bizarre twitching right breast in a scene late in the film as she aims a pistol.
Trust me- it is very odd.
RATING: 68 / 100
CONCLUSION: A mess of a script and too many characters get in the way of what should have been a good old fashioned blockbuster popcorn flick.
Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Liam Hemsworth, Maika Monroe, Jessie T. Usher, Bill Pullman, Sela Ward, Judd Hirsch, Travis Tope, Vivica A. Fox, Charlotte Gainsbourg, William Fichtner, Brent Spiner, Angelababy, Ryan Cartwright, Joey King, Patrick St. Esprit, Nicolas Wright, Deobia Oparei, Robert Loggia
Screenplay: Nicolas Wright, James A Woods, Roland Emmerich, Dean Devlin & James Vanderbilt
Music Score by: Harold Kloser & Thomas Wanker
Cinematography: Markus Forderer
Edited by: Adam Wolfe
Running Time: 120 minutes
Rated: M - Action Violence, mild alien gore
Cinematography: Markus Forderer
Edited by: Adam Wolfe
Running Time: 120 minutes
Rated: M - Action Violence, mild alien gore
A director with only a trio of solid, largely unremarkable minor hit genre flicks to his name made a good old mega-budget popcorn flick that had aspirations of being Star Wars for a new generation.
Whilst I would argue that it fell short of this it was a huge amount of fun and was a genuine blockbuster in every sense of the word.
I re-watched it on the newly released 20th Anniversary Blu-ray before seeing this sequel and I still enjoyed it a lot.
Cheesy for sure with many roll your eyes moments of silly bravado, corny lines and hollow emotional beats but the effects still work and the fun is very much intact.
Now after a host of rumours and false starts in the twenty years since the first film stormed the box office a sequel finally arrives.
Being the modern film that it is a lot has changed.... a lot and a little.
There is a woman President, female fighter pilots, some Chinese locales and actors to keep that burgeoning box office market happy and of course the addition of 3D.
The plot this time is to all intents and purposes the same as the first film with a few problematic exceptions.
Basically - Aliens are coming to destroy all life on the planet by way of stupidly large spacecraft.
This is a sequel so everything is much bigger and holy hell are the ships bigger!
The Mother Ship sits on our planet like one of those small caps that Jewish men wear and covers about the same percentage of round object area.
In the twenty years since the first attack the people of Earth have benefited from the alien technology left behind.
Presidential helicopters now have flash glowing engines instead of rotors and there is a defence base on the moon with travel back and forth an absolute doddle courtesy of tug craft.
For all of this the people of Earth still drive around in present day internal combustion petrol cars for some weird reason.
The trouble is that the aliens have also learned a bunch of new tricks in the interim.
 |
| Maika Monroe, Liam Hemsworth, Charlotte Gainsbourg, William Fichtner, Jeff Goldblum, Brent Spiner & Angelababy |
More on that shortly....
In the early scenes we are introduced to some old characters and some new ones.
Will Smith's Captain Hiller has died in between flicks but his son Dylan and wife are here - you will remember them as the stripper and her son with the slow motion leaping dog!
Jeff Goldblum's David Levinson is also back as is his doddery Dad played by Judd Hirsch.
Former President Whitmore (Bill Pullman) also returns.
Like Hiller Junior the President's young daughter Patricia is now all grown up and she has a job in the White House.
She also has a fiance in the form of Liam Hemsworth's Jake Morrison.
He was formerly best friends with Dylan but almost cost him his life during a fighter training exercise so they now don't speak.
Oh, and Patricia was also a fighter pilot.
In fact pretty much every character it seems can fly a high tech jet and fire an alien assault rifle with great proficiency.
It's all very silly but then that didn't stop the first film being a blast.
What endangers this one is the creakiness of the script.
We are told that there was a whole other aspect to the aliens plans last time that we weren't aware of.
I won't go into detail for fear of spoiling anything but each new revelation gets dumber and dumber until I questioned how smart these inter-galactic bony squids are.
There plan is pure nuts and it seems like they could have finished off the planet in no time if they had just attacked from low orbit.
Ridiculous details are poured on thick and fast from about the halfway point reaching a nadir with the introduction of an entirely new other species!
You can sense how desperate Emmerich and Devlin were to find a way of making a sequel work with their re-writing of history.
The screenplay has the feel of a hastily cobbled together hodge-podge of every idea that occurred to Emmerich and his four co-writers over the last twenty odd years.
The beauty of the first film was that the plot was simple and you always knew the stakes and what was required to win.
The ships arrived, displayed their incredible firepower, a counter attack failed when it was revealed that the aliens had protective shields and the mission was clear..... find a way of defeating the aliens before they defeated us.
There was tension, a legitimate beginning, middle and end and a real sense of triumph when the 'good guys' won out.
In "Independence Day: Resurgence" each time a clear plot is identified it is quickly pushed aside to make way for a new one.
A plan is formulated which fails because of a newly discovered fact about the aliens so another is devised which also fails because of - you guessed it- a new piece of hitherto unknown information.
The script is incredibly clunky and flies off in all directions.
It is at great pains to include as many of the original cast as possible and suffers for it.
Some are killed off in remarkably dismissive ways while others that should have been are given far too much screen time.
Hirsch is the most notable and annoying one although Brent Spiner (who I could swear was actually shown dying in the first film) is close behind,
One character named Floyd exists purely as comic relief but fails to generate a single giggle.
There is a redundant romantic subplot between Travis Tope playing Hemsworths other best friend and a Chinese pilot played by Angelababy who looks very pretty but is honestly one of the worst actresses that I have ever seen.
We don't need a convoluted mess of too many revelations and twice the number of characters that are required.
There are so many and most are completely pointless.
Joey King and her young friends don't contribute anything, the new President played by Sela Ward seems to exist only to show how modern the film is in its thinking and yet she makes bad decision after bad decision.
Both romance subplots fall flat and the tension between Dylan and Jake is cliched and never rings true.
Charlotte Gainsbourg threatens to class the place up but her character is yet another that exists solely to impart a little piece of knowledge before fading into the background for a while.
The less said about Viveca Fox, Brent Spiner, a clearly ailing Robert Loggia and Judd Hirsch the better.
 |
| The effects are excellent but their impact is diminished by a weak script |
We do at least get the latter.
The visual effects are exactly as good as they need to be and look superb on an IMAX screen in 3D.
With a mix of ground and air scenes in a variety of locales from Earth to the Moon there is no shortage of impressive action.
I loved the design of all of the craft - specially the Mig-29 like jets that Dylan, Jake and their team fly.
It's such a shame that they didn't have a better story to exist in.
There are no moments where I broke into a smile as the humans scored a victory.
No lines that made me laugh and very few characters that I cared one jot about.
I wasn't bored and as disappointed as I am in this film I don't dislike it.
It is technically very well made.
Roland Emmerich knows how to construct and shoot a scene so that it makes sense.
Obviously he is without equal at laying waste to the landmarks of Earth and this film further cements his place.
But ultimately this film is forgettable and it is so within minutes of leaving the cinema (which you can do as soon as the credits roll- there are no extra scenes)
The only thing that sticks in my mind really is Maika Monroe's bizarre twitching right breast in a scene late in the film as she aims a pistol.
Trust me- it is very odd.
This should have been a triumphant return of the sort that The Force Awakens pulled off.
I am gagging for the next installment of that great flick but with "Independence Day: Resurgence" I doubt that the sequel that this film clearly sets up is likely to happen.
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