Independence Day: Resurgence

At least the Chrysler building didn’t get destroyed in this one.

Independence Day: Resurgence, the sequel to the original 1996 film, takes place 20 real-time years after the first alien invasion was successfully repelled and the world declared a new Independence Day. Choosing to focus on a handful of returning characters such as David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), President Thomas Whitmore (Bill Pullman), his daughter Patricia Whitmore (now played by Maika Monroe), Dylan Hiller (Jessie Usher), son to Will Smith’s character from the original (who only shows up in a photograph and mentioned in a throwaway line), along with a few new comers, the story is more or less exactly the same as the first: humanity must defend against yet another alien invasion before the Earth is wiped clean, the only real difference this time around being that said aliens roll up with a MUCH bigger ship (that has its own gravity nonetheless), and that the destruction caused in their wake looks a whole helluva lot more pretty what with 20 years of technological evolution at the filmmakers fingertips.

While most of this movie is your run-of-the-mill blockbuster complete with big explosions, barely passable acting, terrible dialogue and character work, and a whole crap-ton of unnecessary subplots and characters running rampant, I found myself enjoying quite a bit of what was leftover. For one, the action and destruction in this film is just great, and let’s be honest, who would have thought any different with Roland Emmerich back behind the lens? Say what you will about the parts of his movies that don’t feature things going boom, but when said things do go boom, they do so in the most epic, satisfying and grand way, often times leaving the audience in awe at the spectacle of it all, and this film is certainly no exception.

Now if you’re Emmerich, you know where your bread is buttered, but is it really all that hard to try and punch up the elements that don’t involve giant space battles and world monuments collapsing into millions of pieces, utterly disintegrating anyone within a five mile radius? I think not, and I only say this because of the sheer amount of time actually spent outside of the action scenes that deal with characters and plots (romantic or otherwise) that are supposed to be the backbone of the script when shit isn’t hitting the fan. Michael Bay knows not to pay too much attention to his characters and story; he knows that both are just a means to and end to set up yet another action sequence, but Emmerich has a hard time doing the same. Most of the time, when the aliens aren’t raining hellfire across the globe that is, he’s trying to make characters or subplots work when they clearly don’t or have no reason to be onscreen at all. It becomes a frustrating experience when all I want is to see more of those tentacled aliens getting the smack down of their lives while things fall to pieces in the background.

With a respectable two-hour runtime, the script tries to pretend like it’s some sweeping ensemble piece where we absolutely have to keep tabs on every miniscule character and pointless subplot in order for people to understand the scope of what we’re dealing with. I honestly could care less about Jeff Goldblum’s dad saving a busload of kids; I could have done without his character entirely along with at least six others, especially when some of those characters are clearly trying to replace the irreplaceable Will Smith (looking at you Liam Hemsworth). While I applaud the fun and entertaining callbacks and situations to the first film, this sequel seems to lean too hard on that nostalgia factor to push everything forward. The first film had an odd success rate with its weird characters and subplots, something this film is trying too hard to replicate, and as cool as it is to see some returning characters and story beats, this film needed to embrace more of its differences than its similarities. Give me the full tilt sci-fi-ness that the more realistic and grounded original couldn’t even attempt to try, give me more of that interesting “other” alien presence that’s clearly only present to set up a sequel, give me the different aspects of this film that work so well rather than the stale and old crap that just doesn’t work a second time around.

I don’t know if it’s just the way blockbusters are made nowadays that led to all of this or if it’s just the filmmakers being lazy, but this film could have been way more fun than what’s presented here, and with glimpses of some truly great things bubbling beneath it all, there’s no reason why the final product couldn’t have turned out better. I may be harping on the negative side of this film a bit, but when the movie starts to fire on all cylinders when the aliens show up, or whenever a scene dealing directly with the overarching conflict comes into play, I really, really liked what I saw. There’s enough of a fun factor inherent in these scenes to carry the film along, it’s just a shame that things couldn’t have more consistently swung into the “guilty pleasure” realm of Hollywood as apposed to the “rinse and repeat” section.

At its core, Independence Day: Resurgence is a cash grab that came way too late. Everything about this film screams of the studio trying to start a franchise that, on paper, totally deserves the sequel treatment, but in practice, is a little underwhelming. Being yet another sequel that took it’s sweet ass time getting itself into cinemas, Independence Day: Resurgence isn’t the train wreck I expected it to be and with a greater emphasis on the sci-fi aspect of the film, some great action/destruction scenes, and some really fun yet unnecessary nostalgia trips, this sequel is definitely worth a watch but also has a whole lot of issues that brings down most of the good stuff to a ‘just okay” level. I’m down for a third outing if only to see what direction this franchise is willing to go, but if not, I’m not gonna lose any sleep over it.