Independence Day: Resurgence - Review

Making a sequel to a film 20 years later is always a hard task. It can almost never live up to the expectations or the overall quality of the first film. This film is no exception. Independence Day was a fun, popcorn movie with some fun action and some cheesy moments. But what made that film work was it's characters. Sure some of the moments were a bit corny or downright stupid, but in the centre, there was Will Smith "fresh" out of Bel-Air and Jeff Goldblum coming off the success of Jurrasic Park. They were oozing with charisma. That's why that film worked and is the reason that this film doesn't. Jeff Goldblum simply isn't the same character we saw 20 years ago, Bill Pullman was nice to see but didn't do too much and Will Smith was nowhere to be found. That hurt this movie big time! Instead, we have his no-name son, Liam Hemsworth and a couple of his army buddies along with some other wacky side-characters who are extremely bland and forgettable. William Fichtner is a great actor but does almost nothing here. All the actors seemed just to be phoning it in and the dialogue... oh boy.... But people don't come to see a film like this for its complex story or superb acting, they come to see Aliens blow up some stuff. Although dated, the first film's destruction scenes are still entertaining and the build up is very well done. Here, the build up is paced pretty poorly and the destruction is pretty sub-par. I thought Roland Emmerich missed lots of opportunities with that. The spaceship dogfights were pretty cool and the re-introduction of Brett Spiner was pretty fun, this film is full of useless characters and side-plots that lack any type of emotional investment, a story that seems pretty elementary, production design that uses WAY too much neon blue (gives you a headache) and action scenes that are nowhere near as exciting as the first. Watch the first Independence Day, it's a fun film. I'd say you can skip this one. There are better films in theatres right now.