“Independence Day: Resurgence” plays out like a set-up to the real story that will come out in a couple of years… or maybe not.
I’m a fan of the original and was looking forward to this. But even the action sequences couldn’t make up for gratuitous characters, scattered plots and just plain lack of heart.
“Independence Day: Resurgence” had so many problems that I’m going to put my stamps of approval or disapproval on this.
This was very well done, making the film feel like a genuine sci-fi movie. And it made sense. I appreciated the thoughtfulness that went into it.
Meanwhile, information is fed to us through conversations and speeches to bring us up to speed and the fact that humanity has been preparing for a future attack.
But then it got a bit too much. The information turned into a…
C’mon man. This is a blockbuster popcorn flick. No need to expound that much.
This takes me back to “Mad Max: Fury Road” and how brilliant the world building was. I never felt the story stopped to “catch me up” on things.
Speaking of “catching me up” on things, here’s the “where are they now?” section…
Of course we have to re-visit all the old ones. There was even a large painting of a certain character in a very conspicuously odd place (I won’t ruin it for you, but you’ll know it when you see it).
Bill Pullman returns with a daughter, who is part of one of several love stories.
I think it hurt the film to have most of them come back. I rather the writers spend time writing a script that works instead of writing a script that fits around all these characters. Some had nothing much to do and felt shoe-horned. Though I did enjoy seeing Data. He was as loony as ever. Jeff Goldblum brought his charisma, though it wasn’t enough to save the movie.
Jessie T. Usher plays Will Smith’s son. Even though he’s given some character depth to play with, he either doesn’t take advantage of that as an actor OR his story is not given enough room to breath. And so he feels more like a tool to connect to Will Smith’s character and to add conflict to Liam Hemsworth, who gets his very own stamp…
What’s an action movie without the “doesn’t play by the rules” type. Oh and he’s a fighter pilot too, though not as charismatic as Tom Cruise
PLOT
The set-up was so long that it took nearly 40 minutes before the alien ship arrived, bringing along with it very good special effects. There was plenty of destruction to be had.
But then all these characters, old and new, find ways to come together…
…which includes some new characters like the president, a female scientist who is friends (potential love interest) with Goldblum, her assistant in a suit, a general and a warlord.
Out of the new characters, I mostly enjoyed the warlord (Deobia Oparei). Instead of having another sequel, just give me “Independence Day: The Warlord” prequel to the sequel.
Judd Hirsch character gets the…
Then there’s a couple of other subplots. One of which involves a couple of short, unnecessary scenes, with a ship of men. A second one is really interesting, but there is no time to fully develop it. But if they do a sequel maybe they can redeem themselves and do justice to this.
The fighter pilots have some fun scenes, bringing more new characters and another love story. And I really like the look of the aliens, though I’m not sure about the size.
The film tries to bring some emotion into it, but that falls flat because the characters don’t seem to be all that emotionally affected by what is going on. And when the characters enter the "gung ho" zone, they come dangerously close to feeling like they were ripped out of a Syfy TV movie, but without the fun campy charm.
If you just want to watch bits of destruction porn but don’t care about anything else then this should work for you.
The story left in a cliffhanger. And looking back, it feels as though all these characters were brought in and either moved around or off the board to make way for what's to come next. But there’s no guarantee that another film will be made, though I would like to see what they come up because it offers an interesting concept… better than this one.
Maybe they should have skipped to that story.
Score 2/10
