Independence Day: Resurgence review – a good disposable popcorn flick

‘Can we defeat the aliens again? A second alien fleet attempts to wipe humans off the face of the Earth.’

Ronald Emmerich is renowned for the modern disaster movie, whether it’s alien invasions, global catastrophes, or giant monster’s, he’s name has become synonymous with large scale destruction. Now after twenty years he’s re-mining one of his oldies and giving us his first sequel. The rather generically titled Independence Day: Resurgence, another belated sequel of a 90’s/80’s classic. Amongst the cast we have a mixture of old and new faces with Jeff Goldblum’s David Levinson and Bill Pullman’s former President Thomas J. Whitmore returning as they prepare for the aliens imminent return, this time with harvested alien technology. Also joining them are fresh new faces in the form of Liam Hemsworth and Jessie Usher’s fighter pilots.

For any sequel to be successful it needs to add something new and build on what’s come before. Unfortunately, Resurgence hasn’t done that at all and what we get is essentially a rehash of the original, just bigger and louder. The aliens return after twenty years in greater force, including a space craft three thousand kilometres in diameter and with its own gravity.

As with the first film it’s up to America to save the day against the far more powerful foe. It’s as if Emmerich just wanted to outdo the chaos and destruction from the first Independence Day (1996) at the expense of an engaging plot. In fact, as you watch you’ll notice a large number of references to the first film whether it’s an aerial dog fight, or Bill Pullman pulling out another inspirational speech. Emmerich even adds the concept of the invaders having a hive-like social structure, which we’ve all seen before in another far superior alien sequel.

Emmerich, who co-wrote the script, also can’t seem to make up his mind on what the tone of the film should be. Is it a fun light weight adventure flick, or a serious, tense sci-fi? He attempts to mesh the two rather unsuccessfully, which makes for a jarring experience. You could be watching someone get gunned down in front of their loved ones and in the same scene have that loved one spiel off a series of one liners in a jovial manner – as if they haven’t just suffered a massive loss. The director has also picked up the modern film making habit of needing to world build. Setting up sequels and including side plots in the hope of creating a franchise out of a twenty year old film which, if we’re honest could have been left alone as a great one off homage to the B-Movie.

The story is hindered by underdeveloped characters who at best can be described as archetypes. Liam Hemsworth plays the cocky fighter pilot who doesn’t play by anyone’s rules but his own, and comes with comic relief best friend (we could just as easily call them Maverick and Goose). Saying that, Maika Monroe gives a good performance as Whitmore’s daughter and is by far the most compelling character amongst the second generation cast.

All returning faces though like Brent Spinner’s mad scientist and Pullman’s former President all sleep walk through their roles and are purely there to connect to the original. In truth it’s a big ensemble which Emmerich isn’t able to balance that well, giving us un-compelling characters and in the case of DeObia Oparei’s African warlord, are just plain insensitive and stereotypical.

Despite the flaws, if you can get past the over familiarity and sense of déjà vu, there is some fun to be had. The pace is fast with little time given to exposition and the action is handled well. This time round we also get some man-on-alien action, which was the one thing that was lacking in the first movie and is pretty cool to see. The visual effects are good and what you would expect from a summer blockbuster, although the global carnage created by the giant ship was a bit too CGI heavy. At least in the original they used practical effects when it came to blowing up iconic landmarks.

‘Independence Day: Resurgence is proof that bigger and louder doesn’t always mean better.’

With a poor and unoriginal story it just doesn’t hold up to the original, and with too many people to fit in all we get are basic character types who we’re struggle to care about. Still, if you can switch off your brain, it’s a fun couple of hours to kill.