Independency Day: Resurgence

INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE

Running time: 120 minutes
Rated: PG-13 (for sequences of sci-fi action and destruction, some violence and language)
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox @2016
Release Date: June 24, 2016

I remember watching the first “Independence Day” in theaters not one, but twice: once on the actual title day itself. It was so phenomenal, so unbelievable, at a time where practical effects and not overblown CGI ruled the Hollywood scene. It was regarded as a tentpole movie that revived the event disaster genre. The image of seeing the White House blowing up was etched in everyone’s minds for those who remember the 1996 Super Bowl. The hype paid off: not only was it fun to see landmarks and countries blown up, it was actually an enjoying roller-coaster ride. One could even go further and make a claim that the film (along with 1993’s “Jurassic Park”) helped to jumpstart the current wave that the summer movie season would ultimately come to deliver.
Flash forward twenty years later, and now you have the second chapter released in theaters on this joyous holiday season. CGI has become a common staple among movies nowadays, but does that stop director Roland Emmerich from blowing stuff up? Nope.
“Resurgence”, as the subtitle suggests, deals with the returning arrival of those titular alien creatures from the previous film. Whereas the first film was set during a three day span, this film is set during one entire day: July 4, a day in which not only do we celebrate a national holiday. but the fallen victims of the War of 1996 are remembered. Around the world, survivors are being plagued with the upcoming arrival of the aliens, including former President Thomas Whitmore (Bill Pullman). His daughter Patricia (now played by Maika Monroe) is now the secretary under the current administration of Elizabeth Lanford (Sela Ward). The world has changed in 20 years since, and David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) is now the director of the newly appointed Earth Space Defense (ESD) program. When David is called to Africa in order to investigate a new lead, he stumbles onto something that was left over: a beacon that was released years ago that they never realized until now(?). When a spacepod is discovered over the moon, David and ESD pilot Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth) decide to investigate as the spacecraft is of different form that the one Earth encounter twenty years ago. Sure enough, when the aliens return (in a  “much bigger ship than the last one”) to finish the job, it becomes a race against time.
No one really expected a sequel to this, but if they did it was probably about ten years to late. Gotta give the director credit for creating a new world in which the Earth really put the use of the alien craft and essentially created a new world, one in which makes use of the technology and making earth defense smarter and more prepared to handle dangerous threats. This is the world I would’ve imagined if ever they had the chance to expand upon this notion, and this is used to the fullness. While I did like this world, this was not the problem I had with the movie: it had more to do with the script itself as it felt that it took until the second half for the movie to get going and when it did it went at a light speed pace. One of the things I liked about the first film was that between all the hardcore explosions and stuff, there was room for character development. Other than fleshing out a few characters, this one hardly had it. I wanted to know more about the relationship between Jake and Dylan (Jesse Usher, who I can’t blame for trying to uphold the mantle of bad-assness that Will Smith carried from the original), some more bantering between the Whitmore clan, and some other characters that either got passed over or were overused (and one really annoying subplot that needed to be fully removed). Still, one character that I was glad to see return was Brent Spiner’s return as Dr. Brackish Okun, whose role was a little longer than I anticipated, and gets one of the funniest lines that involves a blatant television reference.

“Independence Day: Resurgence” is in the end, an OK popcorn flick that doesn’t require a lot of brainpower from it’s viewers, but doesn’t offer anything new in terms of anything else beyond the visual effects and utter ridiculous storytelling. The elements of the first film were sorely missing from this outing, and one is left to ponder if things would’ve turned out a little differently had Will Smith chose to reprise his role. Probably not by much.


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