MOVIE REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE
Independence Day Resurgence Poster
Director:
Roland Emmerich
Cast:
Jeff Goldblum, Liam Hemsworth, Bill Pullman
Well, when a movie is a big hit, immediately people start thinking about a sequel. The “idea” of sequels have always been incredibly fascinating to me because the creators have to add to a successful story by making something that feels familiar, and new simultaneously. It’s an amazing challenge and I absolutely LOVE IT when I see it pulled off.
As schlocky as 1996’s “Independence Day” was, it worked fine as a good spirited, goofy, popcorn movie. The threat of a sequel has always been in the air, and now it’s finally happened.
It’s not good.
I’m not even sure if this would’ve been good enough in 1996.
The ingredients are all there for the reheating of the popcorn flick, but it just doesn’t land on the spots that they’re clearly aiming for. There are people on screen, but there’s no characters. Although Liam Hemsworth is giving everything to his one dimensional character, we’ve all seen it done better 20 years ago by Will Smith. Jesse T. Usher plays the grown-up version of Will Smith’s son Dylan from the first film, and he’s not given much more character, other than be a stoic pilot. Maika Monroe plays a grown-up version of President Whitmore’s daughter, Patty, in another underwritten part. Nothing against Monroe, but Mae Whitman should have been invited back to reprise the role she started as a little girl, especially since she’s grown into a great actress. With her dramatic and comedic chops, she would have “crushed” a well written character facing an apocalyptic alien invasion. Even so, it was a nice addition seeing some of the original characters being brought back in, (shout out to Robert Loggia).
The beginning was a really tedious, the plot was a head scratcher, the characters are ridiculously underwritten, and the dialog was groan inducing. I did like the idea behind the big, third act big boss battle, but the execution wasn’t anything original.
This will be a good movie to catch on FX Saturdays a year from now.
Grade: 1.5 out of 5
-Markellus
