Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbduDRH2m2M

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Independence Day is an action classic of the 90s. So what does Hollywood do? Make a pointless sequel of course.


PLOT


2016’s Resurgence takes place 20 years after the events of the first film. There have been such peace among nations that the UN founded Earth Space Defense to protect the planet from future threats with reverse engineered technology. There have been ESD bases from Area 51, to the moon, Mars, Rhea and orbital defense satellites above the planet. EDS director David Levinson meets with warlord Dikembe Umbutu and doctor Catherine Marceaux in the African state République Nationale d’Umbutu to discover that the alien Harvesters were sending a distress signal  to their homeworld before defeat. Around the time Brackish Okun wakes up from his coma, Umbutu expresses having a telepathic connection to the enemy much like Thomas Whitmore has since the original invasion, having visions of a spherical object. When one emerges from a wormhole near earth’s moon, UN orders it to be destroyed despite David’s objections. David wants to up to the moon to investigate the sphere and is accompanied by Catherine & Umbutu and US federal controller Floyd Rosenberg. Those who pick them up are pilots Jake Morrison & Charlie Miller who defy orders leaving bases when not supposed to. Just when they uncover the sphere at Van de Graaf, a bigger mothership arrives in response to the distress call and begins its attack, drilling earth’s core for fuel which’ll destroy the planet. Pilot Lieutenant Rain Lao (Angelababy) also would lose her father Jiang (Chin Han) who died defending the moon base and Captain Dylan Hiller would lose his mother Jasmine (Vivica A Fox) during the drill attack. As for David’s father Julius, who wrote a book about his experiences, evades the drill and joins four siblings, the Blackwells: Sam, Bobby, Felix & Daisy (Joey King, Garrett Waering, Hays Wellford & McKenna Grace), to look for shelter. Thomas does return to Area 51 with his daughter Patricia (Jake’s fiance), as do Levinson’s group and General Joshua Adams. When encountering one of the prisoners, they learn the Harvesters to have a hive mind and the colossal queen is commanding the new invasion. Knowing that the last queen was only supervising above earth, David suspects killing this one would make enemy go dormant. Dylan would lead a counterattack on the mothership, but gets ambushed within and the only other survivors after him would be Jake, Rain & Charlie. At Area 51 does Floyd awaken the sphere and it reveals to be virtual intelligence that wants to evacuate survivors to a refugee planet meant for those targeted by the Harvesters and lead an attack on their planet. Just as Dylan’s team escapes the mothership, they pursue the colossal Queen’s personal ship that wants to extract the sphere. Knowing what she’s after, David & Okun pitch to hide it in the isolation chamber and fill up the decoy with explosives. Thomas would lead a suicide mission for the trap to occur and despite sacrificing himself, the colossal queen survives and continues following the sphere’s signal. With Julius and the Blackwells passing through the battlefield via school bus, it becomes enough of a distraction for everyone to shoot down the Queen, destroying her shields that protect her. This stops the drilling and all harvesters that are fighting become inactive. The film ends in a cliffhanger with Okun revealing the sphere wants humanity to lead the next fight to happen on the Harvesters’ home-world.


THOUGHTS


At the time, I took the assumption that this sequel couldn’t be so bad as long as Roland Emmerich remained in the director’s chair. Due to multiple writers involved though, that was a red flag I should have noticed because what could’ve be another epic adventure is just not that really. You’re definitely gonna pull me in with improved visual effects you’d expect from any 21st century blockbuster since the destruction of the Harvesters are still surreal. My problem is that the stakes don’t feel serious once the intent was to keep the war going for more sequels. Being baited like that is pointless if the pacing is going too fast for me to care in 2 hours. There’s literally too much going on between the main and supporting characters that I can’t even connect to either one good enough. I love Judd Hirsch, but we did not need to see Julius again hang out with random kids even if his arc was a Deus ex machina for David and he had way more plot armor than Thomas since he survived the drill via boat. And I felt nothing with Jiang & Rain’s family bond because we barely get introduced to them before the former dies. I then think Nicolas Wright is most misplaced as Floyd because his comedic deliveries in not knowing what to do didn’t impress me. The same can be said whenever Travis Tope is onscreen as Charlie because it never feels like his actions matter whether it’s loyally helping out Jake or having a crush on Rain. There’s nowhere near enough chemistry to root for Liam Hemsworth’s impulsive demeanor of Jake and Maika Monroe’s far more protective approach as Patricia since they’re barely together given their long distance relationship. Due to this, I can’t buy into it the way I’m supposed to. What does work for the most part is how she brings that said protective approach to her now fragile dad. Getting Bill Pullman back as Thomas was a must because he’s just as much of a core aspect to the predecessor in vein to Jeff Goldblum returning as David. While the latter comes off with a more visible balance of fear and confidence when the conflict resumes, the former is rightfully paranoid as he never got to be free from that psychic connection during that 20 year gap. I do think his sacrifice came off forced since I kept thinking about how epic it was for Russell to face the enemy head on, but it felt semi pointless since it didn’t stop the queen immediately. He even tried giving another iconic speech before joining the fight, which was pointless because he never needed to do that to prove his worry. It was still cool seeing Brett Spiner back as Okun because his eccentricity appropriately didn’t age a bit. I had nothing against Charlotte Gainsbourg’s Catherine & DeObia Oparei’s Umbutu since they too were deciphering the sphere around the same time Okun did, but there’s nothing for them to do after which sucks. Jessie T Usher also does his best in presenting Dylan as a natural leader like his father and was valid to hate on Jake for almost getting him killed on accident during training, but all I could think about was how much better this would’ve been if Will Smith has returned as Steven. It feels like not enough people in the writers room pushed for it and it’s bothersome to realize. Expositing that he died of a test flight is bullshit because he didn’t even need to practice the first time he had to attack the mothership via alien craft he subdued. And no matter how much I can enjoy William Fichtner generally speaking, his arc as Adams is too sudden for me given he has to go from general to acting president when his predecessor is presumed dead during the drill attack. With all the characters feeling so problematic, it does lead to a whole can of worms that don’t make a lot of sense during a rewatch. Now I’d like to enjoy the fantasy that there is no inner conflict between humans after the first film, but it’s hard to believe not one country, continent or even any kind of anarchist came about during that 20 year gap. I know there’s bigger things to worry about, but it’s odd how that’s never been mentioned to be a little bit realistic. And if David detected the frequency when it first happened, he should’ve investigated way sooner. It’s even dumb that Thomas gets past security so many times to advance the plot. Patricia has the worst security ever which is ridiculous since he was the president for crying out loud and didn’t seem to have this problem before despite the change in mentality. The same security problem should be noted since Floyd was allowed to get close to the sphere before Okun did. Also, it’s not funny of a distraction for Jake to piss on the mothership in front of the aliens. I know it’s part of his impulsiveness since the original invasion made him an invasion as it did Charlie, but I’m pretty sure he could’ve just split up as a better distraction. Hell, the aliens should’ve made better protocol for their technology if they didn’t want their resources to be used against them the way humans have pulled off. I really don’t know if anyone can ignore all these flaws considering these things happen back to back to the point where I feel fucking nauseated. To get this over with, Independence Day: Resurgence is one of the worst examples of what a legacy sequel looks like when not done right. If you dig the first one, avoid this at all costs.