Producer: Twentieth Century Fox
Writers: Nicholas Wright, James A. Woods, Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, James Vanderbilt
Director: Roland Emmerich
Featuring: Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Jessie T. Usher, Bill Pullman, Maika Monroe, Sela Ward, William Fitchner, Brent Spiner
ReleaseDate: OUT NOW!

The original Independence Day had fun and was worth watching. In contrast Independence Day: Resurgence should never be seen by anyone, ever, for any reason. It’s like a major summer movie blockbuster made for the SyFy cable channel, but not as good.

Twenty years after the events of the first film, in Independence Day: Resurgence, mankind has united, exploited alien technology and lives in a golden age. This theme is worth exploring, but it’s just a footnote here. More importantly, they’re back! Or, they will be after more than an hour of hand-wringing by the cast. This time, it’s in a ship 3,000 miles in diameter, carrying a King Kong-sized queen for good measure.

Independence Day: Resurgence suffers from a sustained high which ultimately becomes quite wearing – all tension – and no respite, but the formula would be workable in the right hands. Instead, the five writers, including director Roland Emmerich, fill the air with too many plot holes to mention, lost opportunities, boring and stilted dialogue, flat characters, egregious coincidences and pandering. China has become an alien queen-sized movie market, so they throw in a Chinese lady pilot (Rain Lao). Apparently, character depth is extra, since she has none. Perhaps the Chinese cut gives her more than two lines of dialogue.

In Independence Day: Resurgence when the final showdown with the queen comes, after almost two hours of build-up it’s over in an instant. She should have been the movie’s most interesting character and instead is treated like a rampaging beast rather than a super-intelligent leader. And this Aliens – how can I say it – homage, is just so much tired retread in a movie that promises so much and ends up delivering so little. Independence Day: Resurgence has no soul, no emotional connection with an audience that so badly wants to connect; like a bad date every scene seems to go south in a matter of seconds.

If Fox were smart, they would pull every copy of Independence Day: Resurgence, burn them all, and, for good measure, bury the ashes (I’ve seen too many horror films – which Independence Day: Resurgence is one, but for all the wrong reasons – where the baddie comes back to life not to risk it. Finally, salt the earth and then burn the earth again for good measure. Roland Emmerich should be exiled to Elba and never allowed near a camera again, moving or still for that matter.

Independence Day: Resurgence was a tremendous opportunity squandered for the sake of undisciplined CGI and the overly persuasive dollar bill. Science fiction fans everywhere can hang their heads and weep. I know I did and so did the Reviews Editor. And so will you.

 

Reviewer: Joe Lovece
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker