Independence Day [2]: Resurgence (2016) [Blu-ray]
Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Tagline: They messed with the wrong planet

Twenty years after mysterious aliens nearly wiped out humankind, they're back with a vengeance in this explosive sequel to the original blockbuster hit, Independence Day! Using recovered alien technology, the nations of Earth developed a vast defense program to protect the planet, led by Jeff Goldblum, returning as brilliant scientist David Levinson. But nothing could prepare us for a new invasion of unprecedented scale - and only the ingenuity of a few brave men and women can save our world from extinction. Co-starring Liam Hemsworth, Jesse T. Usher and Bill Pullman, Independence Day: Resurgence is an action-packed thrill ride from start to finish!

Storyline: Two decades after the freak alien invasion that nearly destroyed mankind a new threat emerges. This Alien mothership is more than twice the size as the last one and once again, the world's armies must band together to save the world. Do they have enough firepower or will this battle change and will aliens take over?

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, October 20, 2016 The tagline for Independence Day: Resurgence states "We had twenty years to prepare," and the same of course might be said for this film's creative crew, who took two decades (more or less, not counting pre-production, of course) to craft a sequel to 1996's blockbuster extravaganza Independence Day. Considering the less than rapturous response Independence Day: Resurgence received from both critics and (at least some) audience members when it was released theatrically, some wag might suggest that Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin needed twenty one years (at a minimum) to really think through the ins and outs of this follow up. This is one of those special effects spectaculars that seemingly has everything money can buy, and yet which can look surprisingly cheap at times and which never builds to anything like the emotional fervor that made the first film so memorable. The film tries to weave together a navigable story built out of some of the rubble left after the alien incursion in the first film, bringing back a bevy of characters from that enterprise while also introducing a gaggle of newcomers (in what is assumed to be an attempt to craft a foundation for a new franchise, even if the next installment doesn't appear until 2036). The overstuffed screenplay repeatedly references the first film while also working in weird subplots that seem like distant echoes of films like Top Gun . Filled with the sort of CGI wonderment that has become de rigeur in today's science fiction cinematic universe, Independence Day: Resurgence provides occasional thrills, but is so concerned with ticking off predictable plot points that it forgets what made the first film kind of unique in the annals of overblown "alien invasion" movies: it had heart. Few who watched the first film back in the day were able to avoid a lump in their throat over the family dynamics of President Whitmore (Bill Pullman), and few similarly were able to keep from cheering (if only virtually) when Steven Hiller (Will Smith) laid down some serious butt kicking on one particular alien. Had Emmerich and Devlin merely gone for the gusto in SFX overkill (which they do, just not "merely"), Independence Day: Resurgence might have satisfied both fans of the first film and those who are way too young to remember what "July 4, 1996" means. However, it's obvious that the pair (reunited for this film) have grander ambitions to forge another film that somehow doesn't lose its humanity in the wake of an alien invasion (no pun intended), and it's here that Independence Day: Resurgence tends to falter.

Whitmore may not be president any more, but he's still experiencing nightmares. Who knows what Dr. Brakish Okun (Brent Spiner) is experiencing, since he's basically a brainwave flatline as a coma patient? David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) has assumed some of Okun's duties in the wake of that development, and he still has a lovably bantering relationship with his father Julius (Judd Hirsch) who like any good Jew has retired to Florida. While Steven Hiller isn't around any longer, his stepson Dylan (Jessie Usher) is poised to follow in his heroic footsteps, hob nobbing with the high and mighty like President Elizabeth Lanford (Sela Ward). Lanford's speech writer is a former denizen of the White House, Whitmore's daughter Patricia (Maika Monroe), now an appealing and very smart young woman. Patricia is concerned that Dylan's contentious relationship with fellow pilot Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth) will lead to needless conflict (three guesses if it does, and how that all works out).

Needless to say, there wouldn't be a movie if those nasty aliens didn't make a return appearance, and they're actually seen early on, evidently reacting in sheer horror to the fact that those pesky humans managed to beat them back twenty years ago. Meanwhile various people, including Whitmore and, are experiencing weird visions of impending disaster, with several folks channeling a vision of weird circular object that plays awfully similarly to a certain pile of mashed potatoes in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Okun's condition also suddenly changes, with the patently odd scientist suddenly awakening from his twenty year sleep. Mankind is (hopefully) being protected by the Earth Space Defense, an organization formed in the wake of the first alien attack and which has utilized some of the alien technology to forge new weaponry.

It's almost pointless to tick off the various nooks and crannies of the plot, since Independence Day: Resurgence doesn't really do anything surprising along the way. The aliens are nasty, with a Queen (why is it always a Queen) kind of symbiotically controlling the attack, and the humans kick into high gear to get to her to bring down the entire invading array. Friendships are tested, scientific strategies are questioned, love affairs blossom, and it all unfolds pretty much exactly as one might expect. The film is long on spectacle, even if much of it has the flat aspect of greenscreen work, but awfully short on actual human emotion, the one element that really seemed to set the original Independence Day apart from its alien invasion kin. It's obvious that Emmerich and Devlin rather belatedly came to the conclusion they had the makings of a franchise, even if the second installment took two decades to arrive. My hunch is after this largely haphazard array of characters, plot contrivances and hyperbolic effects work the two may be reconsidering that strategy.

There's an old adage that runs something like "too little, too late," but in the case of Independence Day: Resurgence that might be more accurately amended to read "too much, way too late." It's obvious how Emmerich and Devlin (along with their collaborators) sought to reinvigorate this putative franchise, attempting to organically weave it into the first film while providing enough new content (and characters) to thrust things forward, but the film just seems overstuffed, overblown and weirdly lethargic a lot of the time. Performances are okay but hardly inspiring, and even the effects work look a little flat some of the time. Those who are willing to simply shut down their brains and enjoy the film for its still intermittently impressive visuals and hyperbolic sound design may enjoy things as far as they go, and for them, technical merits are strong. The supplementary package on this release is also above average, for those considering a purchase.

[CSW] -2.1- This is probably a great afternoon popcorn movie fare for boys under the age of 10. I gave it one point just for the special effects. The undeveloped characters was the worst of it, missing those little moments and quips that made the first movie so special was next. They tried but it just didn't come off. Seems like it was an amateur production written by 13 year old boys, "Dude, let's have the biggest mothership ever! Say like, 100 miles across? No, no, dude....how about 3,000 miles?! Oh dude, that's so rad!" And actually that's the only original thing in the movie. I can't believe anyone would put up their money to make this but it did gross three hundred million dollars so the worse news of all is that a third movie may be in the works as it appears to be a money making venture. Probably the best advice I can give you is to wait for a rainy Saturday afternoon, make some popcorn and watch it for free on a big screen TV, because the special effects make much better eye candy on a larger screen.
[V4.5-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box was great


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