Review of Bastille Day (2016) by Dodringo64 — 23 Jun 2016

Okay, so apparently, Independence Day: Resurgence is actually a thing, can you believe it!? I remember first seeing the original and being completely blown away, it's all anyone seemed to talk about. And now the sequel is here, and it's once again directed by Roland Emmerich and has the cast of Jeff Goldblum, Liam Hemsworth and unfortunately, there's no Will Smith or Mae Whitman, but there is Bill Pullman.

So, how good is the movie then? Well, it's one big loud CGI-fest with so much corny dialogue, so pretty much exactly like the first one, in almost every way. You see, while the first movie had charisma and energy, this film has none of that, this is just mindless fun. To be honest, it really makes me miss Will Smith for this film, since he was what made the first film so great. His replacement is so bland and so dull and Liam Hemsworth doesn't bring anything new to the table for me. You know what the best part of this film is? Jeff Goldblum. He actually feels like he is enjoying this movie and is a lot of fun. I also wonder why Maika Monroe was chosen to play the president's daughter when in the original, she was played by Mae Whitman, who is a really great actress right now.

So, this movie is fun, the CG is sometimes awesome, but it does suffer from having so much stuff on the screen at once. However, one of the biggest problems with this movie, though, is the massive abundance of characters. In the theatre, I was surprised by the amount of times a new character was introduced. Also, Brent Spiner was back in this film and he had way too much screen time. This movie also had one of the most on-the-nose set-ups for Independence Day 3, I was so shocked when watching it. Overall, though, this movie was fun, but it just didn't have that sense of urgency that the first movie had, and for that I am going to give this movie a 6, because it was watchable but nothing compared to the original.