Review of Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) by Stuart F — 15 Dec 2016

Independence Day: Resurgence review. I think this is the movie that Marie has been most excited for this year. She LOVES alien movies. It is exciting to go back and explore the universe of a movie that I loved so much in my teenage years.

I went to see the first Independence Day as a midnight screening back in Year 12 and I remember the buzz at the time. That was a great era of blockbusters as Jurassic Park had come out and shown everyone how to make movies truly exciting.

This new movie arrived with nowhere near the same amount of hype and lands in a time where blockbusters really big business. So I went into the cinema with realistic expectations that this was just going to be a fun, alien invasion adventure.

And mostly I was right. There are some really good things about this movie and then quite a few lacklustre parts. I would say the highlight of the movie is that quite a few of the original cast are back and they are all excellent.

Yet again the movie finds a way of focusing on some characters doing nothing important that is an annoying distraction to the whole plot, but hey the first movie had that too. The new, younger cast are actually the ones who are meant to carry the emotional weight of the film due to their past tensions and love interests, but they simply don't do it.

I found that I just didn't care about any of them. As for the aliens, it was cool to see some new things. The funny thing is that Independence Day went down the Force Awakens path and said "we need a bigger ship", and that ended up being the main point of the conflict.

The alien ship is bigger. The threat in this movie is much great than the first movie, but you really don't feel it. The world could end at any moment but everyone is sitting around and discussing calmly what they can do to stop it.

Unfortunately for me I was snapped out of my fantasy within the movie during the first act as the alien ship was arriving and destroying everything. This was probably meant to be the most exciting part.

For me I couldn't get over how scientifically inaccurate the whole things was and how random the destruction was. If you think about what is happening for even a second you start wondering how any of it is possible.

That sequence wasn't well thought out. The second half was much more enjoyable even if it never really had the tension it deserved. So a movie with some decent looking destruction (that largely doesn't make sense), some great acting (from all the wrong actors) and a decent nod to the original film (the original being much better).