Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

[Ezen Baklattan]

Review, discuss, delate, celebrate, etc.

 

Just don't get too crazy.

 

[antovolk]

Okay, this was pretty damn good fun, especially back to back with the first one. It's everything you'd expect from a modern-day mega CGI Independence Day sequel, just more "humanity f- yeah" instead of "America f- yeah" (yay), hilarious yet fitting China pandering (yay because still swooning over Angelababy) and 200% more fast paced than the first because, you know, short attention spans and more showings ergo more box office (nay......)

Negatives out the way first - it just goes too damn quickly, the D-porn that was so well paced in the original is blink-and-you-miss-it here, which is a shame - given how massive it all is you just don't feel the build and eventual impact unlike the first film. I wondered what was up with that just under 2 hour runtime.....and now I see what's up with that. 

The story is as ridiculous as you'd expect and tone is done well enough to sell it to the audience - essentially it's all a cross between Catching Fire's 'repeat formula but with big budget visuals and add sweet worldbuilding and sequel setup' and TFA's 'passing of the torch'. There were curiously quite a few scenes in the trailers (& the novelization) that weren't in, particularly one awesome one I was hoping to see ("You are screwing with the wrong species!"), and with the breakneck pacing added I hope Emmerich, like with the first one, comes out with an extended cut of this on Blu because that'd then put this film on the level of the first one, while currently it's just below.

The new young cast are not too bad at all to watch actually, good fun. Of course the oldies steal the show - Golblum and Pullman especially. Out of the new cast Fichtner and Gainsbourg really stood out - hope to see more of them. Important to add - lack of Will Smith was not felt at all.........and he was way less of a deal in the first one than I remembered/everyone made him out to be.

Bring a whole load of popcorn and bring on the threequel (I hope this makes enough money so it happens)

Solid 7.5/10

Edited June 23, 2016 by antovolk

[somebody85]

So yeah this reminded me a lot of Starship Troopers (which I'm a huge fan of). The only thing it was missing was the intense violence. 

Yes it's stupid but I was never bored. It's not a rehash of the original more then it's an aliens vs humanity movie. I liked the new cast more then I thought too. Liams Hemsworth was much better then I thought he would be.

David wasn't as neurotic as before and I liked that Bill Pullman went out a hero. He had a few great moments.

I wish the score had gone back to the classic theme more but overall, it's just a movie that really embraces its nostalgia. It lacks a lot of the heart, emotion and stakes of the original but that would have just been 2012 with aliens. And by that you never really felt the scope of the damage. This was aiming to be something different.
 

Those going for D-Porn though might be letdown. Most of it was in the trailers. There's way more in 2012 and San Andreas. The scenes we do get are glorious though.

The ships gravity pulls everything up and then throws it down. Then it just kind of sits there while the movie turns towards humanity vs aliens.
 

And a lot of the stupidness of the plot can be explained away by this alternate 2016 where humanity has alien technology. They never explain what it's capable of so it can be anything.

But you can't explain some of the editing and characters showing up randomly across the world. Still it didn't bother me that much because this movie doesn't take itself that seriously. Like at all.

If you didn't grow up in the 90s, you probably won't enjoy it as much but I left the theater smiling which is all I wanted. It doesn't hurt the originals legacy at all, you can either forget it exists or go with it.

Is it a great movie? No. Is it as good as Jurassic World? No. But I had a lot of fun. 

Solid B movie. Probably 7/10.

[The Panda]

Ooooh boy, this was terrible.

 

Like, I don't even know where to start terrible.

 

Like, if a movie were a smoothie, this smoothie would be a blend of dog turds and Trump's combover.

 

This movie literally every single cliche action movie trope you could possibly think of.  Every character is some cardboard heroic cutout that seems straight out of a parody movie.

 

And speaking of the characters, I lost freaking count.  Every scene they introduced more, and they all were about as believable as Bill Clinton when he said, "I did not have sex with that woman."  

 

Characters literally stared into the camera and gave a heroic nod, or a little wink after they did some "cool" action stunt.  Not only that, but every character was either an idiot or the "smart" character that acted like a bumbling idiot.  

 

Not to mention, the alien ship literally destroys half the planet and there's no reaction.  None.  Just, "Let's get to Area 51."  Were the characters even meant to be humans or did Roland Emmerich watch some five year old play with his action figures and think, "Oh man!  That kid's onto something!"

 

And the never ending barrage of one-liners and a literal butt shot of an old man out of the blue.  It was awful.  I didn't laugh, chuckle, or even be slightly amused by any of the comic relief attempts in this movie.

 

And the script, oh gosh the script.  That screenplay is lazier than than a frat boy confused about why he flunked all the classes he never showed up to.  There was not a single intelligently written line in this movie, not even something slightly believable.  There wasn't even anything amusing.

 

Let's not even start on the random deus ex machina robot that randomly shows up an hour before the end of the world to give humanity one last hope.  This was literally a plot point, and it was ridiculous.  Let's not even get that of course the robot comments at the end how incredible humans are and blah blah blah.

 

Well, the action had to be entertaining right?  If Emmerich can do something, it's blow everything up right?  You can't even turn your brain off and enjoy the chaos because the action shots and visuals are some of the most boring rip-offs I've seen on screen in years.  Nothing was exciting to watch, there wasn't a moment where I thought, "that was cool."

 

The movie literally ends with a character pretty much saying, "Be sure to come back in two years when we go and kick more alien ass!" *cut to credits*

 

The only good thing about the movie was the president's daughter was pretty hot.  Too bad she couldn't act and gave line deliveries so cliche you could almost swear it was from a YouTube parody trailer.

 

This movie gets everything the first one for wrong, and nothing that it got right.

 

There was no tension anywhere in the movie, there was no humor (that actually made you laugh), there was nothing intriguing, there were no charismatic actors. Not to mention, the "movie" is makes Batman v Superman seem like a concise and clean movie because of how convoluted it is. This movie fails on all accounts on even being a somewhat entertaining movie to watch drunk.

 

This is a cat piss quality movie with a dog turd on top.

 

To reference an actual good movie from this year,

 

I give Independence Day Resurgence ? / 5

Edited June 24, 2016 by The Pandaren

[somebody85]

38 minutes ago, The Pandaren said:

Ooooh boy, this was terrible.

 

Like, I don't even know where to start terrible.

 

Like, if a movie were a smoothie, this smoothie would be a blend of dog turds and Trump's combover.

 

This movie literally every single cliche action movie trope you could possibly think of.  Every character is some cardboard heroic cutout that seems straight out of a parody movie.

I take it you've never seen a Roland Emmerich movie.

 

And speaking of the characters, I lost freaking count.  Every scene they introduced more, and they all were about as believable as Bill Clinton when he said, "I did not have sex with that woman."  

Again I take it you've never seen a Roland Emmerich movie.

 

Characters literally stared into the camera and gave a heroic nod, or a little wink after they did some "cool" action stunt.  Not only that, but every character was either an idiot or the "smart" character that acted like a bumbling idiot.  

For the third time, I take it you've never seen a Roland Emmerich movie or even watched the original ID4 which you know has those same issues.

 

Not to mention, the alien ship literally destroys half the planet and there's no reaction.  None.  Just, "Let's get to Area 51."  Were the characters even meant to be humans or did Roland Emmerich watch some five year old play with his action figures and think, "Oh man!  That kid's onto something!"

Yeah the scope was missing but it's kind of explained in Bill Pullmans speech that they couldn't show humanity that they were afraid because for 20 years they had told them they had the weapons to stop another invasion. This is an alternate 2016 and the movie doesn't take itself seriously.

For the 4th time regarding the characters, I guess you've never seen a Roland Emmerich movie.

 

And the never ending barrage of one-liners and a literal butt shot of an old man out of the blue.  It was awful.  I didn't laugh, chuckle, or even be slightly amused by any of the comic relief attempts in this movie.

For the 5th time, I guess you've never seen a Roland Emmerich movie.

 

And the script, oh gosh the script.  That screenplay is lazier than than a frat boy confused about why he flunked all the classes he never showed up to.  There was not a single intelligently written line in this movie, not even something slightly believable.  There wasn't even anything amusing.

For the second time I guess you never watched ID4. Has a lot of the same issues. 

 

Let's not even start on the random deus ex machina robot that randomly shows up an hour before the end of the world to give humanity one last hope.  This was literally a plot point, and it was ridiculous.  Let's not even get that of course the robot comments at the end how incredible humans are and blah blah blah.

The robot is part of a race/resistance that is trying to destroy this breed of aliens. It says it didn't explain itself at first because the humans used the aliens weapons so it thought they were bad too. It's a dumb freaking movie man. Turn your brain off.

 

Well, the action had to be entertaining right?  If Emmerich can do something, it's blow everything up right?  You can't even turn your brain off and enjoy the chaos because the action shots and visuals are some of the most boring rip-offs I've seen on screen in years.  Nothing was exciting to watch, there wasn't a moment where I thought, "that was cool."

Yeah flying through falling debree on fire is in every disaster movie. The Dubai tower falling from the sky onto London is something that's been done before too. I wish they had done more scenes like this though.

 

The movie literally ends with a character pretty much saying, "Be sure to come back in two years when we go and kick more alien ass!" *cut to credits*

Pretty much, the ending of the first movie is a classic but this ended sort of like Starship Troopers. It's a movie stuck in the 90s.

 

The only good thing about the movie was the president's daughter was pretty hot.  Too bad she couldn't act and gave line deliveries so cliche you could almost swear it was from a YouTube parody trailer.
 

Yeah she was the protagonist in It Follows too. Regarding the cliche dialogue, for the 6th time I guess you've never seen a Roland Emmerich movie.

 

This movie gets everything the first one for wrong, and nothing that it got right.

The first was a much different experience. You kind of have to remember that. This takes place in a different reality. If you haven't watched ID4 recently (so I guess you have seen it), you should go back and watch it. It had a lot of the same issues you are critiquing.

 

There was no tension anywhere in the movie, there was no humor (that actually made you laugh), there was nothing intriguing, there were no charismatic actors. Not to mention, the "movie" is makes Batman v Superman seem like a concise and clean movie because of how convoluted it is. This movie fails on all accounts on even being a somewhat entertaining movie to watch drunk.

There was some tension but you're right the stakes never felt like they originally did. There was some humor along with a few throwaway lines. Will Smith was most of the humor from the first along with Davids relationship with his father (which I wish we would have seen more of here.)

Not really. Batman V Superman took itself dead seriously. This movie didn't. An old president and his daughter are flying jets in the finale for gods sake.

The aliens sent another signal that only David could interpret again (just like ID4), they wanted the Earths Molten, landed the ship, the queen wanted to take out the resistance, and the army protected it, while trying to kill the queen - pretty easy to follow although there's huge holes in it.

 

This is a cat piss quality movie with a dog turd on top.
 

Well I guess you felt the same way about this that I did about Terminator: Genisys, Warcraft, and Jupiter Ascending.

 

To reference an actual good movie from this year,

Didn't you like Warcraft?

 

I give Independence Day Resurgence ? / 5

 

Edited June 24, 2016 by somebody85

[The Panda]

25 minutes ago, somebody85 said:

 

 

So your only actual comment is, "I guess you've never seen a Roland Emmerich film"?

 

Why, yes I have, and this is one of, if not his worst (which says a lot).

 

Also, as a Warcraft fan I enjoyed Warcraft, but I also mentioned in my (real) review that if you weren't a fan of the game franchise you likely wouldn't like the movie.  But I also recognize it wasn't really a good movie, but a fun guilty pleasure for Warcraft fans.

 

Independence Day had major flaws, but this movie cranked all of them up a thousand notches.  Plus, the few destructo porn shots were bland and uninspiring. (Yes the fiery destruction of the London Bridge was very uninspired).

 

My comparison to BvS was that movie was a convoluted mess, but in comparison to this one, it didn't seem so.

 

No, the movie doesn't take itself seriously, but that's because it isn't good in any way shape or form.

[somebody85]

15 minutes ago, The Pandaren said:

 

So your only actual comment is, "I guess you've never seen a Roland Emmerich film"?

 

Why, yes I have, and this is one of, if not his worst (which says a lot).

 

Also, as a Warcraft fan I enjoyed Warcraft, but I also mentioned in my (real) review that if you weren't a fan of the game franchise you likely wouldn't like the movie.  But I also recognize it wasn't really a good movie, but a fun guilty pleasure for Warcraft fans.

 

Independence Day had major flaws, but this movie cranked all of them up a thousand notches.  Plus, the few destructo porn shots were bland and uninspiring. (Yes the fiery destruction of the London Bridge was very uninspired).

 

My comparison to BvS was that movie was a convoluted mess, but in comparison to this one, it didn't seem so.

 

No, the movie doesn't take itself seriously, but that's because it isn't good in any way shape or form.

Hah now you're getting it! Just kidding.

Yeah man, I didn't really notice anything out of the usual as far as his usual character cliches from any of his other movies. They all have those same issues.

Right, yeah as an ID4 fan, this film was more a guilty pleasure movie I guess for fans who grew up with it. I'm not saying it's good in movie terms at all. In fact already struggling to remember a lot of it but I had fun in the theater watching it for the most part. I was never bored, never found it dull and never tried taking it seriously.

It definitely does. I kind of disagree with that though man. I watched ID4 last night to get ready for this. I've seen it so many times and can see a lot more problems with it now.

Most of the same flaws are present story wise in Resurgence, you just don't notice them as much due to Will Smith, better chemistry between the main cast, the scope of the destruction, better D-Porn sequences, feeling like you are attached to that world (instead of viewing an alternate one with better technology), better side characters and a way more memorable score.

So yeah it's a much better movie but this was a fun aliens vs humans movie and that's why I compared it to Starship Troopers. It felt a lot more like that then ID4.

ID4 has some very very dumb moments.
 

I will say I like 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow better then this. However I didn't think this was anywhere near the levels of White House Down or Godzilla bad.

Edited June 24, 2016 by somebody85

[CoolioD1]

^i thought white house down was real fun. usually like roland but this is maybe the most apathetic summer movie i've ever seen.

[Webslinger]

The first Independence Day isn't a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but this limp, long-delayed sequel certainly makes it look like one by comparison. I have a soft spot in my heart for the first film due to its cheesy earnestness, and I like most of Roland Emmerich's cataclysmic action movies; they're dumb as can be, but Emmerich usually seems to commit to the absurdity of their concepts while occasionally winking at the audience. Unfortunately, Resurgence never really gets off the ground, and despite 20 years of advancements in visual effects technology, it feels smaller and less urgent than its predecessor. Stunningly, despite being 25 minutes shorter, it sags so much that it feels at least that much longer. The returning cast members are okay, but almost all of the new ones fail to leave any kind of impression. Knocking the original characters as cut-out stereotypes is valid, but at least the actors in that film had enough charisma and screen time to make those characters enjoyable despite the obvious type each one fit into; the same cannot be said for the largely lifeless performances from all of the new actors with the one exception of Deobia Oparei's machete-wielding African warlord - a character so ridiculously cool in his stoic badassery that it feels like he should be in a different, better movie. It's hard to believe that after 20 years of waiting, this is the best the filmmakers could do. My bar was already lowered for this movie because of its standing as a cheesy popcorn flick from a director who excels at making guilty pleasures of such films; even so, the film is still a big, dull disappointment.
 

C-

[somebody85]

8 hours ago, CoolioD1 said:

^i thought white house down was real fun. usually like roland but this is maybe the most apathetic summer movie i've ever seen.

I actually saw it at a screening about a month before release and can't express how much I hated it. It felt like a complete rip off of Die Hard but much stupider with bad CGI.

When I walked out I figured a lot of people would hate this movie but I was already expecting what I got from the trailers.

Like I guess a lot of people are complaining about the giant queen vs military finale? That felt so 90s to me that again, I just went with it.

[Dementeleus]

So the movie started...

 

First I was all

 

...and then I was all

 

...and then I was all

 

...and finally I was all

 

Grade: D

[Kalderic]

WTF... whoa... I felt like I was watching an overacted, poorly scripted high school play the whole time... The movie is literally two hours of people pumping each other up by yelling uplifting things or screaming or... idk... All I got out of the movie was "She's coming." which seemed like all they kept saying. And for RE, the level of destruction was much less than I would have expected... which didnt play in this movies favor because thats all it had going for it. The fact that every destruction sequence was shown fully in the trailers speaks volumes. Don't even get me started on the story, plot holes, weird fucking random additions of things that "supposedly" took place in the first film. Like, what? just... no. I went in with really low expectations, and those low expectations were exceeded on a whole new level, but not in a good way.

 

Oh, and yeah, since the big speech was a popular point in the first film, lets just put like four fucking speeches in this one... because murica is gonna eat this shit up!

F

Edited June 25, 2016 by Kalderic

[ShouldIBeHere]

This review took as much effort and care as making this movie.

 

D

[MovieMan89]

Only handed these out a few times ever to a mainstream movie, but here ya go IDR:

 

F

 

And ShouldIBeHere stated my review sentiments perfectly. 

[DeeCee]

4 hours ago, ShouldIBeHere said:

This review took as much effort and care as making this movie.

 

D

 

2 hours ago, MovieMan89 said:

Only handed these out a few times ever to a mainstream movie, but here ya go IDR:

 

F

 

And ShouldIBeHere stated my review sentiments perfectly. 

G

 

No, seriously.  I'll be generous and go with a C+.

 

 

Edited June 27, 2016 by DeeCee

[filmlover]

The original 1996 movie was no classic despite its placement in pop culture, but it was a solidly entertaining popcorn flick. This sequel, on the other hand, is just terrible. It isn't exciting, it isn't funny, it's cheap to look at, and the acting ranges from blander than bland (the younger actors) to slumming (the more seasoned ones). Even worse, other than a quick scene in which London is set in ruins, Roland Emmerich doesn't even deliver his usually agreeable pyrotechnics. This surpasses Batman v Superman to become the most unappealing "blockbuster" of 2016 to date. D

[Water Bottle]

It was about the same quality as the first movie, honestly.

 

C-

[4815162342]

3 minutes ago, Water Bottle said:

the first movie

 

C-

 

You take that back.

 

[Water Bottle]

Just now, 4815162342 said:

 

You take that back.

 

 

The first ID is so dumb that the two characters knowingly try to sneak on board a ship filled with telepathic aliens to plant a computer virus. The aliens, who are telepathic, don't notice anything wrong until the ship tries to leave the hanger. THEN they open up the ship's windows, which they didn't think was strange were kept closed. Then the humans successfully hid by ducking even though the aliens were once again telepathic.

[baumer]

I told @Free State of Tele this earlier today and I'll share it with you guys as well.  About two decades ago, I wrote a manuscript that I tried to get published, called Day for Night.  It was about aliens invading earth and using us for slavery and food and so on.  It was my first book I tried to get published.  I didn't succeed.  However, my best friend at the time was married to a woman who's grandfather was the fifth richest man in Canada.  He had business ties with Centropolis.  My friend's wife gave my manuscript to two execs from Centropolis who apparently read it on a flight.  They told her that my manuscript was not quite good enough to made into a film or to be optioned for a novel.  I agree with them....it was not good enough.  Having said that, they told me that my book wasn't good enough to be made into a movie and yet they come up with this piece of shit called Independence Day Resurgence, and they had the audacity to tell me that my work wasn't good enough?  My novel was War And Peace compared to what they put on screen this weekend.  Basically, IDR is a horrible film with absolutely no redeeming qualities except that I enjoyed seeing Maika Monroe on screen.  Other that than, this is about the worst film I've seen, at least in the top 100 worst films of all time.

 

After 20 years of relative peace, the aliens from the first come back for revenge.  Basically they create a ship that is 3000 miles long.  Let that sink in for a second.  Not only is it ridiculously big but the aliens have developed a new shield technology that is impenetrable.  So they decide that they are going to drill to the earth's core so that they can steal resources or something...and that will basically wipe out earth.  This massive ship that is drilling in the ocean is untouched and it is being monitored by a rogue ship which was looking for 100 million dollars in gold.  This ship is seen at the beginning f the movie, and then at the end.  Again, Earth's weapons cannot get through it's shields.  It's untouchable.  We'll get back to this in a minute.

 

Now, the earthlings think that the best thing to do is to try and find the Queen alien and try to kill her.  So they send out their ships and try to blast their way through a bunch of alien ships and then they figure that they can find the queen on another ship.  Shockingly, the aliens this time are smarter and set a trap for them.  I have no idea why the erthlings would think that they would find the queen unprotected, but this is actually in the script.  Keep in mind, the queen is the only one that can be killed in order for the humans to win again.  Wouldn't you think the best place for her would be to be on the ship that is 3000 miles long and is impenetrable?  

 

Then there is a subplot about a bunch of characters who are somehow mentally linked to the aliens.  So when it's convenient to move the story forward, every few minutes one of the charazcters gets a head ache and then draws something which is supposed to help the humans understand what is happening.  There's also a lot of screaming in the movie.

 

When Liam Hemsworth read the script, he must have liked that half of his lines were, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH" or "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" OR "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAA".   Maika Monroe has one scene where she channels her inner Rambo when he shoots up the airplane hangar at the end of Rambo, because she also lets out a really good, "AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG"  There's also one scene in the film when Liam and the black guy and some other dude are all saying, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.....OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.....AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGG"  IN UNISON.  

 

I think part of the problem with the acting is that they did so much of it in front of blue screen that there was just no experience with any of the actors.  They were so unbelievable and cold and the acting in most of the movie felt like it was acting from a 1940's film, not one from 2016..

 

A lot of the cast from the first one shows up.  Goldblum is fine and does what he can with the  shitty script he is given.  Bill Pullman is kind of wasted and he has a beard for no reason.  He shaves it off at the end and then he dies, and no one mentions him again....EVER.  Goldblums dad is in it again and he adds nothing to the plot and he should have died about 5 times.  Then there's Joey King and three other kids who also add nothing to the plot.  Dr. Okun comes out of a coma and is annoying and then William Fichtner shows up and becomes president and even he is not good in the film.  

 

There's a Chinese  pilot who adds nothing to the plot.  There's two white side kicks who are supposed to be comic relief and they do nothing.  In fact, there is no intentional comedy in the movie.  And the one political aide sidekick is the exact same  character from White House Down.  The one who is mousy and inexperienced and then learns how to become a warrior and gains everyone's respect.

 

The script is the worst part of the film.  I am not going to look up who the writers were but they should have their WGA cards revoked.  This is a horrible piece of shit.  It's not interesting, not a lot makes sense , there's no buildup there's no snappy dialogue there's no characters to like and even when they try to give characters back stories they are about as interesting as reading a volume of notes from a conference on spores fungus and mold.  

 

When the action is there, it's just CGI overload.  There's no sense of dread.  No one really dies with the exception of Pullman and black guys's mom.  But you really don't care.  And then when people try to show emotion, it comes off as if they are in a high school play and they are being directed by one of the class mates who is hoping to impress his drama teacher.  When Goldblum is not even that interesting and Fichtner isn't even that good, you know you have a shitty film.  

 

I laughed a lot watching this.  I laughed when black guy's mom dies.  I laughed when Maika does her Rambo yell, I laughed when people tried to show emotion and I laughed at the end when they set up for a sequel that is never going to come. 

 

Back to the giant ship that is impenetrable....if they would have left the queen on that ship, then they win.  End of story.  There was no reason for her to be off that ship.  They apparently came back to punish us but in the process they got stupider than last time.  They left their queen unprotected and when Maika finally is able to destroy her protection, it's only because she does her Rambo scream....somehow this destroyed the protective shield.

 

IDR is one of the 100 worst films I've seen.  Besides a couple of shots of Maika being really really fucking hot, there is nothing to like about this piece of shit.

 

0.5/10