Independence Day: Resurgence

The whole Independence Day: Resurgence felt a little lame. The first hour is downright boring and extremely rushed, a lot of things happen and a bunch of new characters are introduced, but those things aren't very important or spectacularly executed and you care less about the characters than you do about the Namibian regional elections. It's nice to see Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum in action after all these years, but it's impossible to say that their presence makes the second Independence Day a better film. If they thought we'd applaud the excitement of seeing a heroic president and a likeable nerd save the world years later, they miscalculated. Independence Day really isn't about the characters, so there's not much point in revolving around them for an hour. It's boring. The action does kick in in the second half, but honestly Roland Emmerich has made more interesting stuff, and pulling a Chinese big city and then dropping it on London no longer impresses in the blockbuster universe. This and the aerial battles and the finale on the ground are fine, but none of it is interesting enough to help the film get out of the "pretty OK summer sci-fi washout" box. Unlike the first film, there's a woeful lack of wit, workable pathos, and most of all, those one-dimensional but still likeable heroes you'd root for. Here, you have either anonymous characters bullshitting or quite effectively but not extravagant action. It doesn't hurt in the cinema, but I'm looking in vain for a reason to see it a second time. (15/05/2017)

Does anyone still find this entertaining today, in age of Interstellar, Gravity and The Martian? There is no paradigmatic shift when compared to the twenty-year-old (!) original; instead, everything is just multiplied – the number of characters, fighter planes, the size of the space ships, the number of presidents and their speeches with patriotic background music. The spectacular and loud action begins almost immediately, lasts 100 minutes and is denser than in the first Independence Day, but EVERYTHING seems borrowed from somewhere and there is not a SINGLE innovative element in the entire movie. Personally, what made me suffer the most were the characters and their insipid dialogue and blatant stupidity, which might have seemed funny and cool in the 1990s, but today?! The best moment for me was the fadeout before the end credits when David Arnold’s famous musical theme started to play. (27/06/2016)

The trailer has twice as much power as the film itself. I was very annoyed that instead of walking and attacking aliens there were fighter jets like in Star Wars, which I don't like. I didn't feel any threat or danger, the visual effects, though spectacular were not breathtaking, the music was unremarkable, nobody died classically and I couldn't say I was too entertained either. Disappointing and pretty much a bummer. 40% (30/07/2016)

I am not entirely sure what the viewers in the USA expected. The sequel to Independence Day went to the absolute human extremes that we, as the viewers would never have imagined. This means that Roland Emmerich outdid himself once again and he painted a future involving aliens and all that comes with it. The most striking thing of it all is American patriotism that is literally gushing from every single scene. If he were to add that the film is being broadcast on TV America to a hundred and fifty countries of the world, where they interrupted all programming only to show this, nobody would have been surprised. On the other hand, I am a bit disappointed that Roland isn’t able to poke some fun at himself and that he didn’t turn this film into a sequel to Starship Troopers. As far as the screenplay is concerned, there was certainly hope for that. But he did manage to prepare a perfect digital visual that saves him wherever possible and that managed to save the rest of the film as well. That is actually the only thing that ensures the quality of this movie and that elevates it to the level of at least your standard Emmerich movie. So what was it that we actually wanted? (10/05/2017)

Emmerich remakes his own work while managing to rip off about ten other films, sprinkles in cheesy lines, pathetic speeches, and huge monumental action that casually outdoes every orgy of destruction from any action film of the last three years (which is a major asset!). It’s really just 1990s stuff. But! Christ, did the first half-hour of introducing new characters really have to be that long? And the callous treatment of protagonists from the past? At a time when the studios allow 140 minutes for whatever, Emmerich's two hours are too tight, and his weakness is shown to be the lack of finesse in his shortcuts. But the monumental epic wins in the finale. Although it’s tight and quite ineffective, I've forgiven Emmerich for worse things. PS: When I want to think back to it two days later, all I can pull from my memory are high-five planets and new interplanetary ships. (23/06/2016)