SPOILER-FREE MOVIE REVIEW
Twenty long years we've had to wait for the sequel to the 90's classic, Independence Day.
I was super excited for this movie - partly because a family friend of mine gave me a pair of tickets to a special screening of the film in 3D one day before the movie's country-wide release here in Singapore (thanks Aunty Debra!!), and partly due to the fact that I had only watched the original film two days before the premiere event (and I really liked it).
The original film was good and enjoyable because it didn't take itself too seriously.
It knew that it was a mindless destruction fest filled with cheesy one-liners and many character clichés, and it was all in the name of fun. That was what that made Independence Day stand out from the other destruction films of the time like the nonsensical Armageddon (1998), just to name one because it was so darn awful.
Independence Day: Resurgence, however, kind of expects the audience to remember the events of the first film which is ballsy, to say the least.
For instance, many of the original cast members return to reprise their roles. Characters like the irreplaceable David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) and his dad Julius (Judd Hirsch), and former US President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman, whom you may remember from his iconic rallying cry/speech in the first film).
However, the returning cast is missing a major piece of the jigsaw puzzle - Will Smith.
In the film, they address why his character doesn't return - and to be frank, it's quite a silly reason but oh well, he probably couldn't reprise his role because of his involvement in the upcoming DC film Suicide Squad which was being filmed at around the same time Resurgence was.
It's a shame because Will Smith was a huge reason why the original film worked. He just has this presence on-screen which nobody else can emulate. The sort of badass, smart-quipping hero which everyone loves.
Anyway, Will Smith's young son, now played by Jessie Usher from the first film has now grown up and has followed in his dad's footsteps into becoming an elite fighter pilot and the leader of his division.
He's accompanied by the insanely good-looking Liam Hemsworth, a fellow pilot named Jake Morrison, Travis Tope as Charlie Ritter and an Asian, YES AN ASIAN CHARACTER in China's representing fighter pilot Rain Lao, played by Hong Kong's Angelababy (weird name but damn, she's pretty).
That brings me on to a point I want to make - the racial diversity of this cast and the underlying message the film gives of worldwide peace and harmony, regardless of race, language or religion (haha).
There's even a Singaporean actor in Ng Chin Han who plays a Chinese space commander, and yes, as shown in the poster above, Singapore does appear in the film too so yay Singapore represent HAHA.
The characters in general weren't very interesting, especially Dylan (Usher) who was just random black guy #327 and this particular government agent character who's like that annoying "ahhhhh I need to call my lawyer" guy from the first film whose name I don't remember because I don't care about the character. Why is there a need for idiots like these? They're all just surplus characters.
Characters that were interesting, however, were characters like Jake Morrison (Hemsworth), the former president's daughter Patricia Whitmore (Maika Monroe, who was cast in place of the original actress 20 years ago for some odd reason) and of course, Mr. Jeff Goldblum.
I think Goldblum deserves this special paragraph which I'm about to dedicate to him, because he truly carried this movie.
He was the only one who looked the most enthusiastic about the film, and looking at all the promotional material he did for the movie, it truly shows his dedication to the role. And plus, it's just an absolute joy to see him do his nervous-talking Jeff Goldblum thing.
He's such an awesome dude.
As for the handling of some characters, I felt that characters deserving of more screen-time and more dramatic effect weren't given what they deserved. And as a result, these characters are sort of forgotten about which is a real shame.
On to the story, and I felt that the first 30 minutes of the film was wasted on developing the stories of way too many characters for the film's own good.
In the first film, the aliens already began their invasion of earth right from the start.
In this sequel, however, they don't start right away, and in its place are expository scenes just to introduce new characters you don't care about and to update us on what has been going on in the past 20 years.
These 30 minutes of excessive exposition also added some events into the Independence Day universe timeline which were never explained or mentioned before?
I would definitely consider these as plot holes because there was absolutely no effort made to explain what was going on and why this and that happened.
So basically what happened in those 20 years was the world becoming united in peace and harmony and they used the alien tech obtained from the first film to enhance their existing man-made tech on earth in preparation for if the aliens were to come again.
The basic synopsis is that the humans have been preparing for such an event because they were left at a massive disadvantage in terms of the advancement of their tech - but so have the aliens (ooooooooh drama).
And what we have after the 30 minutes of boring character introductions and catching up with 20 years of stuff is basically an updated version of the first movie's events. Seriously, it's pretty similar.
But having a similar story to the first film isn't always a bad thing.
Take films like Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It's basically an updated version of the original Star Wars, just with new characters and much better graphics. And as everyone remembers, The Force Awakens was awesome.
I felt that Independence Day: Resurgence didn't quite go the distance that The Force Awakens did in terms of the level of success in reissuing an old story, but it did go along those lines and hence, it's still a load of fun.
I mean, we all love seeing buildings collapse and fighter jets participating in epic dogfights and Jeff Goldblum being scared of flying, don't we? It's all a lot of fun.
And that's what I felt about Resurgence - it was a fun time.
The rest of the story is relatively easy to follow, and although we get re-introduced to that old whacky Doctor Okun (Brent Spiner) whose inclusion was very odd, the story does flow by quickly and everything wraps up nicely.
The special effects and CGI were absolutely breathtaking, and it was an absolute joy to watch it in 3D.
Mind you, this is coming from someone who never ever watches movies in 3D because it always gives me a headache.
Independence Day: Resurgence, however, was fantastic in 3D. I would totally recommend you to spend that little bit more on a 3D ticket.
I also really liked the music which not only paid homage to the classic ID4 theme from the original film but also added some excellent new material into the mix.
Still, it's a shame that original composer David Arnold couldn't return for this one. I'm a fan of his work ever since he scored the Bond films from 1997-2008, and I've not seen his name as a film composer since.
All in all, Independence Day: Resurgence was still a fun movie to watch despite it being similar to the first movie in terms of story and despite Will Smith not returning to reprise his role.
The CGI is all top-notch and the visuals were all stunning. It's clear to see where the mega budget of the film went in to.
Sadly, all this is let down by an abundance of characters that nobody cares about, and the opening 30 minutes was too much for the good remainder of the film to make up for.
Oh, and look out for the end of the film because not only is it one of the most abrupt endings I've seen in a while, but also one of the most blatant set-ups for a sequel I have ever seen.
Mega fans of the first film would enjoy this one solely due to the nostalgia factor, but as for neutral movie-goers, this movie is more than likely to split opinions - and the scale would probably dip more on the negative side.
As for me, someone who's neither here nor there, I am neither here nor there in my verdict too.
5.5/10.
I was super excited for this movie - partly because a family friend of mine gave me a pair of tickets to a special screening of the film in 3D one day before the movie's country-wide release here in Singapore (thanks Aunty Debra!!), and partly due to the fact that I had only watched the original film two days before the premiere event (and I really liked it).
The original film was good and enjoyable because it didn't take itself too seriously.
It knew that it was a mindless destruction fest filled with cheesy one-liners and many character clichés, and it was all in the name of fun. That was what that made Independence Day stand out from the other destruction films of the time like the nonsensical Armageddon (1998), just to name one because it was so darn awful.
Independence Day: Resurgence, however, kind of expects the audience to remember the events of the first film which is ballsy, to say the least.
For instance, many of the original cast members return to reprise their roles. Characters like the irreplaceable David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) and his dad Julius (Judd Hirsch), and former US President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman, whom you may remember from his iconic rallying cry/speech in the first film).
However, the returning cast is missing a major piece of the jigsaw puzzle - Will Smith.
In the film, they address why his character doesn't return - and to be frank, it's quite a silly reason but oh well, he probably couldn't reprise his role because of his involvement in the upcoming DC film Suicide Squad which was being filmed at around the same time Resurgence was.
It's a shame because Will Smith was a huge reason why the original film worked. He just has this presence on-screen which nobody else can emulate. The sort of badass, smart-quipping hero which everyone loves.
Anyway, Will Smith's young son, now played by Jessie Usher from the first film has now grown up and has followed in his dad's footsteps into becoming an elite fighter pilot and the leader of his division.
He's accompanied by the insanely good-looking Liam Hemsworth, a fellow pilot named Jake Morrison, Travis Tope as Charlie Ritter and an Asian, YES AN ASIAN CHARACTER in China's representing fighter pilot Rain Lao, played by Hong Kong's Angelababy (weird name but damn, she's pretty).
That brings me on to a point I want to make - the racial diversity of this cast and the underlying message the film gives of worldwide peace and harmony, regardless of race, language or religion (haha).
There's even a Singaporean actor in Ng Chin Han who plays a Chinese space commander, and yes, as shown in the poster above, Singapore does appear in the film too so yay Singapore represent HAHA.
The characters in general weren't very interesting, especially Dylan (Usher) who was just random black guy #327 and this particular government agent character who's like that annoying "ahhhhh I need to call my lawyer" guy from the first film whose name I don't remember because I don't care about the character. Why is there a need for idiots like these? They're all just surplus characters.
Characters that were interesting, however, were characters like Jake Morrison (Hemsworth), the former president's daughter Patricia Whitmore (Maika Monroe, who was cast in place of the original actress 20 years ago for some odd reason) and of course, Mr. Jeff Goldblum.
I think Goldblum deserves this special paragraph which I'm about to dedicate to him, because he truly carried this movie.
He was the only one who looked the most enthusiastic about the film, and looking at all the promotional material he did for the movie, it truly shows his dedication to the role. And plus, it's just an absolute joy to see him do his nervous-talking Jeff Goldblum thing.
He's such an awesome dude.
As for the handling of some characters, I felt that characters deserving of more screen-time and more dramatic effect weren't given what they deserved. And as a result, these characters are sort of forgotten about which is a real shame.
On to the story, and I felt that the first 30 minutes of the film was wasted on developing the stories of way too many characters for the film's own good.
In the first film, the aliens already began their invasion of earth right from the start.
In this sequel, however, they don't start right away, and in its place are expository scenes just to introduce new characters you don't care about and to update us on what has been going on in the past 20 years.
These 30 minutes of excessive exposition also added some events into the Independence Day universe timeline which were never explained or mentioned before?
I would definitely consider these as plot holes because there was absolutely no effort made to explain what was going on and why this and that happened.
So basically what happened in those 20 years was the world becoming united in peace and harmony and they used the alien tech obtained from the first film to enhance their existing man-made tech on earth in preparation for if the aliens were to come again.
The basic synopsis is that the humans have been preparing for such an event because they were left at a massive disadvantage in terms of the advancement of their tech - but so have the aliens (ooooooooh drama).
And what we have after the 30 minutes of boring character introductions and catching up with 20 years of stuff is basically an updated version of the first movie's events. Seriously, it's pretty similar.
But having a similar story to the first film isn't always a bad thing.
Take films like Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It's basically an updated version of the original Star Wars, just with new characters and much better graphics. And as everyone remembers, The Force Awakens was awesome.
I felt that Independence Day: Resurgence didn't quite go the distance that The Force Awakens did in terms of the level of success in reissuing an old story, but it did go along those lines and hence, it's still a load of fun.
I mean, we all love seeing buildings collapse and fighter jets participating in epic dogfights and Jeff Goldblum being scared of flying, don't we? It's all a lot of fun.
And that's what I felt about Resurgence - it was a fun time.
The rest of the story is relatively easy to follow, and although we get re-introduced to that old whacky Doctor Okun (Brent Spiner) whose inclusion was very odd, the story does flow by quickly and everything wraps up nicely.
The special effects and CGI were absolutely breathtaking, and it was an absolute joy to watch it in 3D.
Mind you, this is coming from someone who never ever watches movies in 3D because it always gives me a headache.
Independence Day: Resurgence, however, was fantastic in 3D. I would totally recommend you to spend that little bit more on a 3D ticket.
I also really liked the music which not only paid homage to the classic ID4 theme from the original film but also added some excellent new material into the mix.
Still, it's a shame that original composer David Arnold couldn't return for this one. I'm a fan of his work ever since he scored the Bond films from 1997-2008, and I've not seen his name as a film composer since.
All in all, Independence Day: Resurgence was still a fun movie to watch despite it being similar to the first movie in terms of story and despite Will Smith not returning to reprise his role.
The CGI is all top-notch and the visuals were all stunning. It's clear to see where the mega budget of the film went in to.
Sadly, all this is let down by an abundance of characters that nobody cares about, and the opening 30 minutes was too much for the good remainder of the film to make up for.
Oh, and look out for the end of the film because not only is it one of the most abrupt endings I've seen in a while, but also one of the most blatant set-ups for a sequel I have ever seen.
Mega fans of the first film would enjoy this one solely due to the nostalgia factor, but as for neutral movie-goers, this movie is more than likely to split opinions - and the scale would probably dip more on the negative side.
As for me, someone who's neither here nor there, I am neither here nor there in my verdict too.
5.5/10.
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