Two decades after the first Independence Day invasion, Earth is faced with a new extra-Solar threat. But will mankind’s new space defenses be enough? In “Independence Day: Resurgence”, global warfare is once again front and center when evidence turns up in the desert of the same alien lifeform that the world encountered twenty years prior. After getting in touch with an eager scientist (Jeff Goldblum), we find ourselves on the brink of extinction with a bigger enemy fleet heading our way. Earth won’t be without its capabilities however, as the world has greatly advanced in technology thanks to the events of the first war, giving our fight a great advantage in fighting this mysterious enemy. No land is safe in the battle for planet domination. “Independence Day: Resurgence” is directed by first film director Roland Emmerich, and is rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action and devastating destruction, and for some adult language.

What “Independence Day: Resurgence” forces us to do is to answer the question of how the first film would be without Will Smith, the most charismatic character in the cast who was the cause for legit concern for the first movie. That’s not to say that this sequel is anything like its predecessor except for ripping off the exact same plot structure that the first movie had. Because of that, this film is entirely predictable and offers very little reason why this film was made other than to be another cash grab. To anyone who saw the 1996 original, you will be able to spot the similarities early on in the first act. To name a few without spoiling it, there is a rising from the aliens, a failed attempt to stop them, some deaths sprinkled along the ways, an invasion of their land, and a final battle where a sacrifice has to be made. Sound familiar? It should. It was done in the first film. So what makes this film any worse or discrediting to the now established franchise? Oh let me count the ways.

First of all, the movie has just too many characters and just not enough for all of them to do. This is especially a problem with the five or so returning actors who decided to attach their names to this mess. With the exception of Goldblum, who is very charming and likeable as he is in everything, Bill Pullman, Robert Loggia, Vivica A Fox, and Judd Hirsch are just kind of hanging around to give the easy audience that brush of nostalgia guaranteed to please them. Hirsch is in a lot of scenes, but it’s his usual routine that gets old very quickly. For some strange reason, the film decided to promote Brent Spiner’s crazy scientist Dr Brakish Okun to a main character in the movie. This should be fairly evident to what kind of product you are dealing with here. A character who barely had two scenes in the first movie is now a centerpiece for one of the many subplots that the movie had. To listen to his eccentric science orgasms for nearly two hours had me reaching for a fast forward button that unfortunately never came. Out of the new cast, Maika Monroe is the only one as Lucy Whitmore who gave me any kind of satisfaction. While the movie does nothing to show off her dramatic capabilities, she feels like a female character that the lady audience can believe in, something refreshing for an Emmerich film. Everyone else felt expendable to me. Liam Hemsworth still has the charisma of a piece of paper, Jesse Usher as Will Smith’s son is as disappointing as can be. There are moments where you can almost see that family personality, but his comedy one-liners feel forced and unfulfilling when compared to his smooth parental on-screen counterpart.

As for the technical aspects, the movie hits and misses throughout the feature. The CGI backgrounds and lighting are probably the things that I hated the most in this movie. The visuals look as artificial as first draft 1999 CGI backgrounds can conjure up, granting the movie that Syfy channel beauty that only ten dollars can buy you. The action is pretty satisfactory, especially when everything is fast paced. This is something that Emmerich is a master at perfecting. The action shoot-out scenes in the movie is perhaps the only time when this sequel felt anything like on the same level of the original. Before Michael Bay, there was Roland Emmerich, and the king of building tumbles returns to stake his throne. I mentioned the lighting earlier, and I can’t understand this creative direction. For the entire film, there’s kind of a dark blue tint to the scenes, and it feels very distracting when trying to pay attention to something that required visual attention. It almost feels like watching a ripped copy of the movie from a torrent site that somebody filmed on their camera.

The tone of the film also feels very uneven for two very different acts in the movie. For the first act, this feels very much like a comedy, and for those first thirty minutes I was on board if this movie was going to take a “Fast and Furious” silliness to its creativity. Even the first movie had enough sense to poke fun at itself and was incredibly self-aware when it was required. That is perhaps the biggest change with “Resurgence”, as nothing about the movie feels fun or energetic. We yearn for the credits so that we can be spared a script that we know our returning cast are much better than. The third act of the movie changes everything up and decides to be as serious a Sci-Fi genre film as can be. I dig a good Science Fiction movie, but I feel that “Independence Day” always serves better as an action fiasco, and the change in creative tone strips this movie of any nostalgia that the film has going for it, a mere fraction of the fun time that the first film packed. That one not a great movie either, but a fun one, and that’s what was always great about it.

Overall, “Independence Day: Resurgence” is better left underground. It’s that member of the group who you haven’t seen for twenty years, but remember constantly as someone much more full of life than the shell they have now aged into. Unoriginal….predictable……humorless

4/10