Independence Day Resurgence [Movie Review]

Damn was it actually 20 years ago that I saw Independence Day in theaters? I don't even think my local megaplex cinema was even open at the time since the first movie I saw there was The Fifth Element and that movie won't be 20 until next summer... 

This movie is about very big things and moving very fast.

Top: New Alien Fighters.
Middle: New Earth Fighters.
Bottom: Space Tug - the best ship in the movie.

Bigger aliens, bigger ships, bigger stakes actually...

To paraphrase a friend, 'Lonestar has gotten old.'

"What is that?" "Is it the plot?" "No... it's teaser for ID3."

Damn it, I feel old now.

So I'm going to stop looking back and start looking forward, at the screen... and wonder what the hell did I just see?

No, I'm being facetious. I saw a fast paced sci-fi explosion-fest with almost no emotional depth. I saw a movie that perfectly fit the mold of its predecessor.

I've seen worse, and I've seen far better. This was a real middle of the road movie. It has some moments of spectacle, and some moments of pure 'what.'

So here's my obligatory
SPOILER WARNING.

You've been warned.

3 out of 5 stars.
For the first time ever, on this blog,
I have revised a Star Rating.
This went down.

I've decided to start with the good stuff.

Returning Actors. Damn it was nice to see so many faces from the first film show back up. We saw Judd Hirsch, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Vivica A. Fox, and Brent Spiner return. John Storey also made a return. Robert Loggia died in December of 2015 and the film had a dedication.

We did not see Will Smith return, he only appeared as a painting. Nor did we see the woman who played Jeff Goldblum's ex-wife / wife. We at least learn what happened to Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith) - but it's a throw-away exposition line. We do not linger. We never learn what happens to Levinson's (Goldblum) wife.

Lots of new characters, and new faces in old roles. All in all it was not a bad casting job. I really liked Comamnder Jiang (Chin Han)  who plars the Moonbase commander,  Angelababy (that's her terrrible stage name, her real name is Angela Yeung Wing, which is much prettier) who play Rain Lao the niece of Commander Jiang, and Dikembe Umbutu (Deobia Oparei) who plays an African Warlord who has been fighting a ground war with the aliens.  

That's also an improvement. This installment has a ground war. Well a sorta ground war... fine, we see their personal weapons not just their battle suits. And of course there are air battles again. We actually never have a space battle despite the fact that the Human Fighters are shown to be space worthy. All of the fighter designs are improvements. They are pretty cool, but damn if that Space Tug is not awesome.

There are some really good moments of humor.
The action is solid.
The actors are good.

Those are the good points. Now lets discuss the stupid and or bad.

First off the movie is super predictable. I'm stating that here, because it is both a downside and not a downside. I expected this as much before even going to the theater. It was a textbook film formula, with textbook tropes where you'd expect them.

The humans are blindingly stupid at times. I mean several times. Once they just walked into a trap that is so blisteringly obvious I almost laughed. They are also really unobservant to go along with the blindingly stupid.

And lets not even begin to try and figure out the science in this one. I have no idea why the cities and planes and cars were more attracted to the alien ship than to the earth. We are told that the ship has its own gravity (everything does, it's proportional to the mass of the object and inversely proportional the distance from the object) which is fine. The idea that it has gravity equal to or greater than the moon at its size (3000mi long) is also acceptable. The idea that it has greater gravity than earth? Sure... if it is made of like Neutron Star Metal... but otherwise no. And then after lifting the buildings up, they fall back to Earth? What? What. I have no idea what happened there. Not a clue. Did I miss a line about super gravity tech? (Yes earlier in the film they talk about the aliens having anti-grav, so the humans now do to... but this 'gravity weapon' was never discussed.)

I'd love to say that was the worst part, but no.

There was no emotional weight to the movie. Almost none. The only real moments of emotion come when Captain Dylan Hiller (Jessie T. Usher) punches Chris Hemsworth for nearly killing him prior to the movie, and when Patricia Whitmore, President Whitmore's daughter, accepts his decision. That was like all the emotion in the movie aside. Yeah they added in some orphaned kids who are sad their parents are dead, cause that is supposed to give us the emotional impact, but it really doesn't. For and End of the World scenario - people are way to calm. They were far more panicked in the first movie. The entire species is about to be killed and the only people who are actually acting like it's the End of the World are a handful of sailors who are getting drunk... seriously?!? This movie would have been seriously helped by some emotional weight. I mean I also never felt any of the main characters were in danger... Make me feel afraid for a character... randomly kill one, off one, injure one... something!

So the movie was predictable & humans are stupid.
The physics / science / whatever was completely baffling at times.
The movie lacked real emotional weight.

It's a popcorn flick. Matinee at best, discount day certainly. Completely up to you.
But remember - this is just an action sci-fi movie. It is in the exact same vein as the original Independence Day. If you are not expecting an Independence Day style movie, well... I don't know what to tell you.

Still. I can't forgive the flat characters that we just don't care about. That's why the movie went down a half star. I was almost tempted to remove a full star, but that felt cruel. While I am a film school grad, I do not feel the need to belittle every film just because the mise-en-scene was not completely original, or the the blocking was a little to inspired by John Ford. So I took away a half star, because in my film courses we stressed 'the character centered screen play.' Give me characters that I can relate to, care about, etc.
Still I saw it and it was an Independence Day style movie. Do what you will... but I suggest a matinee.

But know this... there will be a third one. They primed the pump for the third part of a trilogy very hard. Here's hoping that ID3 is much better than IDR.