Independence Day: Resurgence - a review.

Resurgence: rising or tending to rise again; reviving; renascent. (so you won't have to look it up).

 

Emmerich’s movies are often the kind of ‘leave your brain at the door’-popcorn entertainment that, to me, radiate passion and childish glee. So -having now told you my view on Emmerich’s disaster-movies; what did I think about Independence Day part 2: resurgence? In a sentence: harmless fun while the world collapses (again).

The story is simplicity itself: twenty years after the human race won the fight against the evil invading aliens a bigger badder spacecraft arrives intent to destroy the world all together.  But we humans have prepared for this possibility. Using the discovered alien technology we are ready to fight back on the same level. Or are we?

Basically you, the viewer, want two things when you sit down in the theater seat for this movie: massive destruction and characters to care for. That’s all! And Independence Day: resurgence delivers beautifully. There are one or two big action sequences with collapsing buildings and whatnot and more than enough (humorous) likable characters to care for.

Destroying the world bit by bit.

Now, it seems that Emmerich wisely realized that we are currently living in a movie-era where the world gets destroyed on a yearly summer-blockbuster basis. Superman, X-men, Hulk whenever those blokes show up housing prices plummet.

So, it feels that, in Independence Day: resurgence it was decided not to focus too much on the mayhem, but rather on the adventure element and the humor. Which is especially clear when the White House is left standing.

It’s like the movie tells us that: Yes I’ll give you destruction but, let’s be honest, you’ve seen it a million times before so let me also give you some adventure and humor.

Yes, London and all its landmarks gets destroyed (talk about a Brexit!? –sorry, I had to) and that’s about it. And that’s fine because the destruction we do get to see looks as great as you can expect from the master of destruction: Emmerich.

The end of the world is hilarious.

The original Independence Day was always a bit too dark for its own good which made the over the top ‘America is no1!’-attitude a bit unbearable at times.

The best example of this is the scene directly after Randy Quaid sacrifices himself. A general tells the dead-guy’s son that ‘he must be proud about his father’. And the boy replies ‘I am’! Cringe-worthy.

Now, twenty years later Emmerich has found his stride with the excellent White house down wherein he managed to find a balance between patriotism and parody. And his movies have become quite adept at cracking jokes. Goldblum, Hemsworth and, of course, Hirsch are all comfortable playing their parts knowing full well that this movie isn’t as serious as it could be.

A smart move with Alien Tech.

One thing I didn’t expect was the clever move this film makes by creating an alternative timeline in which the world has used the alien technology to their advantage. Immediately we don’t have to be bothered about antique laptop compatibility (I had to mention this one didn’t I). Which is great because it give the movie just enough fantasy to not have the audience question everything. The previously mentioned leave-your-brain-at-the-door.

But not perfect.

Now, are there any nitpicks? Of course there are. Independence Day: resurgence didn’t blow me away as the first movie did. I’ve seen the world being destroyed numerous times now-I’ve grown accustomed to it -which makes this film a bit forgettable.

But it is definitely a welcome adventure ride, just not very impressive.

The biggest nitpick would be that there are far too many characters in this movie. Now, they all work and each and every one of them is charming. But they do overcrowd the movie a bit. For instance, Joey King’s character and her siblings who appear only to be written in to give

Judd Hirsch something to do. Great to have him back and everything (he hasn’t aged a day) but basically his whole storyline was rather useless- More a fanservice than anything involving the plot.

The same goes for Bill Pullman (who has aged quite a bit): he’s there, he’s gone.

Now is all of this terrible? No of course not. Independence day: resurgence isn’t a classic like its predecessor but it is in no way a bad picture. It knows what it is: It’s simple, adventurous, traditional entertainment with a copious amount of humor.

You want to see humans battle aliens? Go see ID4-R!