Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) is the very, very late sequel to the 1996 box office smash that more or less helped define the modern, overblown blockbuster. It was the film that put Roland Emmerich on the map and ushered in a new era of big, dumb explosion films. But, viewing the new film, one can almost feel the original is a subtle masterpiece of deft storytelling.

Resurgence picks up 20 years after the original, in an alternate-universe Earth where the alien technology has helped us make great advances as a civilization. World peace is universal, as all our petty differences have been put aside to unite and build a strong fortification for the inevitable return of the aliens that attacked us so long ago.

And, before long, the aliens do return. This time, instead of sending several large discs from one mothership hovering near the moon, we get one, massive ship, 3,000 miles in diameter, with it's own gravitational pull, which creates a whole new method of city destruction as one East Asian city is picked up and dropped on London, completely obliterating both places.

The film does an impressive job of reigning back in all the major players from the first film, except Will Smith, who opted to make the forthcoming Suicide Squad instead. His absence is explained away as a test run crash that killed him, and his son Dylan (Jessie T. Usher) has filled his father's large shoes rather well, becoming a pilot in his own right. Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch, Vivica A. Fox, and even Brent Spiner (who many, myself included, assumed died in the first film) are back.

There's very little this film does right, but the things it does well include Spiner's character, a wacky scientist who gets considerable more screen time and adds some much needed levity to the proceedings, and one or two fun set pieces, including Goldblum driving a school bus full of children away from a giant alien.

But the film has a multitude of problems. The first is it's endless subplots. Emmerich is a fan of having many characters in many locations to move the plot forward, but unfortunately the film becomes spread so thin between all these different locations that none of them have barely anytime to register, leaving us simply exhausted trying to keep up.

There's President Whitmore (Pullman) from the first film, suffering visions from his psychic link to the aliens; an African warlord who also suffers the same visions; a nerdy guy proving he can kill aliens; a rivalry between Dylan and Jake (Liam Hemsworth); a budding romance between Jake's friend and a Chinese pilot; a real romance between Jake and the President's daughter (Maika Monroe); a therapist deciphering the alien message; an alien being from another planet not associated with those trying to kill us; Judd Hirsch traversing across the country with a school bus full of children to reach his son; and a merchant boat out in the Atlantic monitoring the aliens' drilling.

All of this is edited at a breakneck pace that barely gives you anytime to breathe. The film hurdles through scenes, establishing characters and relationships with the typical expository dialogue you've come to expect from Emmerich. Characters introduce themselves by quickly explaining their backstories and what issues they might have with other characters so we know they'll be resolved by the end of everything. That this film has five credited screenwriters is baffling; something written by five people should never be this bad.

The film also suffers from not feeling as big as the first one. Say what you will about Independence Day, but it builds and builds to the first payoff, the set piece in which the White House and Los Angeles are blown to hell. The films spends about 45 minute getting all the characters into place, and while the script is really no better, at least there is a sense of pacing. There is a sense of how big this threat is and how impossible the odds are for our heroes to win. In this film, there is never a moments doubt that our heroes will prevail in the end.

I guess I'm not sure what I expected from a big Emmerich blockbuster. He's got a long track record of horrible films, and while this is certainly not his worst, it does nothing to give him credit as a filmmaker. The film shrewdly tries to set the wheels in motion for a sequel, which I certainly do not look forward to. In our reality of 2016, everything must be built to be a franchise, a unique universe to pull in huge bucks for the studios. But you have to make the characters interesting and worth investing in first.