IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (K. Jensen) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (C. Lemire) review
AVClub (I. Vishnevetsky) review
Let's begin by admitting what becomes obvious: Independence Day: Resurgence [2016] (directed by Roland Emmerich, screenplay by Nicolas Wright, James A. Woods, Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich and James Vanderbilt, story by Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, Nicolas Wright and James A. Woods, based on characters created by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin) is AT BEST a _silly movie_, having far more in common with the "Sharknado" movies than more conventional disaster movies, even including the recent earthquake / tsunami movie San Andreas [2015] which I did actually see (but apparently did not bother to review ;-) or other post-original Independence Day [1996] alien invasion movies like the recent The 5th Wave [2016] (which I did see / review ;-). AT WORST it's even worse than that... a waste of time.
Folks, that's really the choice that you'll have to make: Is this film simply "silly" / "stupid" like perhaps Snakes on a Plane [2006] or is it even worse than that?
The principal flaw in this "twenty years later" sequel to the original Independence Day [1996] is that the alien invasion envisioned in the original so devastated our planet that it'd be NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE to envision the world recovering as fast as it appeared to in the sequel. Indeed, A FAR MORE INTERESTING FILM (INDEED _SERIES_) WOULD HAVE FOLLOWED THE RECOVERY OF THE WORLD AFTER THE REPELLING OF THE ALIEN INVASION IN THE FIRST MOVIE.
To understand, let us remember the devastation wreaked on the Earth in the first movie: The OPENING SALVO of that Alien Invasion OBLITERATED New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles (in the U.S. alone, with similar coordinated attacks obliterating similar cities across Europe, the Americas and Asia). In _trying_ to repel or at least "cause damage" to the invasion fleet WE OURSELVES BLEW-UP HOUSTON with an H-BOMB _to no effect_ on the invasion fleet. (At the end of that film, we ended up gaining the upper-hand through managing to insert some sort of a computer virus into the invasion fleet's coordinating mechanism that rendered the invasion fleet "dead in the ... air / space" ;-).
But the Damage was done. While NOT IMPOSSIBLE, it'd be hard to imagine the level of "Emergency Management" / Societal Coordination and SOCIETAL BUY-IN that would be required to REBUILD after such an attack.
And then there'd be a question of WHAT TO REBUILD -- HONESTLY: DO WE REBUILD SOCIETY TO BE WHAT IT WAS LIKE _BEFORE_ (basically consumerist driven to promote the happiness of society's individual members) OR ... (HONESTLY) DO WE REBUILD THE MILITARY AT A FRENETIC PACE (yes cannibalizing any / all captured alien technology) TO SIMPLY PREPARE FOR A SECOND ATTACK.
TYPICAL OF OUR MINDSET TODAY ... the current film REFUSES to make _that choice_.
So, instead we're presented with a rebuilt Washington D.C. that looks like a Sci-Fi UTOPIAN vision of what Washington D.C. _could look like_ three centuries from now. Additionally, we're told that we have a base on the Moon and EVEN SOMEWHERE BY SATURN (remember this would be 20 years after the initial 1996 attack, that is TODAY).
That is UTTER NONSENSE. AT OUR WILDEST BEST, we'd be looking like late 1950s-early 1960s era West Germany (or perhaps 1950s-early 60s era SOVIET UNION ... they had to rebuild on their own ... W. Germany got assistance FROM US... we'd get assistance from NOBODY), with still LOTS of LEFT-OVER RUINS and ALL KINDS OF OTHER PHYSICAL / PSYCHIC SCARS ALL AROUND.
IT'S ALL NONSENSE, NONSENSE, NONSENSE. Perhaps though we could have come up with a way to use "alien technology" to just start "throwing sharks" at the second alien invasion fleet ;-)
A "shark laser pulse gun" (whatever that would be) would be _as realistic_ and _probably more effective_ than the current film's impressive sounding BUT UTTERLY STUPID "cold fusion bombs" ... LOL ;-).
AT BEST "Cold Fusion" would provide us with "a free" means to WARM A CUP OF COFFEE (useful BUT ...). Maybe A MASSIVE "COLD FUSION REACTOR" OR, BETTER, A MASSIVE ARRAY OF SMALL PARALLEL "COLD FUSION REACTORS" could produce a _lot of_ "net heat" that with something like a low-boiling freon cycle could be converted into ELECTRICITY that in turn _could_ be used to power some kind of LASER. BUT A BOMB (!!) NO, NOT IN THIS UNIVERSE !!!!
The "old fashioned 1950s era 100 MT H-bombs" LOTS AND LOTS OF THEM would PERHAPS be able to "do something" ... if one could get through the alien force shields. And then one would want to set them off hundreds of millions of miles from Earth.
Closer to home ... I'd bet on those sharks ... ;-)
So folks, MY DECISION IS MADE. IMHO this was an _unbelievably stupid movie_ ... and honestly the star-studded cast deserved better than this. Can one give a film NEGATIVE STARS? ;-)
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