1996 brought us some great movies. Independence Day, Twister, Jerry Maguire, The Rock, and Mars Attacks! 2016 brought us some great movies too. Deadpool, Captain America: Civil War, Eddie the Eagle. Oh yeah, a sequel to Independence Day came out as well. But that doesn’t make the list of great movies. Here’s my review.
If any of you listened to episode 2 of my podcast Future Flicks thanks, but also you may have heard me mention the fact that Independence Day Resurgence only had one press screening and that was the day of the release, mere hours before the first showing. That’s usually a bad sign. The last movie I’m aware of that did that was Fantastic Four which was probably the worst comic book movie ever. But it could have still been good. Roland Emmerich is an odd man and it could have been part of his master plan. It wasn’t. But it could have been.
Let me go grab a drink. What should it be? Coffee, nah… soda… nope too early. Ah! Hateraid. A nice cold glass of Hateraid. Now I can continue with my review. My God, you would think that since this movie had been bouncing around in the heads of Dean Devlin (writer) and Roland Emmerich (Director) for twenty years, that they would deliver a good product. But no. This movie felt like they they just partied and stayed up all night before filming started and then just banged out a script the day it was due. That may have worked in college, but not for a summer blockbuster. I was expecting Emmerich to show up at the end of the movie and he would tear off his mask and it had been Michael Bay the whole time. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did I just compare the ID4 sequel to Cinema Cancer Michael Bay? Yes I did. Though if Michael Bay did it, it would have been one of the better Bay films. Listed right under Bad Boys and The Rock.
There seems to be a pattern with visually impressive blockbusters. they’re trying to do too much in one movie. There’s so much going on that it was impossible for me to care about anyone. When there was a character death, I didn’t feel a thing. There’s only one character who’s death would have made me sad and it had nothing to do with the movie. What ID4 did perfectly was it built up the story to make you care about the characters and what happened to them. By the time the president gives the speech near the end, you’re ready for the offensive and you’re even touched by his words. They were the words of a man who has seen Earth’s darkest day and let all his emotions out as they prepared to take their last stand. Independence Day Resurgence (IDR) on the other hand had a lame half hearted speech that didn’t feel earned. There were about seven stories (sub plots included) being told and only three of them needed to be there. I believe they’re making another movie so I bet you anything they were too concerned with setting things up for the sequel to worry about making this one any good.
I can’t really put my finger on exactly what was good about the movie. It did so much wrong but was still able to be fun. The movie got a couple of big laughs out of me and even got me on the edge of my seat once. I didn’t realize how bad of a movie it was until sitting to think about it. Emmerich and Devlin got a lot wrong but somehow, while I was sitting in the theater watching it all, I was able to escape into the movie’s world, and that’s really what it’s about. IDR got a little too much wrong for me to recommend seeing it in theaters, even though it has some impressive visuals.
This is 2016, right? IDR was a big budget movie, right? I asked myself those two questions because there were scenes of the movie where the CG seems like it was taken from the first movie back in 1996. Like the CG in parts was an afterthought. The CG crews boss walks in and says “hey, did you finish up scene 164?” and they say “of course we did.” and when the boss walks off they frantically put something together. If this had been a low budget indie or B movie, then I wouldn’t care. But this should have been one of THE Summer blockbusters.
Let me get some random gripes out and the we can wrap this up. One of the characters from the first one was gone completely! Not, not Will Smith. They gave an explanation for that. I’m not sure how sensitive some of you are to spoilers so I won’t name them, but I’ll just say that it would have taken a single line to solve the problem. “I wish so-and-so was here. But too bad they’re (insert excuse here).” And I’m going to say it. Characters died. But there was no ceremony about it. Someone died, oh no, so sad. Lets go to the next scene and never mention it again. The whole film felt rushed and it ruined it. When you were a kid did you ever start telling someone a story but wanted to get to the good part really bad so you skipped stuff just to get to the climax? Seems like Emmerich and Devlin never grew out of that.
I’m very sorry to say it, but…
Independence Day Resurgence gets a 6.5 out of 11.