Image: Jeff Goldblum and Liam Hemsworth in Independence Day: Resurgence photograph courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox.
Twenty years after first watching aliens fire weapons at earth, and then witnessing humanity’s spirited attempt to fight back, writer/director Roland Emmerich (Stonewall) returns for another intergalactic battle of potentially apocalyptic proportions. Giant spaceships hover over the planet once more, leaving the world with little choice but to yet again take up arms and aim them at extra-terrestrials. All-too-consciously unfolding in the lead up to the 20th anniversary of the previous attack, and just as obvious in winking at its predecessor, Independence Day: Resurgence is the end result. Of course, the bloated chaos of carnage and clichés could brandish a few other subtitles: regurgitation, reanimation and rehash chief among them.
In the two decades since the franchise’s first close encounters of the aggressive kind (and with a third film already announced, also to be scripted, helmed and produced by Emmerich, Independence Day is firmly in franchise territory), conflict has been absent on the third rock from the sun. Instead, the populace’s attentions have centred on stopping a repeat invasion, with a global defence program, space military bases and other advances powered by alien technology at the forefront of their efforts. While current President Lanford (Sela Ward, Gone Girl) trumpets the success of the combined peacekeeping mission, mentally fraying previous President Whitmore (Bill Pullman, American Ultra) remains haunted by his previous experience. More than that he’s convinced that another less-than-friendly visit is imminent – and is proven accurate when a seemingly threatening vessel appears near the moon.
Among the cavalcade of characters clamouring for attention around the present and past leaders, some come with an already-known background, while others pop up for the first time. Whitmore’s daughter Patricia (Maika Monroe, The 5th Wave) ranks among the former, and while the fighter pilot turned speechwriter’s rebellious boyfriend Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2) and his chief rival Dylan Hiller (Jessie T. Usher, TV’s Survivor’s Remorse) – the son of Will Smith’s world-saving hero from the first film – are new inclusions, they have links to the pre-existing narrative. Still among the combat-focused, fellow top gun Rain Lao (Angelababy, Hitman: Agent 47) and her father Commander Jiang (Chin Han, Captain America: The Winter Soldier) add fresh faces and demonstrate international ties. Elsewhere, scientist David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum, Mortdecai) starts investigating with the help of firm believer Catherine Marceaux (Charlotte Gainsbourg, Samba) and African warlord Dikembe Umbutu (Deobia Oparei, Game of Thrones), his father Julius (Judd Hirsch, Sharknado 2: The Second One) escorts a group of orphaned kids to safety, and former Area 51 head Dr Brakish Okun (Brent Spiner, Outcast) awakens from a 20-year coma to help.
Resurgence should be a simple movie. The space invaders come back bigger and bolder than ever and mankind responds in kind. And yet, Emmerich and his four co-writers (fellow returnee Dean Devlin, cast members Nicolas Wright and James A. Woods, and Truth‘s James Vanderbilt) never allow the film to revel in the easy, dumb fun it clearly wants to. There’s little intelligence on display, or logic; however, labouring under the weight of too many players, silly subplots, and meta-moments, the feature just gets lost. Aping the inexplicably popular mindless popcorn fodder status of its forebear – which in itself twisted ’50s sci-fi epics and ’70s disaster flicks into a brash hybrid – might be the feature’s aim, but in feeling the need to shoehorn in nods to everything that has come since 1996 as well, and ramp up the filmmaker’s penchant for destruction too, it stretches gleeful cheesiness and exaggeration to a tedious rather than so-bad-it’s-enjoyable level.
Indeed, as deft as Emmerich may be at thrusting CGI visuals in the direction of viewer’s eyeballs, he barely demonstrates an understanding of coherent framing, pacing, action, choreography, editing or anything else that could elevate Resurgence above a state of messiness. Though the centrepiece set-piece offers a surprisingly inventive take on one of the most memorable moments in Independence Day, the film’s primary saving grace is its cast. Erroneously replacing the original’s Mae Whitman, Monroe gives her material more sincerity than it deserves, while Hemsworth brings the swagger missing in Smith’s absence. Goldblum remains the feature’s strongest asset – as he espouses wry dialogue that acknowledges the ridiculousness around him, one of its best reflections of the knowing goofiness it tries but fails harness. Alas, Gainsbourg actually becomes the movie’s bellwether instead; given little to engage with, looking bored and clearly hoping an end to her on-screen monotony will present itself soon, she’s the audience’s on-screen surrogate.
Accordingly, Resurgence proves the worst kind of sequel: deliriously happy to flaunt the nostalgic reasons for its existence and aware of its preposterousness, yet willing to only do the bare minimum to justify anything beyond its cash-grab trip down memory lane. Plastering on a smile and spouting one-liners that say ‘it’s okay, we know this is ludicrous’ only proves unconvincing and places the film more in the direct-to-TV than big screen space. So too does its most clumsy – and awkward – inclusion, as well as its most superficial. The feature may optimistically champion a pseudo utopia of world peace and international collaboration, but it also subsequently directs weapons at intergalactic threats, mounts mass-scale attacks and splashes carnage across the frame as quickly and frequently as possible.
Rating: 1.5 stars out of 5
Independence Day: Resurgence
Director: Roland Emmerich
USA, 2016, 120 mins
Release date: June 23
Distributor: Fox
Rated: M
Actors:
Director:
Format:
Country:
Release:
