Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a sci-fi film from 2016. That movie is "Independence Day: Resurgence".
I'd like to state right off the bat that I have seen the first "Independence Day" film many, many times. I've seen it back when my Dad use to own it on VHS, I've seen it whenever it occasionally aired on TV, which then lead me to finally buying the extended edition version of the movie on DVD. Granted, the extended edition really doesn't add much of anything new to it, but at least I have that option whenever I'm in the mood to watch it. So needless to say, I love the first "Independence Day" movie that much.
Which then leads us into tonight's movie, AKA it's sequel...and I already have two major complaints about this thing before I even push play. It's usually not a good sign whenever I have something to bitch about this early on, but this movie is kind of a special case here. Number 1, the very *thought* that the first "Independence Day" film was getting a sequel 20 years later is a *huge* red flag. If this thing had come out maybe a few years after the first movie, *maybe* I wouldn't have that much of an issue with it. OK sure, it would still be a pointless cash-grab sequel, but it would still kind of make sense. The only other instance I can think of any movie that was directed by Roland Emmerich that got something resembling a sequel was the "Godzilla" animated series, which came out a couple of years after the 1999 movie. And it was actually pretty good, even though it still ended up getting cancelled after a couple of seasons. But the very idea of a sequel to "Independence Day" being made 20 years after the first movie sounds like pure desperation for a cash-grab that either Roland Emmerich or 20th Century FOX came up with because the first movie was one of the biggest blockbuster movies at the time.
Which then leads into my second complaint about this movie. It sort of ties into what I already complained about earlier, but since this movie is suppose to be a sequel to the first movie, I gotta ask: Where the fuck else do you go from here? Why continue from a movie that had a perfect ending?! Spoilers, in case you still haven't seen the first movie yet, Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith go to space on an alien fighter ship towards the mothership, plant the virus, and blow it the fuck up, along with all the other alien ships that were wreaking havoc all over Earth. Ta-da! It ended perfectly. So again, why the fuck do you need to continue this story that probably has no reason to exist?!
Oh my god...guys, I know I'm kinda showing my hand early here, but I literally have almost no faith in this movie even being half good, hell, let alone being partially decent. Why? Because, I love the first "Independence Day" movie, and I truly don't believe this sequel is gonna do anything good to improve on what was already a great movie. But...I am gonna press forward. Because, who knows? Maybe, just *maybe*, this movie might actually surprise me and actually be decent. Granted, I understand those hopes are gonna be incredibly low here, but I'm still going to at least see if there is something here that will make this thing worth watching. And there's only one way to find out, which is for me to shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. God, I *really* don't want to, but I'm gonna have to here. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Independence Day: Resurgence".
3 minutes later
You know what, guys, there is no *better* way to start off a movie then by showcasing Bill Pullman giving out his famous Independence Day speech from the first movie. All of a sudden, I now have an urge to just this shut this movie off and go watch the first one again. We're not even 5 minutes into the film yet, and we're starting off really poorly, guys.
11 minutes later
So, let me see if I understand this. From after the mothership was destroyed in the first movie, David and Will Smith discovered some sort of frequency signal from deep space. Um...at what point was that even brought up in the first movie? Again, need I remind you that once the mothership was destroyed, that should've included almost every other spaceship that was attacking Earth. So unless I missed some other footage from the extended edition, then this just sounds like a fucking plot hole to me, guys.
20 minutes later
All right, guys, I've been kinda patient now with this movie, but I need to ask this. When the hell does it start to get interesting? I'm asking this because this movie is actually doing something that I never thought I'd say about a sequel to "Independence Day", but this movie is actually starting to become boring. How the fuck do you make a sequel to one of the biggest blockbuster films of the mid-90s boring?! That is just fucking depressing, and I truly fear it's not going to get any better. I'm hoping that it does, but based on what I've been seeing so far, I don't think it's going to.
12 minutes later
You know, guys, I would love to tell you that the tension that is going on with this big alien ship wiping out everything looks really cool...and yet, for some reason...it's really not that impressive. I think it's because of the ship itself being covered in a smoke of fire that kinda makes the ship look really lame and shitty. Perhaps maybe if it wasn't covered in all this fiery smoke, I could bring myself to find it visually interesting. But unfortunately, that is not the case here. And that's really disappointing.
17 minutes later
Wow...they even made the dogfights in this movie boring as shit. How is this even fucking possible? The dogfights in the previous film were really cool. Here though, all of this action looks like the same lame ass shit I'd see in the fucking Star Wars prequels. At least with those dogfights though, I could at least see what was going on. Here, I can *barely* make out what is going on because almost all of the ships look the fucking same to me. Guys, I am literally struggling to find *anything* in this movie that is worth caring for, but it's becoming really difficult at this point, seeing as how we're now over the halfway mark of the movie. I'm hoping, maybe, the second hour will actually provide something worth caring for, but at this point, my hopes for that happening are at an all time low.
14 minute later
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, WAIT! So...let me if I understand all this. So the reason why the aliens have been digging holes on Earth is because they've been extracting fuel from the Earth's core to refuel their ships and to improve their technology. OK, so if they've improved their technology for thousands of years during their battle against this other species that this sphere is explaining, then why did the aliens not just do right from the start of the first movie?! If their technology is so advanced ahead of our time, then they shouldn't have had a problem destroying all of the inhabitants on Earth from day one rather than just waiting several days by destroying certain major cities around the globe! Guys...you have no idea how much I'm beginning to hate this movie. I'm hating every minute of it as it passes by, and there's still over 40 minutes of this crap to go! This is *really* gonna hurt.
18 minutes later
So, guys, the plan failed because the alien queen had her own shield. Which also means that Bill Pullman's character dies for nothing. And you know what? I do not care. I do not care at this point what happens to everyone else in this movie. At this point, I *want* the aliens to win. I can't believe I would actually say something like this about a movie related to "Independence Day", but this found a way to make me not care about any of the human characters! Mind you, the aliens are not all that better, but I'll get more into that once the film is done.
The Review
Are you fucking serious...? This hunk of shit ends on a fucking sequel hook?! No...*no*! I'm shutting this garbage movie off. The day this shit gets a fucking sequel is the day I go on a massive killing spree! Holy shit...so anyway, guys, um...that was "Independence Day: Resurgence". Quite frankly, guys, I am genuinely too pissed to yell or get angry. And I know being that I'm typing on a keyboard, you probably wouldn't notice that kind of reaction out of me. But if I were to try and convey my words into anger, I would be typing how I feel by capitalizing every word as if I had the cap locks on for the entire review. But I'm gonna try to not do that here, because I feel that would be a waste of time for you, guys. So instead, I'm gonna try to explain into words about how truly awful this movie was.
So...where the hell do I even begin here? Well, I suppose I can start by saying this. Had I never watched the first "Independence Day" film, the worst thing I could say about this thing is that it is just a bland, generic alien invasion flick that we've seen done many times beforehand, and that ultimately, I would write this thing off as just being really forgettable. However, I have seen the first "Independence Day" film many times already. It's honestly one of my favorite sci-fi movies of all time that isn't "Starship Troopers". And the very fact that this movie tries to claim itself as a sequel to the first movie, it actually makes the first movie look *really* bad. OK sure, the first movie wasn't exactly a masterpiece or anything. It was also just a standard alien invasion movie, but one of the things that made it work to it's advantage was that it played itself off as a homage to old school sci-fi B-movies. It was goofy at times, yes, but it also had a lot of charm to itself, and that I loved it so much. This thing, on the other hand, tries to pass itself off as a boring, bland Sy-Fy Channel Original Movie with a bigger budget. It also no charm to it either. It's just a souless cash-in sequel that has no reason to exist. Not just as a sequel, but also as a franchise. And if that sequel hook ever ends up happening, I imagine it would most likely be a straight-to-Disney+ series which would last all of one season before it ends up getting cancelled, because that's something that usually happens in the era of streaming services.
Anyway, rather than just me talking about the "what ifs" for a sequel that hopefully never gets fucking made, let me try to talk about the movie in a little more detail. I'm gonna start with the writing. And as I asked earlier, if these aliens have been sucking planets from their core dry to refuel their ships and to improve on their technology, then why did they not do any of that in the first movie? I'm asking this, because these aliens have apparently been at war with another species for thousands of years. If they've been at war with this other species that is deemed to be a threat to them for that long, then that should mean that the aliens have more than enough experience to wipe out all of humanity back in 1996. I mean, at that time, we barely, if at all, improved our technology. So they should've had no problems wiping the humans out within the first day of doing this, rather than going through the motions of several days leading up to the 4th of July. The only reason why it got stopped was because David, AKA Jeff Goldblum's character, got lucky in figuring out on how to reverse their signals, thus the humans won and saved the day. But still, the idea of the aliens not actually being able to wipe out Earth's population and resources, despite the fact that they've had thousands of years of experience under their belt makes me question on how much of their resources were used up in their war against this other species that the sphere was talking about. It shouldn't have been *that* much, considering the sphere admitted that the aliens nearly wiped out their species. So either the spheres put up more of a resistance than I thought or the technology the aliens have accumulated *really* suck.
Let's touch upon the characters in this thing, shall we? One of the other big things that worked about the first movie was that nearly every character was very likable and had really good chemistry with someone else. Sure, there were a couple of them that didn't exactly have a lot of depth, but what worked about them was the fact they felt very relatable and you could feel the struggles that they are going through in trying to overcome this alien threat. This movie, on the other hand, took all of that likability and *stripped* it out of all them in this movie. There is not one character in this movie that is likable, charming, or even worth caring about. All of them range on either being unlikable, annoying, or just shells of their former selves. And when it comes to that last one, I'm talking about everyone that made a return from the first movie, which includes Dylan, to Bill Pullman's President character, to his daughter, to David and his father, and even the scientist that I thought was suppose to be dead from the first movie is actually alive here for...some reason that's still baffling to me. So yeah, none of the returning characters actually have any real significance to this movie, and any of the new characters are so fucking forgettable that I can't even remember a single name, outside of maybe Chris Hemsworth's character being named Jake. I could be totally mistaken about that, but I honestly don't care if I am or not, because these new characters don't give any reasons to make you care about them at all. In fact, if it wasn't made clear in the movie, Dylan was the son of Will Smith's character from the first movie, and Smith's character dies due to an accident. Which, to me, is bullshit. And the reason why I say it's bullshit is because, even for people who didn't like the first movie, most of them will admit that Will Smith was one of the reasons to watch it, mostly because he had that natural charisma to his character. And if his character wasn't killed off in a half-assed way here, then I think this movie would've been a little more tolerable. Not great, but at least somewhat more tolerable.
But anyway, guys, the writing here is just shit from top to bottom. There is nothing positive here I could say about the writing that is worth remembering for, beyond the fact that it's insulting, both as a standalone movie and as a sequel to the first "Independence Day" movie. And what's even more insulting than that is the acting. There is nobody here that puts in any level of effort. Which isn't really surprising to me, considering that, I've stated many times in this series, you can only do so much with a script that is this fucking bad. All of them turn in wooden, lifeless showings. That includes all of the original cast members that were brought back for this movie, and all of the new actors, who most of them I didn't even recognize, save for Chris Hemsworth. And even then, Chris Hemsworth also sucked in this movie, as well. So yeah, the acting here sucks. However, I can't really blame the actors here because, like I said, they only had so much to work with. And considering how much everyone's character sucked in this movie, it really wasn't much.
Let's talk about special effects. And again, this is something that is also gonna be seen as a huge downgrade. Because one of the things that most people remember about the first movie are the amazing special effects. One of the big contributing factors to it were the alien ships. In the first movie, it gave you a sense of scope of how big these ships actually looked. You felt like there was a big alien ship just hovering over a major city, and that you were apart of it as well. And the effects for these ships looked awesome, especially for the standards given for 1996. "Independence Day: Resurgence" is also very heavy on special effects. However, most of it just feels like you're watching a CG green-screen show. The alien ships themselves don't look that interesting either. They're bigger, definitely, but they don't really leave much of any impact on you. Again, it just feels like more bloated CG, and it's not very interesting CG either. It might've looked impressive if this thing came out a decade ago, but the very fact that it came out in 2016 looks and feels very lazy here. And it's rather sad to think about, especially when you consider that the first movie from 20 years had special effects that looked far better than any of the CG that was present in this movie.
Camerawork in this movie is fine. The lighting here is fine. The sound-mix is also pretty good. The score tries to replicate, and in some cases, reuses stock music from the first movie, but almost none of it has any real soul. Well, aside from the music that was used in the first movie. Speaking of which, one other thing that I want to quickly mention about this movie is that it will do a lot of callbacks to the original film. For example, there are small clips of Bill Pullman's famous speech from the first movie that was used in the opening credits. There are also references to previous cast members and you get to see some cameos from them as well. But none of it feels like it has any heart to it. And a bit of a pro-tip for those of you who are interested in film-making, when you're doing a sequel or remake to something, you should *never* reference the original film in any way. Because if you do that, it's only going to give the viewer a reason to go back and re-watch the original movie instead. And when this movie decided to reuse clips from the first movie within the first several minutes, immediately after seeing that, I wanted to just shut the movie off, and go watch the first and *only* "Independence Day" movie. Yeah, after watching this, I am gonna try and pretend that this movie never existed as a sequel.
And on that note, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Independence Day: Resurgence"? What the hell do you think? No! Fuck no! This movie is quite honestly one of the most offensive things I've seen in a long time. It's almost as offensive as the time that I was dumb enough to watch "I'm Not Ashamed". Yeah, it really is *that* bad. If you liked or loved the first movie like I did, then do yourself a favor and avoid this thing at all costs. If you weren't a fan of the first movie, then there's obviously no way in hell I can recommend this because it doesn't do anything to enhance itself as a "sequel". This movie never needed to exist as a franchise. And what I found rather laughable was the fact that, as I was watching the trailers on this DVD, apparently, someone wasted money in making a movie tie-in mobile game to this particular movie. And I would be shocked if it still existed. But considering how poorly received this movie was, I'm gonna take a safe bet here and say that no one would be willing to play the mobile game that supposedly exists or existed. I don't know if it still does or not, however, I should just be putting out my closing thoughts on this movie. Overall, guys, do not waste a moment of your time with this movie. Don't bother getting this on DVD, Blu-ray, or even watch it on Disney+. It is a waste of space as a sequel. And somehow, that's probably gonna be interpreted as a pun, given that it's a sci-fi movie and all. But anyway, I'm done wasting the time on talking about this movie, and the sooner that I trade it in, the better off I will be, because I feel almost physically ill for having a copy of this movie still sitting around my shelf. So anyway...I said that I wanted to re-watch the first-actually no, the *only* "Independence Day" movie, so I'm gonna go and do that next. Because I need to be reminded of a time when some movies didn't need to exist as franchises.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of episode 199 of Reaction & Review. And next week, guys, we approach the big 200. I already have that episode written and I cannot wait to have it uploaded for you guys to enjoy. But until then, take care, guys, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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