Independence Day: Reviewsurgence

Twenty years on from the original film and probably the product of Twentieth Century Fox looking for another franchise to bleed dry, the sequel that nobody asked for comes rolling around. Independence Day, while feeling a bit like having AMERICA! shouted at you for 2 hours, was a load of fun and an example of how to do a puddle-shallow sci-fi blockbuster correctly. Charismatic leads, some memorable visuals and a creditable alien threat made for an enjoyable cinematic experience and aside form making me feel really old, how would the sequel fare against 20 years of human advancement? Would the post-colon sorbiquet mean anything at all?

As with most of these types of films, Independence Day: Resurgence is far from being art, but there is a skill to getting this type of disaster movie right. For every Jurassic World or Cloverfield there's a Battleship (a film so bad it made me root for the aliens) or a slew of stroke-inducing Transformers films. Resurgence falls into the former category or being utterly stupid but charming and emotional enough to give you a smile.

Starting with the more negative aspects, the first thing you'll notice is that the majority of dialogue in this film is absolute garbage. If characters are not portentously referring to their history (barely-sketched backstory passing as character depth), they're simply describing what is already there onscreen to see. You could watch this film with the sound off and follow the plot beat-for-beat.

Most of the guilt for this lies with the younger members of the cast, most of whom could pass as cardboard cut outs of Gap models. Jessie T. Usher, Maika Monroe (normally better than this), Rain Lao, Travis Tope, and one of the non-Thor Hemsworth brothers, while not helped by some duff dialogue, are generally awful and one can't help but think the studio wouldn't trust their franchise to be carried by actors in their 50s. Likewise Charlotte Gainsbourg does little but wide-eyed science buff stuff and isn't right for the part, and the African warlord character is a crass stereotype that brings to mind a villain in an unmade Lethal Weapon film, written and directed by Mel Gibson

The conductor of all the onscreen mayhem is Roland Emmerich, the man whose commitment to iconoclastic destruction made the original film so memorable. While we previously saw the White House and Capitol Records building destroyed by flying saucers, the size and scale of which were very clearly defined and all the more effective for it. Following the 'bigger is better' mantra of the sequel, a 3000-mile-wide super saucer, covering the entire Atlantic ocean, is poorly rendered and too massive to either fit onscreen or comprehend. Also, instead of blitzing landmarks with a scary energy beam, the saucer simply destroys stuff by being so massive as to have its own gravity. The scene where the Burj Khalifa is dumped on London just isn't as effective: it's scattershot and less focused.

All of that said, there is plenty to recommend in Resurgence. As it develops, there is a tangible sense of dread, the alien plot suitably far-fetched and destructive. While it's a gamble, the presence of another alien species works nicely. The audience, having already bought into an aggressive alien force, is asked to buy into a benevolent one and their representative is designed in a pleasing way that recalls both Gort from The Day The Earth Stood Still and Eva from Wall-E.

Also quite pleasing is how Resurgence handles the hybrid alien-Earth tech. This makes the film enjoyably 'sci-fi' and also raises the stakes in terms of the alien threat; if we're so advanced, how the hell are they going to beat us? Well, they do a good job of it. While this allows for some narrative conveniences, it's largely done well and the times it cheats are forgiveable. Considering how they defeated the aliens in the first film, being able to active the thrusters on a ship that's been taken over by the hive mind, seems like much less of a cheat.

There is plenty of humour thrown in and while many of the early zingers don't quite zing, they eventually find their feet, and a school bus thrown into the middle of an alien queen throwdown is a brilliantly nutty move. Much of the success here is owed to the older cast, reprising roles from the original. Jeff Goldblum is charismatic as ever, Bill Pullman's PTSD-afflicted ex-president does well with a part that could have easily been unintentionally hilarious, and Brent Spiner's comic-relief/exposition-spouting Dr. Okun is fun enough to lighten the tone and diffuse the silly plot. Likewise Emmerich's gracenotes and enough to give a picture of a larger Earth (the drunken scavenger ship crew is fun) and add some detail outside the main plot.

Ultimately, this would be a flattened White House of a film if it wasn't for the returning cast. Will Smith would probably have helped matters but there's plenty to like from the others including William Fitchner, who looks like he hasn't slept since 1996. Emmerich should probably stop thinking of ways to destroy the world now; this was a pleasant surprise that could have been diabolical but was redeemed by some good old fashioned gravitas. The last line, however, promising/threatening further instalments, should have been left out. Earth has now had enough resurgence.