Independence Day Resurgence - Bigger and Badder, Not Really Better

It’s been out less than a week, but I’m still a little late in seeing Independence Day Resurgence (IDR).  I took the opportunity to check it out today.  I have seen two new sequels in two days.  Where Finding Dory was well worth my time, I’m not sure that I can say the same about IDR.

If you press me, I’ll admit that the original Independence Day wasn’t a great movie. The story wasn’t all that great (glaring plot holes and unbelievable weaknesses in the aliens’ technology), but I did enjoy it.  There were likeable characters (along with some annoying ones), creepy aliens, good explosions, and Will Smith.  IDR has creepy aliens, good explosions, and plot holes.

I think my biggest problem with IDR was that I didn’t care about or even like most of the characters.  There were some old hats back for more: some of the heroes from the first invasion along with a couple of kids that had grown up.  New characters were introduced, both old and young.  It was the rising generation that I had a hard time caring about.  The old guard was mostly fine:  Jeff Goldblum was great; Bill Pullman did a decent job; Judd Hirsch’s and Brent Spiner’s characters were at about the same level of oddness as they were in the original.  What was really missing was the charisma of Will Smith.  His character’s placeholder, one of the grown up kids, doesn’t have nearly as much presence, and the film suffered for it.

There were things that I did enjoy.  I liked the fusion of the earth and alien technologies.  I also liked that the story was a continuation of the original, with all of the good and bad consequences of the events in the first story.  I was also very glad that the aliens learned from their earlier defeat, so that they couldn’t be defeated in the same way.

I won’t go into detail about the gripes I had with the “science”.  Needless to say, it left a lot to be desired.  There are some situations where I can ignore or forgive ignoring physics.  This wasn’t one of them.  Normally the reason for my irritation is because the movie takes itself seriously.  It was different this time.  The bad science was used to further the story.  It was lazy.  There were plenty of thing that the writers could have done to achieve the same effects with a bit of effort.

This sequel fit the stereotype of sequels: it wasn’t as good as the first one.  Maybe I wouldn’t mind it so much if that stereotype hadn’t been bucked so much in the last few years.  The movie wasn’t unwatchable, but it left a lot to be desired.