Independance Day :Resurgence

20 years have passed since the aliens first attacked the Earth on Independence Day. Since then, the World has been united in peace and taken the alien technology and made it their own. Creating vehicles, spacecraft and weapons. We've built stations on the Moon, among other celectial sites in anticipation for another attack. The question is....have we done enough? Some familiar heroes, along with new ones come together in an epic battle to save humanity.

Cast

Liam Hemsworth as Jake Morrison, a U.S. pilot serving as a lieutenant in ESD, Patricia Whitmore's fiancé

Jeff Goldblum as David Levinson

Jessie Usher as Dylan Dubrow-Hiller, the son of Jasmine Dubrow-Hillier and stepson of the now-deceased war hero Steven Hiller

Bill Pullman as Thomas J. Whitmore, the 42nd and former President

Maika Monroe as Patricia Whitmore, the former First Daughter

Sela Ward as Elizabeth Lanford, the 45th President of the United States

William Fichtner as Joshua Adams

Judd Hirsch as Julius Levinson

Brent Spiner as Dr. Brakish Okun

Patrick St. Esprit as Reese Tanner, the United States Secretary of Defense.

Vivica A. Fox as Jasmine Dubrow-Hiller, the widow of the late war hero Steven Hiller

Who will like this

20 years is a long time to go between sequels. And fans of the original will want to check out how they decided to continue the story. Younger viewers, however will probably have to download the movie from '96 to get caught up to speed. Although parts are explained, you really do have to see the original to follow this one. It's a Summer Sci-fi movie. Lots of special effects. The late teen/twenty-something crowd may relate this to a Pacific Rim.

Phantom Thoughts

Oh....guilty pleasures. Some movies are just bad and you don't care. You love them anyway. For whatever the reason, they make us happy. In 1996, Independence Day was one of those for me.

Mind you, it WAS 20 years ago and it didn't take a lot to make me happy. There were issues with it, of course. Most people point to the fact that Jeff Goldbum's  character hooked into the alien tech using just his laptop. But if you think about it, that can be explained. See, the ship he "hacked" into was a crashed ship from the Roswell incident. They had over 50 years of experimentation on the thing to figure out how to hook into the control panel. Who's to say the scientists working on it didn't figure it out during that time and then David just used human computers that were already in it to run his programs?

So if you suspend belief a little bit with the original (and remember that you're watching an alien invasion movie, after all. You should ALREADY be suspending belief) then you can enjoy it that much more. It had a slow start, and by that I mean that it built up to a crescendo. You knew what was coming, but you were intrigued and curious on what would happen next right up to the point of the first spectacular attack.

This one....not so much. They did try though. They tried to really tie itself to the original....but maybe more so than you might think. FOR EXAMPLE: in the 1996 movie, we learn that Jeff Goldbum's character punched the now President Bill Pullman back when they were younger. In this one, Will Smith's step-son punches Pullman's daughter's fiancé. Did you follow that? It got a little confusing. Which is how I felt watching . There was no build up, no crescendo, no story flow.

I know what they were trying to do...bring back as many original characters while bringing in new blood. But they just couldn't meld the two together. Dr. Okun is back....turns out he didn't die in the original (Oh c'mon....that wasn't a spoiler! He was in the trailers, after all) He was in a coma this whole time and wakes up on the eve of the new attack. Sorry....but some characters should just stay dead. They also used the "alien-in-a-glass-prison-communicates-through-a-human" bit again but this time it's Ex-President Whitmore who is the vessel of choice. Same gag. Different character. Ho Hum.

Speaking of President Whitmore....Pullman delivered the greatest Sci-Fi Presidential speech in history in the original.  Let's face it, it's greater than most political speeches in real life today. Whitmore for Pres. 2016!!!! That speech couldn't be topped, and they knew it. So instead of trying, they just inputted quotes from that one anywhere they could. It felt forced. And it was.

Ok...here's an ACTUAL spoiler for you: ID:R also took notes from a far more successful alien sequel- Aliens 2. Just like that one, they introduced the idea of a "Queen" alien that controls all the others. Same as that one, this Queen is MUCH bigger and tougher than the others we met before. Bonus ENDING SPOILER: once they defeat her, the others all just give up, and the massive ship that covered the entire Atlantic Ocean (Yeah....that wouldn't cause cataclysmic effects just by it's presence on our planet, would it?) leaves. Why? Once we defeated the aliens 20 years ago, all the ships crashed to the ground and humanity had to rebuild from that. Why would THIS ship leave? I didn't understand that at all.

But the most disappointing and confusing part was the appearance of a different alien species. This one remains a mystery until about half way through when it is discovered that the orb is a warning of the attack and has the answer to defeating the "bad" aliens. That ship and message delivery system is in the shape of a sphere....which looks like a mixture of another sci-fi movie ship and character:

 

 

Turns out the answer to defeat them is "42". No...not really. But it could be. See, they came to warn us, but can't TELL us how to beat them. It's not until we do on our own that this globe says it can share with us the secrets of the universe now that we proved ourselves. It was just completely unnecessary and too broad a "reward" for fighting for our survival.

 

To sum it up, it was confusing and disappointing for the most part. But a special effects delight with moments of humor and action. I would probably watch it once in the theater.....then maybe catch it again once it works it's way to Spike or FX.

 

 

 

Until next time, see you in the center seat.

Finding Dory

A year after the events of "Finding Nemo", absent-minded Dory has an arrant memory of her Mom and Dad. That memory sparks her desire to find them and be reunited with her family. With the help of old friends, Marlin and Nemo....and also a few new ones, the adventure begins in a trek across the ocean to find them.

Cast

Ellen DeGeneres as Dory

Albert Brooks as Marlin

Hayden Rolence as Nemo

Ed O'Neill as Hank, a cranky East Pacific red octopus

Diane Keaton as Jenny, Dory's mother.

Eugene Levy as Charlie, Dory's father.

Kaitlin Olson as Destiny, a near-sighted whale shark

Ty Burrell as Bailey, a beluga whale

Idris Elba as Fluke, an easygoing sea lion

Dominic West as Rudder, a sea lion

Bob Peterson as Mr. Ray

Who will like this:

This one is a little tricky. It's a kid-friendly Pixar movie, but not as kid friendly as the first, considering it is rated PG as apposed to the G rating of "Nemo". And because of the 13 year gap in in time, little ones who liked the first are a bit out of the age range of this one and not quite old enough to have little ones of their own to take. So it's really a "Finding Nemo" for the next generation.

Phantom Thoughts

This movie is a bit special to your favorite Phantom. See..."Finding Nemo" was the very first movie I took my daughter to see in the theater when she was only 3 years old. And the Pint-Sized Phantomette sat through the whole movie in amazement. Only once climbing onto her Daddy's lap during the part where the screen went completely dark as the characters there sank into the deep abyss. I took my daughter, now a 15 year old young lady Phantomette to see it and complete the circle.

But that's the issue. She is on the very fringe age of enjoying the two movies. Very young when the first came out, and a bit too old to fully enjoy the second. The 13 years between movies is too long and not long enough at the same time. I guess the next wave of little ones can watch Nemo on Netflix or Blu-Ray before going to the theaters of course, but it's not quite the same. So let's just focus on the movie itself.

This whole thing came about at the persistence of Ellen DeGeneres wanting to play the character again. And why wouldn't she? With over 25 million likes, Dory is the most liked character on Facebook from any Disney or Pixar film. That's quite a statistic if you think about ALL the different and loved characters Disney and Pixar has created.

All the standard Easter Eggs found in Pixar movies can be found here as well. Such as the Pizza Planet Truck (found sunken in the wreck where the Giant Squid battle takes place), The "A113" (on the tags of Fluke and Rudder) and of course the voice talents of John Ratzenberger (who goes from a school of Moonfish to a crab named Bill). Just to name a few.

There is, however, the problem of movie flow.....pun intended. The first is the story plot, which gets a little spastic and convoluted at times. Finding Dory's parents took a few more twists and turns than it needed to. In "Nemo", the story was simple....it was the story of Marlin's journey to get to where is son is captured. It's a linear story that is as straight as the path he takes. "Dory" goes from the reef to California, into a Marine Biology Institute and then to different parts of that location and back into the ocean...all the while sprinkling in flashbacks of a young Dory to get her backstory. It just was a bit messy in my opinion. Speaking of flow.....in "Finding Nemo", Marlin lives on the Great Barrier Reef which is just off the coast of Queensland, Australia. To find his son, Marlin needs to travel to......Sydney AUSTRALIA! To be fair, the trip is over 1200 miles and the EAC (East Australian Current) does in fact run down the length of the country to make it a feasible story. However, in "Finding Dory", the gang travel from the reef to California...which is over 7500 miles! And as where the first movie takes the entire time on that voyage, THIS movie takes that 7 times as long excursion and condenses it to a mere few minutes.

I know, I know.....it's a KID'S movie. Who cares about the inaccuracy in the two trips? The Film Phantom. That's who. As a personal experience, it was a great time that I wouldn't trade for the world. But strictly from a movie experience, it was cute....but lacking.

Until next time, see you in the center seat.