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
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.
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