Sunday, November 12, 2017

Now and Then Blogathon (Now): Independence Day Resurgence (2016)

Independence Day Resurgence (2016)
Twentieth Century Fox, TSG Entertainment, Centropolis Entertainment, Electric Entertainment, USA, 2016. 
Participating the Now and Then 2017 Blogathon event, arranged by Realweegiemidget Reviews and Thoughts of All Sorts! This is part 2 (Now!) of 2 part post.
20 years have passed since the space alien attack was struck back barely saving the humans from extinction. The ex-President Whitmore (Bill Pullman) suffers from telepathic scars caused by the previous encounter. David Levinson (Jeff Glodblum) and his father Julius (Judd Hirsch) are still around but Will Smith's character is not so fighter pilot ace Steven Hiller had to die in a flight accident. However his son Dylan Hiller (Jessie T. Usher) continues his legacy.
Sela Ward and Bill Pullman
New President Lanford (Sela Ward) and ex-President Whitmore
Jessie T. Usher and Angelababy
Dylan Hiller and Rain Lao
Of the younger generation are also President's daughter Patricia (Maika Monroe) and hotshot pilot Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth), and his teammate Charlie Miller (Travis Tope) and Chinese pilot Rain Lao (Angelababy). Dylan and Jake have a drudge, Patricia wants to help her father and Charlie wants a romance with Rain.
Maika Monroe
Patricia Whitmore
Liam Hemsworth
Jake Morrison
Deobia Oparei and Jeff Goldblum
Dikembe Umbutu and David Levinson
New weapons based on alien technologies has been developed and David Levinson is now the Director of Earth Space Defense. Someday the aliens will return...

In Africa guerilla leader Dikembe Umbutu (Deobia Oparei) has been waging war against the remaining aliens. He has invited scientist Catherine Marceaux (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and David to nvestigate strange things happening at stranded spaceship. All points to that a new war is beginning. A continent-sized spaceship appears and uproots whole cities. How can humankind survive this time?
Charlotte Gainsbourg and Jeff Goldblum
Catherine Marceaux and David
Don't park here
Whereas last time the on-screen desruction was still relatively limited, this time Roland Emmerich does so grand scale destruction scenes that physicists rip their hairs off. The alien spaceship has its own gravity and plows half of the Earth while landing. Spectacular, yes, but not very believable. Better to leave the brain out and just enjoy it as a popcorn movie. The story goes on the familiar path of last minute saves, adventures of the survivors, and some new and old friends making sudden appearances. There are some updates to the formula of "Independence Day", last time it was America saving the day, but now in the style of "Pacific Rim" the cast is a more multicultural team of heroes. Couple of budding bromances are there too.

It is nice to have many characters from the first film around, however overall the characterizations feel weaker, as the turbo-charged plot does not allow much character development and lacks the heart and bombastic fun that the prequel had. This is visually impressive with huge spaceships and bigger alien monsters, it is occassionally fun but sacrifices the plot to special effects. With the recent flood of big scifi/superhero films it fits in the trend, but it is just one more spectacular movie in the crowd. Also in the end it is clear that there will be at least a trilogy of these films.

Rating: Average

Starring: Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Jessie T. Usher, Bill Pullman, Maika Monroe, Sela Ward, William Fichtner, Judd Hirsch, Brent Spiner, Patrick St. Esprit, Vivica A. Fox, Angelababy, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Deobia Oparei, Nicolas Wright, Travis Tope, Chin Han, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Robert Loggia, John Storey, Joey King, Jenna Purdy, Garrett Wareing, Hays Wellford, Mckenna Grace, James A. Woods, Robert Neary, Joshua Mikel, Joel Virgel, Arturo del Puerto, Matthew Munroe, Jacob Browne, Ryan Cartwright, Travis Hammer, Lance Lim, Zeb Sanders, Donovan Tyee Smith, Stafford Douglas, Jade Scott Lewis, Beth Bailey, Mona Malec, Omar Diop, Ron Yuan, Grace Huang, Stephen Oyoung, J.P. Murrieta, Casey Messer, Ben Wang, Nicholas Ballas, Jonathan Richards, Ivan G'Vera, Michael Davis, Brandon K. Hampton, Sam Quinn
Director: Roland Emmerich 

2 comments:

  1. Sorry but despite your review still going to miss out in this even if Jeff Goldblum in it. Thanks for joining with this post (and watching it).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. Yes, you can safely miss out this, this is quite forgettable as a sequel.

      Delete

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