Movie Review: Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

The movie stars Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Jessie T. Usher, Bill Pullman and Maika Monroe.

Even though I loved the original movie, I was very skeptical when this sequel was released. As a result of that, I didn't bother trying to see it in the theater. And, the only reason I even ended up watching it on DVD is because I was able to rent it for free.

Despite this, I tried to keep an open mind when my wife and I watched this film earlier this week. Unfortunately, after seeing it, I do feel my initial gut reaction was correct.

I'll start out by saying there were a couple things I found I did like about this film. For one, I liked the idea of the aliens actually invading the planet with ground forces rather than simply attacking in spaceships. This was a nice change of pace from the original film because it created a little added suspense. 

And, while the queen alien was a bit unrealistic, the fact they had to fight a giant creature like that was also a nice twist.

I think my biggest problem with the movie is it makes a little too much of an effort to connect itself to the original. While it was great seeing familiar faces of people like President Whitmore (Pullman) and David Levinson (Goldblum), the film spends too much time focusing on them and not enough time fully introducing us to the new characters. 

For example, pretty much the only thing I knew about pilot Dylan Hiller (Usher) is he was the son of the now-deceased Steven Hiller (Will Smith) and I knew even less about some of the other stars. It's really hard to care about a character when they have no depth.

I also found I wasn't a fan of that sphere-like second alien, mostly because, when it was all said and done, it really didn't have much of a role. The time spent on that addition would have been better spent developing the characters a little more.

I think this movie had some real potential, especially with a pretty bad-ass alien queen and some great special effects. Unfortunately, the writers spend too much time resurrecting old heroes from the original film and not enough time convincing us the new ones are equally good. As a result, the movie just isn't as good as it needed to be.

My Grade: C