Independence Day 2? - Part 2

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[SomeOldGuy]

Spoiler

Would this have worked better if it was about another race coming to Earth looking for help and unlike humanity who reverse engineered the ID aliens tech these aliens are part of an actual alliance ala Alan dean foster books with faster than light drive capability?

Spoiler

I think it would have worked better if they'd just made the "interstellar war" movie they spend this whole film setting up. ID2 is two hours of world building, and while I'm always into that kind of thing, I'm also the guy who owns all those Christopher Tolkien books detailing every comma, elipse and eraser mark JRRT made in all the drafts of LotR. Most people don't want that, they just want more actual stories in Middle Earth. Same with ID2: don't sit there telling me about all this cool stuff out there while we muddle through a less-well-done version of the original movie. Just go!

 

[dark_b]

question for people who saw it. how did the big ship come to earth? did she move through space very slow? did they know years in advance that its coming ? or did she arriwe in 48 hours?

 

[SomeOldGuy]

question for people who saw it. how did the big ship come to earth? did she move through space very slow? did they know years in advance that its coming ? or did she arriwe in 48 hours?

Spoiler

It wasn't really clear to me. The first mention of something happening is a report that Saturn's rings are being disrupted and that the Saturn base is gone. Then there's a disturbance near the moon but that turns out to be different aliens. Then the big ship shows up over the moon, and there's some sort of effect, but whether it's reflections or it warping in or something I really couldn't tell.

 

[I'm Old Greg]

I haven't seen this yet BUT I'm getting the impression they cobbled this sequel together to get the ball rolling on a Stargate reboot which no one even wants.

 

[SomeOldGuy]

I haven't seen this yet BUT I'm getting the impression they cobbled this sequel together to get the ball rolling on a Stargate reboot which no one even wants.

Oh, I think they clearly wanted this to be a franchise-starter in its own right. Half the third act is exposition setting up the next movie. Heck, Brett Spiner's Dr. Okun literally says the presumed title of the next film in the final minutes.

 

[Octoberist]

That ending was awkward but it's such a lead-up into the next movie..and now we don't know if we'll have one.

 

[I'm Old Greg]

Oh, I think they clearly wanted this to be a franchise-starter in its own right. Half the third act is exposition setting up the next movie. Heck, Brett Spiner's Dr. Okun literally says the presumed title of the next film in the final minutes.

This movie is so BORING. over 40 min and Nothing Happens.
Very bland and nothing memorable.

20 years and this is the crap they came up with.

When the first movie came out I thought of the premise forbthe sequel would be taking the fight to the ground. Aliens with there tech against human military.

The Aliens moved
From planet to planet using ul all the resources and moving on.
Why would there be
Another BIGGER ship than all the massive ships in the first film.

Its just
Such a boring sequel.
Nothing new.

 

[Kyle]

This movie is so BORING. over 40 min and Nothing Happens.
Very bland and nothing memorable.

Color me more than confused because just less than 3 hrs you stated you haven't seen it, yet here you're acting like you have by calling out minutes and everything - for someone who just hours before says they haven't seen it... Weird.

 

[SomeOldGuy]

That ending was awkward but it's such a lead-up into the next movie..and now we don't know if we'll have one.

Yup. I really hope we do get it but who knows now that they botched this one. FWIW this io9 piece is exactly how I feel (spoilers obvs):

http://io9.gizmodo.com/dear-hollywood-please-make-independence-day-3-1782669286

 

[DA_Champion]

Independence Day: Resurgence
Director: Roland Emmerich
Rotten Tomatoes: 33%
IMDB: 5.8/10

Independence Day: Resurgence is a proper sequel to a movie I remember loving when I was 12. My sensation coming out of it is that I enjoyed IDR, I got what I expected and wanted, that the movie was simultaneously smart and dumb in a thrilling way, funny, and charming. I liked it and I recommend it, and I'm completely perplexed but why it's bombing with reviewers and critics.

IDR takes place 20 years after the first movie, similarly to how it's coming out 20 years later. A lot of technology from the previous invasion has been absorbed as Earth technology, which is something we've never seen in any alien invasion blockbuster sequel. We didn't see it in Transformers, Batman/Superman, nor Avengers 2. Alien technology has been partially absorbed, integrated, has changed social relations on Earth, and people live in fear of a future invasion. Consequences matter and they nailed that here in great detail.

Other consequences include the fact the aliens from the first movie have been harvesting planets all over the universe (to be expected), meeting various degrees of resistance. A framework of intergalactic politics is established.

Similarly, we see a lot of the old characters from the first movie and they've moved in sensible and coherent ways. David (Jeff Goldblum) for example is a scientist who is going around the world picking up alien remnants to study them. Some of the aliens that stayed behind fought guerrilla campaigns which makes sense, and this impacted the world sociologically.

The new alien invasion arrives ... and it easily blows past the Earth defenses that have been built off the remnants off alien technology. I can tell you how the humans beat back the aliens this time but it would be a spoiler, so I won't. I think it was done fine and in the spirit of the franchise: with everybody contributing to the victory including people of multiple cultures, not just white american men but also women, Asians, and Black Africans, not just jocks and politicians but also scientists and civilians, not just people in their 20s but really people aged 10 to 75. There's a gay people which is an innocuous gay people rather than "look at us gay representation !!!!", there's a message of peace where some brown-skinned men are praying because the US president asked for their prayers, and so on. There's a spirit of humanity coming together in this which shines through.

There's just one possible scratch to this armour. The movie has a female US president, which we don't usually see in movies. However, she's kind of dumb. She's like Claire from Jurassic World in that some stupid decision she makes sets off ... well, you have to see the movie. I have a hypothesis that more and more Hollywood movies are putting women in positions of authority because it's the progressive thing to do, but then within the story they get the role of initing the dumb decisions that set off necessary plot points.

Back to the plot ... it kind of rhymes with the previous movie but not too much. It's not a shameless remake like Star Trek into Darkness or Star Wars The Force Awakens, it's more sophisticated than that where a lot of the spirit and structure is kept but new directions are taken.

I liked Independence Day Resurgence, and I hope they make a third movies. Admittedly, the fist pumps are not as firm as in the first movie, but they're there.

Grade: B

 

[Mysteryman]

Does the movie show the destruction of the outpost on Saturns moon?
What is the first shot ?

 

[Kyle]

/\ Answers to Mysteryman:

Spoiler

The outpost on Saturn's move is not shown.

Open to black. Stars all around. President Whitmore's speech from the first film filters in. Rocket through space, worm holes and other interesting natural occurrences. All of this is being watched by a creature within a UFO. All of this is being seen on a monitor, reflected through an alien's eye. FANGS! President Whitmore wakes up, startled and covered in sweat.

 

[Rowsdower!]

So has Liam Hemsworth taken over from Jai Courtney and Sam Worthington as "that Aussie no one actually likes but they keep putting him in big movies for some reason"?

 

[SomeOldGuy]

So has Liam Hemsworth taken over from Jai Courtney and Sam Worthington as "that Aussie no one actually likes but they keep putting him in big movies for some reason"?

It seems so, but to be fair I thought he did fine with what the script gave him to do. Which was absolutely nothing. In fact, none of the "new" cast are given anything to do at all. Their roles in the story could have gone to unnamed extras and it wouldn't have made one iota of difference. All the character stuff in the film is given to the "old" cast.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

They just shouldn't be the leading men in their movies is all.

 

[MadVillainy]

So I saw this a couple hours ago. I didn't mind it.
As I was sitting in the theater and the lights were going down I was really nervous of all the bad crowd reports, social media buzz, etc. But I thought this was ok. Far from a terrible movie. I was hearing someone wondering if this was as bad as Transformers 4 and I don't see it.

Pros:
-The spectacle of it all. Of course most of the action scenes are good. The only one I thought was meh was the dogfight. During the scenes where London is collapsing, I had a thought that I never think in movies "Damn I wish I saw this in 3D". I actually had chills during that whole first attack sequence
-I actually thought Liam Hemsworth did fine in his role. I havent seen much hate for him specifically, but I'm just saying. He never impressed me in anything before. He was always kinda just there for me. Not bad, not good, but I liked him in this.
-Jessie T Usher was a big question mark for me going in, but I though he was good
-It was nice seeing certain characters return and I thought they all did well.

Cons:
-My biggest grip are the characters. Either they were superfulous, uninteresting or theyother than Hemsworth got ANY characterization. Even though I'm not a fan of sequels doing "This is ______ daughter/son" I was much more interested in seeing Will Smith character's son or the President's daughter have a story. I mean other than the fact that he was Hiller's son and he hated Hemsworth character for being a cocky a-hole, there is nothing to the Jessie T Usher's character. They couldve had an arc about him being afraid that he wont live up to his dad's legacy, they could've had more about him feeling sad for not saving a certain someone, they could've at least had Dylan learn to like Hemsworth again over a period of time and not just one scene...There are so many options. I'm really glad they didn't do the "One of or both of my parents died, so now I'm a cocky jerkass" Maverick from Top Gun trope with Usher's character. However, they just transferred that to Hemsworth.
Maika Monroe didn't have squat to do until the ending.

They really should've focused on 4-5 new characters instead of having useless subplots of African warlords (dude was cool, but wasn't needed) or the whole thing about Joey King and them. Have them crash land on the alien ship after the dogfight, but stretch that out so that that platoon of 5 is on the alien ship trying to destroy it from the inside for much longer. And give them some character. The first ID at least had fun or interesting characters this didn't have any.
-When stuff isn't blowing up it's not that interesting and the problem is I feel like there wasnt a lot of action. When action hit it HIT but other times I was fiddling my thumbs
-The ending set up. I just wish movies would stop that. I feel like 9/10 it just makes the movie look silly
-So many characters were brought back or introduced just to die. And that's an occupational hazard with disaster movies, but here you had [BLACKOUT]the current President, the former President, Vivica Fox[/BLACKOUT] all die but by the end they're forgotten about. The characters are all smiling like nothing happened

They really shouldve looked at movies like Creed, The Force Awakens, Jurassic World and how they managed to get newer, younger directors who understand the original to make a new successful movie. I'm not saying ID is as profound as Rocky, Star Wars, or Jurassic Park. I'm just saying you couldve gotten a new director that wouldve given people what they want, because after this and White House Down (which I hated on first watch but was ok with on a second viewing) I dont even think the guy can really deliver on spectacle anymore

I've said too much. I don't think this is terrible. It's not the worse movie I've seen this year, it's not even the worst movie I've seen this summer. it's ok.

6/10

 

[DA_Champion]

Blackman,

I think the African warlord part is cool because it adds to the world building. It shows how different parts of the Earth responded to the invasion, not just American military and civilians. It shows the effects of leftover alien technology.

 

[chamber-music]

So has Liam Hemsworth taken over from Jai Courtney and Sam Worthington as "that Aussie no one actually likes but they keep putting him in big movies for some reason"?

You need to add Brenton Thwaites (Gods of Egypt, The Giver, Maleficent and upcoming Pirates of The Caribbean movie) to that list.

 

[MadVillainy]

Blackman,

I think the African warlord part is cool because it adds to the world building. It shows how different parts of the Earth responded to the invasion, not just American military and civilians. It shows the effects of leftover alien technology.

I wouldve cut it out and used the time for more character moments. World building means nothing to me when you have you're main characters suffering from a lack of characterization

Also I wouldnt even say it was good world building, the whole Africa thing plays no part in the end other than introducing a new character who can fight/that brief translation scne. ANd it's not like they teased: "This will be important later on" with the Africa stuff. It was pointless.

 

[Rowsdower!]

Saw it last night. It sucked.

None of the new characters are interesting. The guy playing Will Smith's son has no charisma but to be fair, his character has no personality. Hemsworth fairs a little better honestly, but that's not saying much; he's basically every cliched cocky white hero character you've ever seen. And then there's this annoying guy who looks a bit like John Oliver who is basically this movie's Jar-Jar Binks. He serves no purpose other than to get in the way and irritate everyone. The older actors mostly phone it in, especially Goldblum and Fichtner. The dialogue is horrible. Bill Pullman and Brent Spiner at least TRY, but the script fails them over and over again. Charlotte Gainsbourg appears in a small and mostly pointless role I guess the Hollywood Overlords mandated as some sort of punishment for appearing in Nymphomaniac. On the plus side, Sela Ward still looks really good. Break me off a piece of that.

The big destruction scenes are somewhat impressive I guess but nothing we haven't already seen in a dozen or so other big blockbuster films at this point. And there isn't anything that comes close to matching the big scene in the first one where the ships all open up their weapon and fire that giant devastating laser beam at the ground, annihilating entire cities. Instead, we get a rip off of Michael Bay's last two Transformers movies, in which giant objects are lifted off the ground and then dropped. You know it's bad when you're copying some of the most universally panned films in recent memory.

I will say that some of the alien tech was cool and the CGI it took to create them was convincing. And I liked that they established from the get-go that this was an alternate reality in which the humans have incorporated alien tech into their daily lives so that present day DC looks like DC in the year 2120. However, once the novelty of that spectacle wears off, it gets boring really quick.

What's really sad is that they had TWENTY YEARS to come up with an idea for a sequel and not only were they unable to turn out something good, they came up with the WORST possible movie they could. It's just overstuffed and loud and stupid and boring. I thought Batman v. Superman was the worst movie of the year, but I'll give that Ultimate Cut a try in hopes that it might make me appreciate the film more. But I will NEVER watch Independence Day: Regurgitant again. It was straight-up garbage.

0/10

 

[MadVillainy]

Bit harsh imo to each their own

 

[Quasimod0]

I'd probably give it a 4.5/10. There was a lot of dumb stuff, but I also had a good time watching it and laughing about certain stupid things. And a few things were genuinely good. I liked the way the alien queen looked, the movie didn't drag too much, and as silly as he was, I liked the African warlord dude. The movie is just confusing to me because it definitely was a bad movie, but I didn't absolutely hate it.

 

[moviefreak]

Saw it last night. It sucked.



0/10

lol

so no score for F/X, world building, make-up and the lot. Phew.