Independence Day 2? - Part 2

[Sleiek]

There is a reason why I give atleast 4 or 5/10 to the most boring movie I have seen. It might have a few things that are well made, especially fantasy elements.

 

[X-Ray]

4/10

It was just bad. In a theater about 70% filled. Not a single laugh at any of the lighter moments. F/x was nice. Characters were just all around boring. Didn't care for any of the returning or new characters. Will Smith couldn't save it.

 

[Spider-Fan]

I am not the world's biggest fan of the 1st one, but good lord was this bad. Same exact friggin movie, only 100 times worse.

 

[SomeOldGuy]

The movie is just confusing to me because it definitely was a bad movie, but I didn't absolutely hate it.

Things are allowed to be just ok. Both my daughter and I walked out having enjoyed the film and wondering what all the fuss was. Neither of us thought it was a great film but both of us were entertained. It's the cinematic equivalent of eating at bw3. It's better than kfc but nothing you're going to get excited about after you walk out the door.

 

[Hunter Rider]

I saw it today and thought it was cheesy fun.

It's chock full of stock characters and corny dialogue, the technology advances are skated over and various character relationships are given basic lip service and little more. Even the action isn't anything to write home about, the set pieces are mostly slightly polished versions of the ones from the first movie and you never get the sense the characters are in anything but model cockpits on a gimbal, the film fails to make you feel the dogfights.

Having said that I did like the idea of the job on the moon and those Tug's, and the finale in the desert was pretty entertaining. In fact a movie based more on what they were doing up on the Moon could have been interesting.

The funny thing is that despite the criticism above I found it an affable slice of nostalgic brain in neutral summer popcorn entertainment.

 

[JtheDreamer]

I am not the world's biggest fan of the 1st one, but good lord was this bad. Same exact friggin movie, only 100 times worse.

I said it before, but that's Hollywood's newest strategy i.e. throw a sequel or reboot a fan favorite from a decade or two ago and copy it almost beat for beat so that the newer generation can experience it. If all else fails, China and the international audience will bail it out financially.

 

[Rowsdower!]

lol

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

I thought about giving it a 1 or a 2 for that, but really, even though the effects and makeup were good, it wasn't anything new. Everything in it looked pretty much like stuff I'd seen before in other films. I gave it a "1" on the poll above, since there was no "0" option, though.

 

[Rowsdower!]

I said it before, but that's Hollywood's newest strategy i.e. throw a sequel or reboot a fan favorite from a decade or two ago and copy it almost beat for beat so that the newer generation can experience it. If all else fails, China and the international audience will bail it out financially.

I think that's probably why they threw a giant alien in there. They probably figured that if bombs in the US, China will bail it out because they single-handedly saved Pacific Rim.

 

[Boom]

Spoiler

They harvest the cores of planets in order to fuel their giant motherships for travel. They are literally less than one minute from breaching Earth's core, but because the queen dies they're like "Aw well **** it" and leave. Without the fuel they supposedly needed to travel to their next destination.

God this movie is terrible. And not in the good way.

 

[The Shape]

Spoiler alert...

 

[Boom]

Yeesh, good call. My apologies, gang.

 

[The Shape]

It's okay, but man, what a shocking and surprising ending!

 

[moviefreak]

I thought about giving it a 1 or a 2 for that, but really, even though the effects and makeup were good, it wasn't anything new. Everything in it looked pretty much like stuff I'd seen before in other films. I gave it a "1" on the poll above, since there was no "0" option, though.

Ah --just more of the same stuffs only it made the film boring. This is just a confirmation for me to make the trip to ID2R low on my priority listing (!).

 

[Kyle]

Anyone who gives a movie a 0 I truly wonder how little movies they've seen. Even movies I hate I usually give at least a 4 because I know what else is out there. Unless said reviewer rates it out of 10 in comparison to other blockbusters of said budget level, that I can believe although not agree with (my 8.5 for example isn't looking at every movie, but rather disaster genre). When there's so much junk that goes direct to dvd (and I've seen my fair share) it's hard to fathom to me unless as said it's the second rather than overall.

 

[SomeOldGuy]

Ah --just more of the same stuffs only it made the film boring. This is just a confirmation for me to make the trip to ID2R low on my priority listing (!).

Actually it isn't the same old same old stuff that is (potentially) boring. That's all in the big set-piece action sequences. And they are generally entertaining even if they hit a lot of the same notes as the original.

The issue comes in the scenes in between the action. The first movie gave us memorable characters and snappy dialogue; this film gives us a little of that but mostly (and increasingly as it goes along) gives us infodump after infodump of backstory about the greater universes, the aliens and other stuff I won't mention because spoilers. It's a lot of telling not showing, a big no-no in any kind of writing, and especially in an action-oriented film. If you like world-building it probably won't bug you that much but it's certainly an acquired taste.

 

[BatLobster]

I caved and saw it. I've been looking for an excuse to check out a movie with a Dolby Atmos presentation, and I finally did- which sounded and looked incredible I might add.

Now, to be clear, this is a really dumb movie. But I honestly didn't hate it. It was...mostly successful in terms of getting me to shut up my inner critic and just enjoy the show, even though I know there are plenty of holes. It also feels a bit more self-aware than the first one though in terms of embracing its cheesiness. Granted, there are still many forced attempts at humor that fall completely flat. But Brent Spiner's increased presence alone gives this movie a campier feel that I didn't mind and was kind of hoping for. The leads were really bland as expected, but Goldblum, Pullman and Spiner got me through it.

I'm not always a fan of excessive world-building (looking at you BvS and ASM2), but considering they had a 20 year gap to cover I thought all of that stuff was handled really well actually and was probably my favorite aspect of the movie. While the stakes in this movie never felt quite as dire and urgent as they did in the original film, this movie does try its best to honor the events of the 1996 and give it weight, which I appreciated as someone who did grow up watching that movie so much....even though I realize today that it's not a great film.

For some nostalgic moments, pretty good VFX, Pullman/Goldblum/Spiner, and decent world-building I think I'm sitting at a 5.5/10. If the film had gotten me to buy into the stakes a bit more and gotten me invested in the new leads, I might've really liked this a lot more. As it stands, it was about what I was expecting. The shoehorned threequel bait at the end was too much though, and I don't know if the world is gonna be clamoring for ID4-3. I will say that his is probably my second favorite Emmerich film next to the original, for whatever that's worth.

 

[stormtrooper]

This was absolutely terrible, no redeeming qualities.
Also they gave Okun too much screentime. Like why?

 

[Quasimod0]

This was absolutely terrible, no redeeming qualities.
Also they gave Okun too much screentime. Like why?

He had tons of screen time and he was hamming it up the whole time. There was zero reason to bring him back.

 

[Schlosser85]

There was no reason to bring anyone back. This movie was completely superfluous. And a sequel to Independence Day twenty years later? Who the **** cares?

 

[Quasimod0]

The Independence Day fanbase hasn't even been kept alive since the first one with any sort of cartoon series, video games, toys, etc. I never even see anyone wearing an Independence Day shirt or anything like that.

 

[Kyle]

I would have definitely loved a cartoon done in the sam style as M.I.B. and Godzilla (90s!).

ADDING: I owned the Goldblum action figure, all of the aliens (I think), and the BIG Supreme Commander toy. Plus the miniature UFOs as well.

 

[Drizzle]

The Independence Day fanbase hasn't even been kept alive since the first one with any sort of cartoon series, video games, toys, etc. I never even see anyone wearing an Independence Day shirt or anything like that.

I don't even remember seeing anyone wearing Independence Day shirts when the first movie came out. Granted I was 8, but still. I did have a Will Smith action figure and an alien action figure from the movie, but that was it.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

7/10

Much better than I thought it was going to be. Haven't been a big fan lately of making sequels 10-20 years later. This is no different. Movie didn't flow very well and the characters just fell flat in the end. Wish they had kept the movie a bit more simple rather than throwing every little thing at us.

I'll give it a 7 out of 10. The movie wasn't boring. I found myself very interested in the plot early on which kept me intrigued.

 

[BeserkerHilf]

I've never been so angry leaving a theater. I make a lot of excuses for sequels, and apparently the original needs defending for some crazy reason, but this movie is ****ing terrible.

 

[MadVillainy]

I think people are way too angry at this. And this is from someone who think the movie is barely passable.