Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

Independence Day was the biggest movie of 1996, and one of the biggest movies of the 1990s.  If adjusted for inflation its total worldwide box office take would be over a billion, rivaling many of the Marvel films of today.  It was not well-received by critics, but audiences loved it.  It made Will Smith a star and included great ensemble acting from Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch and others.  It was big, cheesy, loud and one of the most entertaining films Hollywood ever produced.  It is certainly the best film Roland Emmerich ever made. 

Dean Devlin, Emmerich's cowriter on the movie, was given a huge amount of money to the write a sequel - a sum that he returned after neither he nor Emmerich could come up with anything satisfactory.  Audiences never really talked about a sequel; Independence Day had a solid ending.  Aliens were dead, Earth was saved, the end.  It was obvious that neither Devlin nor Emmerich had considered one before the money was laid out in front of them and, over the next 20 years, the two went their separate ways on many different projects.  That changed when they came up with an idea that they thought would work.

Unfortunately, for it to work, they needed Will Smith.  By this time Smith was a big star, but things were getting rocky.  Not all of his movies had been well-received and his vanity project, After Earth, failed miserably.  Still, he was willing to return to the role as Captain Steve Hiller for 50 million dollars.  The total budget for the finished film version of Independence Day: Resurgence was around $165 million, which means that if Smith had been hired the movie would have been pushed above $200 million.  Suffice it to say, Emmerich and Devlin decided to go on without him, and completely rewrite the script to take care of that problem.

Luckily a good portion of the original cast returned, including Goldblum, Hirsch and Pullman.  There was some controversy that the child actors from the original - Mae Whitman as Patty Whitmore and Ross Bagley as Dylan Hiller - weren't asked to return to play their roles as adults.  Still, Emmerich and Devlin definitely hoped that the cast that did return would bring in the audience.

It is 20 years after the War of 1996, and in this alternate timeline humanity has united in expectation of a return of the alien threat.  The weapons and technology from the original alien ships has been retrofitted, and Earth has defense and early warning systems stretching all the way out to Saturn.  A test of the new system on the moon comes into play when a large alien spaceship appears.  Fearing it is hostile, President Lanford (Sela Ward) orders it destroyed over the objections of David Levinson (Goldblum) and several others.  While Goldblum heads to the moon with the help of Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth), the fiancé of former first daughter Patty Whitmore (Maika Monroe), to examine the remains of the craft, the true threat arrives in the form of a 3000-mile wide mothership. 

The mothership lands in the Atlantic Ocean and begins drilling to the Earth's core.  It also turns out that on board is a Harvester Queen, one of a number of larger aliens that control smaller queens and the drones.  The other ship that arrived is indeed different and had come to warn humanity and save as many people as possible.  With that possibility looking unlikely, Levinson and former President Whitmore (Pullman) team up with Captain Dylan Hiller (Jessie T. Usher) in order to take out the queen before the core of the Earth can be breached and all life on the planet is doomed to extinction. 

I will be one of the first to admit that most of Roland Emmerich's films are unimpressive, even as dumb action yarns.  He has frequently exploited revisionist history and new age prophecies and made what is arguably the most loathed version of Godzilla.  He deserves the critical derision he typically gets for making hollow, nonsensical popcorn films.  However, Independence Day got the formula right and Resurgence pretty much continues to do so.  I would still say the original film did not need a sequel, but in this case Devlin and Emmerich managed to come up with a continuation of the story without making it a repeat of the first.  

If I do have a major criticism is that, where the original ensemble cast worked, this one just has too many characters.  Vivica A. Fox is back briefly as Dylan's mom, and the supposed emotional payoff doesn't work.  Charlotte Gainsbourg, who plays a scientist and potential love interest of David named Catherine Marceaux, spends most of her time in the background, unlike his ex-wife in the original.  There are other exchangeable characters, and unfortunately neither Jessie T. Usher nor Liam Hemsworth can fill the space left by Will Smith's absence.  On the good side Dr. Brackish Okun (Brent Spiner) gets bumped up to a major supporting character this time around, and he is lots of fun. 

As can be expected CGI has replaced the impressive model work of the original, but it is well-done and builds on the technology we are shown in Independence Day.  The other race of aliens, and several revelations, lead to the possibility of a third movie but, unfortunately, this didn't do near as well with audiences as the original did, so that possibility is shaky.  That's a shame because, unlike the first movie, this one was imagined as a two-part story.  The problem is at this point many people remember the first one fondly, and there are a large swath of fans that don't even know Resurgence exists despite the fact it didn't do horribly at the box office.  

As for the quality of the movie I am going to be in the minority.  I don't find it as good as the first, but I also don't find it as disappointing as a lot of people did.  I think it is because I didn't expect anything near a repeat of the original, and I was pretty much relieved.  There is still plenty of action scenes that are ridiculous and a lot cheese, but Independence Day: Resurgence still manages to be a fun movie about Earth battling aliens.  I just wish that it trimmed the fat on the cast a bit and tied it up like the first one instead of promising more story that will most likely never see the light of day.

Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

Time: 120 minutes

Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Jessie T. Usher, Liam Hemsworth, Bill Pullman, Maika Monroe, Brent Spiner

Director: Roland Emmerich