Movie: Independence Day: Resurgence
Direction: Roland Emmerich
Cast: Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Jessie T Usher, Bill Pullman, Maika Monroe
Music: Harald Kloser, Thomas Wanker
Cinematographer: Markus Förderer
Editor: Adam Wolfe
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Rating: ∗∗
What is it about: It’s a sci-fi film which serves as sequel to the 1996 “Independence Day”. The film picks up 20 years after the war of 96’ and marks the return of the aliens who are again on the spree to invade the universe. This film directed by the Roland Emmerich.
Why it’s disappointing: I was so excited right from the day one of the announcement of this film. It created a space in Hollywood for films of this genre, which in fact created a benchmark back in 90’s to compete with. It was a classic of its time and was celebrated throughout the world.
But to everyone’s surprise the same director couldn’t come close to the benchmark he had created then. This sequel falls short on story screenplay and direction. And most of all casting. Which didn’t seem right at all.
All the new characters were trying to hard re-create the magic, but their struggle in doing that went in vain. And when it came to the relics of ID4, they were trying to match up to the previous film which looked more cheesy than convincing. Jeff Goldblum seemed lost in translation and so was Bill Pullman, whose speech in the previous movie was a great hit.
Liam Hemsworth and Jessie Usher couldn’t re-create what Jeff and Will Smith did back then. The film was missing the vital ingredient of a strong screenplay. It had too many cheesy lines, which gets really annoying after a while. And it tries to replicate few scenes from the previous film which didn’t fit either. I was terribly disappointed sitting in the cinema hall pretending to like the film.
I believe there was too much pressure on Roland to match up to the classic and he didn’t know how to put forward a film. Which made him totally rely on VFX that led to a poor screenplay. Events just happen and pop up with no essence of previous happenings. It just travels in a trance of Aliens.
What to watch out for: The film was on VFX steroids. It was filled with it for the entire length trying cover it tracks from flaws in screenplay. 3D was spectacular which was perfectly matched with a crunching sound. And moreover it still doesn’t convince you that its IMAX worthy. The cinematography by Markus Förderer was great and was backed by a harp edit from Adam Wolfe.
Other than the technical aspects, one character which I kind of liked in the movie was Brent Spiner as Dr. Brakish Okun, who wakes up from coma after 20 years, he was quite funny though.
Verdict: Roland Emmerich gave an illusion that he is going to cover some new ground with the aliens returning to avenge, but he seemed to have lost his way from the word go. There were no moments in the film which you will recall down the line as a memory. IDR doesn’t make you miss the old one, in fact reminds you to pop the DVD back again and enjoy it. Can really give it a miss as it wasn’t worth the time nor the money.
