Independence Day: Resurgence Review

Independence Day (1996) is one of the most popular science fiction films of all time and it’ll be hard to find a bunch of science fiction film aficionado’s who haven’t seen this one or quite a lot of film people in general. Many of the first film’s cast return for the second time, with appearances from cast members such as Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum. But this film has one major difference, in that it lacks the first film’s main cast member, Will Smith, however it doesn’t matter. Independence Day: Resurgence didn’t need him, it’s still worth watching without Will Smith in there.

The film takes place about 20 year’s after the events in the first film. Earth has come a long way, with technology vastly improved compared to what they had the 1990’s due to having come into contact with life from outer space. But even with new weapons and all new technologies, things are still not safe. Earth’s enemies are returning and this time they’ve got a much larger ship and a much larger force than before, will our friends on Earth be able to stop them?

You’ll have to watch the film to find out what happens, but for the most part I felt that the plot was pretty solid. It’s got a lot of light humour mixed in with some over the top science fiction moments which were quite impressive and on top of that a lot of appearances from old actors from the original film to nurture your more nostalgic emotions. It’s not really something where I would say there was massive character developments, or deep thematic plots. It’s a fun science fiction film which seems to scream for a sequel at the end. Luckily Independence Day: Resurgence was a good enough film, that should a sequel be announced sometime soon, you can count me in as one of the audience members.

One of the main reasons people will be going in to see Independence Day: Resurgence would be to see big explosions, some crazy Hollywood special effects and some over the top action sequences with big aliens and massive ships. You get all of this in Independence Day: Resurgence and I loved it, it’s a film with a fairly long run time, but things seemed to pass by so quick. Special effects were well done and the aliens look vastly improved compared to what we saw in the 1996 film.

Roland Emerich did a great job directing Independence Day: Resurgence and he should be proud of the two films he’s made. The tone was well balanced between lighthearted humour and the action scenes which fits in with most other big films releasing this year, that’s all good, but it could have easily been out of place and more like a the tone we had in the 90’s, but it wasn’t and that was great.

It’s not all perfect though, there are parts with the plot where things seem to come together for our characters far too easily at times. It was almost as if they just come up with a plan our of nowhere and explain it once very quickly to everyone in the team and then it’s all implemented perfectly. I know we are dealing with characters that are really intelligent and military personnel who are the best, but still, they do things very quick at times.

The actors are all okay, it’s great to see people like Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum on screen again and especially back in an Independence Day film, but they aren’t in it as much as you may want. Much of the film is about the new generation saving the day and we get people like Liam Hemsworth, who I don’t mind and he does a great job. But there’s a lot of young actors here who I just don’t recognise very well and some of them aren’t that great. They all do enough to keep things entertaining, but no one really blew me away.

Overall I had a good time with Independence Day: Resurgence, it’s one of those films where you go along for some big action scenes, some big special effects and you take with you a big box of popcorn/drink and you sit there and enjoy it. It’s not a super deep or emotional story, but Roland Emerich managed to do something well here and if his goal was a fun experience then I think he nailed it. I would say go and see it if you’ve been interested in it from seeing the ads or if you’re a really big fan of the original Independence Day, Resurgence is a decent popcorn film and a decent sequel to the first.