I didn’t go into this movie with high expectations. I am a huge fan of the original "Independence Day" from 1996. It was a fun 90's action movie that was extremely cheesy at times, but that was okay because the movie knew what it was. All I wanted out of this film was to have fun watching a mindless action movie and "Independence Day: Resurgence" delivered. Sure, the plot is identical to the first movie and the dialogue is cheesy, but I was never looking for the next "The Godfather" here. "Independence Day: Resurgence" was exactly the over the top, CGI filled alien invasion movie I wanted it to be.
While I did enjoy it, this movie is far from perfect. The biggest problem with "Independence Day: Resurgence" was the characters. It struggled badly in this department, but not for lack of trying. There was an overabundance of characters in the movie, most of whom are completely unnecessary. Jeff Goldblum was hands down the best part of this movie. His humor worked and his acting was solid. Bill Pullman also provided an interesting character, reprising his role as President Whitmore. Conversely, the rest of the acting was woefully bad, ranging from the bland Jessie Usher to the cartoonish Brent Spiner. Fans of the first movie will certainly miss Will Smith’s charisma and bravado, which no one in this film was able to replicate.
Additionally, this movie relied heavily on CGI and other visual effects. Unfortunately for viewers, this was not always executed well. In some shots, there was so much going on that many of the effects are not fully developed and are very clearly computer generated. The aliens themselves, which were depicted using practical effects in the first movie, are CGI in this film and they looked like it. The most impressive visual effects were on display during the few dogfighting scenes in this film. Watching the human fighter pilots take on the alien ships was exhilarating and visually impressive.
The plot of this movie in many places mirrored the original. However, the filmmakers went into great detail during the first half hour or so of this movie to depict how humans have adopted the technology they got from the aliens during their first encounter. Having just watched the first movie before seeing this one, I really enjoyed finding out how the humans had bounced back from the destruction of twenty years before. Not all of these plot points hit home, but overall it is an interesting path to go down. The plot as a whole is nothing we haven’t seen before. It is not very original and is rather predictable.
By traditional standards, this is not a good film. However, for the summer action flick it's trying to be, "Independence Day: Resurgence" succeeds. I had a fun time watching this movie and if you are the type who can turn off your brain and enjoy some cool effects and cheesy action, you will enjoy it too. I give "Independence Day: Resurgence" a C+.
