The long-awaited sequel to the 1996 blockbuster INDEPENDENCE DAY hit theaters over the weekend. INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE was not screened for critics, and a big movie like that not having a screening is usually a sure sign that the studio knows they have a dud on their hands. Personally, I don’t take offense to that sort of thing as a film critic, but it does worry me, especially when it’s a movie I’m genuinely wanting to see. I still remember watching the original film in 1996 while visiting a friend in California, and being wowed at how effective and entertaining it was. Director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin had crafted a smart blend of alien invasion thriller with disaster epic, and the end result was everything we go to a big summer movie to see. It’s also the film that solidified Will Smith as a giant Hollywood star, and defined the expression “Big Willie Weekend” for the July 4th release timeframe covering several summers afterward. While Smith turned in sequels for hits like BAD BOYS and MEN IN BLACK, it seemed for a while like we’d never get a follow up to INDEPENDENCE DAY, which was a little surprising considering its overwhelming success. Now, twenty years later, that sequel is finally upon us, only without Will Smith to help put butts in seats. So was it worth a two-decade wait?

RESURGENCE opens with the familiar voice and face of Bull Pullman as former President Whitmore. He now has nightmares of the alien invasion of 1996, and is forced to take medication to control his crazy behavior. His daughter Patricia (Maika Monroe) now works for the current President Lanford (Sela Ward), and Patricia’s boyfriend Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth) pilots a construction ship that’s part of a military base on the moon… oh yeah, Earth is super advanced now, thanks to implementing the alien technology left in the spacecrafts that fell during the war of 1996. Helicopters have no blades, guns are now laser weapons, fighter jets are high-tech with harrier-like capabilities… in short, this looks like a Sci-Fi movie set in the future, nothing like the world we’re all used to. Okay, so, Dylan Hiller (Jessie T. Usher), who is the son of Stephen Hiller (Will Smith’s character) and Jasmine Hiller (Vivica A. Fox), is now a star pilot for the President’s air force, though he has a tense rivalry with Jake over a botched training flight. David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) travels to a third world country to investigate a downed alien ship, and is met by a fellow scientist named Catherine (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and the local reigning warlord named Dikembe (Deobia Oparei). They discover the ship has turned back on and is emitting a sort of beacon or signal, which then leads to David having to travel to the moon to investigate a mysterious craft that appeared through a wormhole. Before long those pesky aliens show up again in a MUCH larger ship, now with the intention of stealing the Earth’s core for a form of fuel/energy, and the humans once again find themselves in the middle of a war against impossible odds.

One of the things that made INDEPENDENCE DAY so great in 1996 was that despite the massive alien attack and epic battle sequences, the basic story was grounded in reality. Even the “check your brain at the door” moments (like when Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum stole an alien craft and flew into the mother ship) still seemed easy to relate to, as those things were always done out of desperation and built up to with other events. INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE immediately feels foreign and weird because of the story element with Earth using all the alien tech, making the whole movie look super futuristic and Sci-Fi, and nothing like the real world we all know. It’s so odd that it takes away the charm and familiarity that made the first movie so endearing.

The filmmakers went out of their way to bring back many of the faces from the first film, but they’re either not used well or at times feel like forced cameos that serve little purpose. Vivica Fox for example is barely in the film, and maybe has one or two lines before we never see her again. Why have her here at all if that’s the case? Judd Hirsch is used mostly as (much needed) comic relief, though most of his scenes feel like an afterthought as well. Bill Pullman really shined as the put-upon President in the first movie, making dramatic speeches and effectively selling himself as a commanding and respected presence… here he’s just a broken down crazy guy, a shell of the character he started out as, and in the end feels kind of wasted. Even Jeff Goldblum doesn’t quite work, lacking his usual quotable quirkiness and humor. His constant wide-eyed confusion doesn’t seem to hold much weight. How do you cast Jeff Goldblum as a lead in a big film like this and not give him any memorable moments? Seriously, how does that happen?! Perhaps the only returning cast member that really sells their screen time is Brent Spiner, who makes his Dr. Okun character even more lively and interesting than it was in the first movie. This may be the result of the filmmakers realizing Okun was a bigger character and had more potential than was ever realized the first time out, or it could just be Spiner finding the right beats to make the role shine, but he’s easily the best performance in the production.

The newer faces don’t fare too well, with both Liam Hemsworth and Jessie Usher coming off as pretty forgettable, and Maika Monroe never finding the proper emotional balance for her role. Charlotte Gainsbourg seems out of place and underutilized as the female counterpart to Goldblum’s character, and William Fichtner and Sela Ward (while great familiar faces in any film) aren’t given much to do. But before you blame the actors for not selling the roles, it should be noted that the frenzied screenplay (it took five guys to write it) and breakneck editing may be the biggest offender. Again, the first INDEPENDENCE DAY knew when to slow things down and give the audience a breath. This installment just keeps pumping so fast and crazy that the audience becomes complacent. There’s not any cheer-worthy moments, only by-the-numbers beats you can predict long before they hit. Even the score of the film is bland and unmemorable. Gone are the great themes David Arnold provided in the first movie, though you hear some of that in the end credits. This installment was orchestrated by Harald Kloser and Thomas Wanker, who also turned in fairly forgettable music in Emmerich’s 2012. They brought back pretty much everyone else involved with the first movie, was Arnold not available?

Perhaps the easiest way to sum up INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE is that the whole movie feels like it’s overcompensating. Maybe not having Will Smith made them nervous, so they high-tech’d it up, and made the scope of the film so big and so crazy in an attempt to blow audiences away. Sadly, these techniques actually make the exercise feel more hollow and insincere. And there’s part of the big finale that gets so ridiculous and so insane that the viewer can’t possibly take it seriously… which is another problem, in that the film actually seems like it’s taking itself too seriously anyway – there’s not enough winks and nudges to let you know it’s meant to be fun, or when they try it just doesn’t click. And then there’s the ending, which is so sudden and knee jerk it reminded me of the equally awkward though slightly more forgivable STARSHIP TROOPERS. The final moments are meant to set up a sequel with epic scope, but everyone seems just a little too eager considering what they just went through, and the idea itself of where this would go next is nothing short of insane.

INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE isn’t a complete loss, but it’s certainly not a sequel worthy of a two-decade wait, nor is it even a great companion piece for the first. Many of the wildly imaginative aspects of it reminded me of being in grade school and talking with other kids about how cool you would make a movie sequel if you wrote the story. Honestly, this is a movie that feels like a bunch of enthusiastic kids wrote it, not competent or professional screenwriters. It’s also a movie that seriously makes me wonder if studios are getting lazy about checking the end results before locking in a final cut. With all the money on the line and the major name brand of this franchise, I’m shocked someone at Fox didn’t say “Hey guys, love the effort, but this just isn’t gonna work.”

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