★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
“That is definitely bigger than the last one” states Jeff
Goldblum glumly, as a ginormous alien craft sweeps over the lunar surface,
wiping out a large human moon base. In one line, the purpose of Independence Day: Resurgence is
revealed: less a joyful return to a fondly remembered sci-fi than it is Roland
Emmerich’s attempt to score another blockbuster, after his sorely misjudged gay
rights drama, Stonewall, burnt up on
re-entry.
Yes, twenty years after humanity banded together to avoid annihilation
in 1996, the flying saucers are back. Only this time, David Levinson (Goldblum)
and co. have advanced alien tech on their side. Ex-President Whitmore (Bill
Pullman) is plagued with visions of the returning aliens, as is Dr. Okun (Brent
Spiner), helpfully informed by his boyfriend before he wakes that he’s been “in a coma for 7,300 days!”. Whitmore’s
daughter (Maika Monroe replacing Mae Whitman, for unexplained reasons) has
resigned flying duties, but her fiancée, Jake, (Liam Hemsworth) remains in space
operating moon tugs alongside wise-cracking co-pilot Charlie (Travis Tope).
Before long, the aliens (responding to a distress call from
a long-dormant craft on Earth) show up again with a ship large enough to cover
the entire Atlantic, crushing our reconstructed landmarks in a sequence that reprises the ‘WOAH!’ factor of the original incredibly well. People can
say what they want about modern day CGI, but when it’s picking up the entire
city of Dubai and dropping it on London, it’s hard not to be swept up in the
spectacle.
The problems, however, arise soon after. In ID4, mass calamity was a wake-up call to
humanity that we needed to put aside our differences and fight as one,
inspiring the next generation as we went. There’s little of that here: the destruction
is over as quickly as it’s begun, and barely a tear is shed. When the heads of
state are wiped out and a new President played by William Fichtner is ushered
into presidency, his speech to mankind is a hollow shell of Bill Pullman’s
original ear-scorcher, whilst a small group of kids who survived the initial
attack are too busy being shepherded about on a school bus to be inspired (in
the most ludicrous use of the bright yellow vehicle since “protection from the
blast” in The Dark Knight Rises).
There’s no other way of putting it: there are way too many characters in this film.
Asides from the members of the original cast that stuck around (like Judd
Hirsch, dropping “putz” and “schmuck” every other line to remind us he’s Jewish),
we’ve got Charlotte Gainsbourg (looking like she got thoroughly lost on the way
to another set but was too polite to leave) as a clipboard-saddled scientist, Jessie
T. Usher as Dylan Hiller (son of Will Smith’s character, who passed between
films) and Deobia Oparei as a Central African warlord who delivers what turns
out to be the be-all, end-all of alien invasion countermeasures. The film
spends so long introducing and arranging this overflowing bucket of action
figures that the middle act and finale pass by in a flash.
Little is required of Goldblum besides, well, being Jeff Goldblum, but Liam Hemsworth
and Maika Monroe have zero chemistry as the central couple, and it’s really
rather depressing to see their relationship (and that of Charlie and a Chinese
pilot he continuously ogles) given precedence over Okun and his partner; a far
more believable, energetic and interesting relationship that is eventually mired
in one gay couple trope too many.
Of course, this wouldn’t be a proper 21st century
franchise nostalgia trip without a sledgehammering of call-backs and references
to the original, but even they feel
half-hearted at best and misjudged at worst. Levinson’s wife has disappeared
entirely, Smith’s Captain Hiller is immortalized by a ludicrous portrait
hanging in the White House, and the dialogue is ripe with repeated one-liners. Oh,
and the final showdown takes place over the exact same stretch of burning white
salt flats as before. As for the score, any recognisable themes from David
Arnold’s ’96 work are reserved mostly for an end credits reprise, the remaining
soundtrack an ‘action adventure’-branded musical Polyfilla.
This is not to say Independence
Day: Resurgence is completely devoid of new ideas: there’s a bonkers revelation
that makes the prospect of a third instalment intriguing rather than
off-putting, but it’s too little, too late. The film makes a shaky promise to
reinstate Roland Emmerich as the king of giant-sized summer mayhem, but it
fumbles the opportunity, delivering in the process something cluttered, noisy
and nonsensical. Much like the apparently invincible mothership dominating the Earth, its shields are already failing: with
a disappointing $41.6 million opening in the U.S., any semblance of an impassioned
cheer is quickly becoming the first of many exasperated sighs.
