Independence Day: Resurgence is just as blockbustery as it's predecessor, but lacking in its absence of original cast members.
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8.0
Independence Day was never an Oscar-worthy masterpiece. Well, in part, since it did actually win an Oscar for Best Visual Effects in 1996, but that’s beside the point. It was an over-the-top, blindingly patriotic but fun piece of a 90s summer blockbuster.
So it begs the thought as to why a majority of critics I’ve seen review its sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence, all seem to have the the common consensus: that Resurgence is lacking from what the first film thrived in – its corniness.
What exactly is this sequel missing from the original? Nothing much, other than a few unnecessary characters such as Dylan Dubrow-Hiller (Jessie Usher) and Dr. Catherine Marceaux (Charlotte Gainsbourg). The majority of the film is a carbon copy of the first; the only major problem being that Resurgence faces a lack of chemistry between its main characters. The first film had such a solid cast with the likes of Jeff Goldblum, Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch and Mary Eileen McDonnell. Less than half of that cast return in Resurgence; the rest are either extremely bland or lacking any character development whatsoever, apart from Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth), Patricia Whitmore (Maika Monroe) and Samantha Blackwell (Joey King).
The problem is, Resurgence is just not as fun. Honestly, if it weren’t for Goldblum and the remnants of the original cast, Resurgence would be as bland as the majority of disaster films today. Independence Day was the catalyst for the apocalyptic, world destroying disaster flicks that followed. But each film slowly got stripped of the fun, the cheese, the unification of practical and special effects and the Goldblum, to reveal the post 9/11 society we live in now.
Independence Day: Resurgence (2016), directed by Roland Emmerich, is released in the UK on Blu-ray by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Certificate PG-13.
