Independence Day: Resurgence [Blu-ray/DVD] [SteelBook] [Only @ Best Buy] [2016]

There is a bit of trivia on the IMDB page for Independence Day: Resurgence that talks about how, after the success of the first film, 20th Century Fox paid screenwriter Dean Devlin a large sum of money to write a script for a sequel. The story goes though, that after completing the script for what would have been the original sequel to 1996's Independence Day Devlin decided not to turn it in and instead gave the money back to the studio. The trivia goes on to state that Devlin did this because he felt the story didn't live up to the first film. As we are now twenty years removed from that original film and have now seen what an Independence Day sequel looks like this course of action only seems to beg one question: how bad must that original sequel script have been? Could it really have retreaded the beats of the first film as much as Resurgence does? The only thing that differentiates the first film from this new one is the passage of time and how that has changed earth's technologies and defense systems while having what cast returns look a little older. The IMDB page goes on to say that it was only fifteen years later, when Devlin met up with director Roland Emmerich to try again, that they felt they had finally "cracked" a story for a sequel. Though it is difficult to be downright negative towards a film story and character development certainly aren't Resurgence's strong suits and may even be the most laughable aspects of a movie that tries really hard to be funny. One can't help but feel that, in this scenario, "cracking" the story only meant they were offered a lot more money than before. If Resurgence does indeed deliver the story that Emmerich and Devlin thought more justified the existence of a sequel to their 1996 feature it can only now be concluded that they were only going to repeat themselves more with the scrapped screenplay. While Resurgence certainly finds moments of dumb fun and some rather spectacular action sequences given special effects have improved greatly in the last two decades it is more or less a retread of what we saw in that original movie in terms of ensemble cast and humans versus aliens. Granted, the question easily posed in response to that statement is, "what did you expect it to be?" and the answer to that is that they at least try to find a new way into that same old story.

In my opinion, just because a movie is packed full of action, doesn't exactly make it a great movie. If you want a movie that keeps the kids attention, then this movie is it. On the other hand, if you want a movie that has good acting, scenes that make since, and doesn't steal entirely from the first movie, then you may want to keep looking. I don't like giving bad reviews, but if the movie was bad, then it is what it is. It felt like they had a piece of a script, but still tried to make a movie from it. Some actors overacted their roles, while others seem to not even care about theirs. I also noticed that there were scenes that seem like they were just making up stuff as they went along, and there was a lot of unnecessary pausing while they were talking, like they thought they said their line wrong, and was waiting for the director to say, "Cut". ...I mean, why even make the movie if it wasn't complete? Why steal SO MUCH from the first movie? Were they too lazy to come up with new ideas for the second movie? They had the same seven scenes from part one. (Not necessarily in this order): 1.) Convoy of people traveling down road, while we watch conflict in one vehicle 2.) Fighter jets fighting small UFO's under big UFO, while getting shot down 3.) One UFO gets hijacked, to deliver payload of explosives to mothership 4.) One person out of their mind, until it was time to sacrifice themself 5.) Person gets snatched up by an alien and used as a puppet to communicate 6.) Driving real fast over salt flats 7.) Major city destruction with lots of deaths ...I really hate that I didn't go to the movie to see it, so I could've saved myself from having to buy it. Maybe one day I'll watch it again, but that won't be anytime soon, if at all.

Independence Day - Regurgitation. What with Hollyweird's nonsense these day's we're getting pretty picky about wasting time and money, so when this hit the big screen, we yawned and turned away. Since we bought a new 4k TV and this blu Ray was on sale at Christmas, I hesitated, then bought it. While it was better than anything on broadcast TV the night we watched, that's not anything to brag about. Why anyone bothers to either re-boot an original or do another boring unimaginative sequel is beyond me. The results are usually the same - terrible. While the effects were interesting, they too are getting as old as the hills. The story itself was pretty much a re-hash of the original AND hooray hooray, they left an opening for yet ANOTHER Earth tragedy to come. Wow... something to wait for. ZZZZZ. Spoiler if you care - They DID manage to kill off the remaining original cast members except for mainstay Goldbum, his doddering old mumbly and unfunny father Judd Hirsch, and the long-haired goofy lunatic scientist. The extras which I usually don't care about anyway... were especially terrible, and for some reason, it was necessary to keep turning up the sound as the movie progressed. We went from 18 in the beginning to 32 at the end just to hear the voices. Not that there was anything noise over them, they just weren't loud enough. If there were half stars, it would rate 2.5, but like I said earlier... it wasn't the worst we've ever seen, but we probably won't watch it again.

It's so bad. It's so hilariously, wonderfully bad, and it's exactly what I wanted. So the people saying it's worse than the original ... yes, that's true. The original takes a lot of heat, because of the dialogue, and the acting, and the things that don't really add up, but in terms of storytelling it was effective, right? July 2 is this great crescendo culminating in the disaster scenes we all came for, while setting up characters we like despite ourselves because they're Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith. July 3 you get planes vs. spaceships, Will Smith being a badass, and they actually develop the characters in ways we care about. Then July 4 sets up a great showdown. It's a well constructed movie despite its flaws. This is the opposite. There is absolutely no sense of pacing or structure or build. Things just sort of happen, one after another, wherever the plot needs them to. The movie doesn't obey real world logic, or even disaster movie logic, or even its own internal logic, at pretty much any time. In one scene Bill Pullman's in the room chatting with people, the camera cuts away for one shot, and then cuts back to the exact same shot except Bill's missing, and they all say, "Wait, where did Whitmore go?" like he snuck out in that 1.5 seconds. Characters have love interests - like literally every character including Dr. Okun (he actually has the best one) has a love interest, except for Dylan -- why doesn't Jessie Usher get a love interest?? -- but of course that never actually motivates any character to do anything. Jeff Goldblum's love interest shows up in the beginning, hangs out at his side the whole movie, and is there at the end. Sizzling romance!

The plot makes sense: Following the invasion of 20 years ago, humanity has salvaged and taken advantage of alien technology–fully integrating it into their society. But now the aliens have returned–bigger and badder than before–and it's up to Jeff Goldblum and company to yet again find a way to repel the invasion. The problem with "Independence Day: Resurgence" is that, well...we pretty much know what to expect. Since 1996, we've seen many movies like this, and lets face it–this is a sequel long overdue (if there even needed to be a sequel). Just like in the original, this is a disaster movie with sci-fi icing...in other words, it's mostly about the human drama. It's PG-13, there's a lot of hokey dialogue, forced relationships in a futile attempt to make us "feel" something, and in the middle of it all there's...aliens. It also hurts that Will Smith is absent from this one...they got all of the core cast to return except him–it's really a shame he couldn't have been there; it would have added more credibility to the production. Nevertheless, there are a few cool elements present here. The introduction of a huge "queen" alien is cool–if a little unoriginal–and this movie carries the core story in a direction that makes sense for the franchise. It might all be starting to get a little Starship Trooper-ish, but taking the fight to the aliens themselves next time makes sense. Let's hope they can keep it together if they do proceed with another sequel.

Not bad. But also not good. Mindless workout for your system. Leave your brain at the door and pop some popcorn. This is definitely not the first movie. It lacks everything the first one had. Mystery. Emotion. Shock value. In this one, we've already seen big ships. We've already seen the aliens. So there's no real connection here with this installment. That doesn't mean that it is all bad. However, there are definitely some missed opportunities. I wanted more examples on how the alien tech advanced human technology. I wanted more origin of what and where these things come from. More of their advanced tech maybe and what made them ticks. As it is, now I just see them as walking bees. Now for the good. The action is adequate and will give your system a workout..sometimes. The picture quality is pretty good and the effects are good as well. I just wished there was more. There is only one city destruction as a whole upon arrival and that's pretty much it until the climax at the end. And there will be a third installment. Will I watch it? Sure. Should you? Well, yea..if you want to find out where it all ends. One thing is certain: This movie definitely made me want to spin the first one again, and I still enjoy it more than this one. The first one was a whole story by itself. This one...well...we will just have to see if the story is worth 3 movies. I just hope it won't be ID4 Finale. Part 1. and Part 2. That would be just too much milking.

The quality of the movie was good overall. The time from the original to the sequel was too long. Few people care about aliens anymore and are more concerned about zombies. The story line was good but weakly played. The main characters did not get developed and if you didn't see the original, you would not understand why the pilot of the jet was crying when his mother fell through the roof of the hospital or why an elderly male who probably should not be out on the high seas in a boat by himself is berating his son about not having kids or a wife. The other new characters were also a little weak. The returning nut-job scientist was alright, but weak and not over the top, which is necessary for a nut-job scientist. Normally, you either hate the aliens for destroying the US capital or you hate the earthlings for firing the first shot. I vote for choice three, grab a bag of pop corn. I've seen worse. Not a bad movie but nothing to write home to Alpha Centauri about. The one really good thing they did was the computer generated imaging. I actually believed the old man in the boat was surfing the pipeline with his aging 35 foot tub of a vessel.

This movie has all the special effects, explosions, and near misses an action junkie could want. It builds to a fiery climax, complete with giant world-devastating ships and awesome future tech. So it's very unfortunate that the grand finale, despite the best efforts of several fresh and familiar faces, falls a bit flat. Character development, or the lack of it, is partially to blame. There is also a certain contrived and almost commercial dryness in the humor; it barely elicits a chuckle, and doesn't serve to endear the heroes to the viewer. Where the first movie won points for some originality and truly likeable leads, the sequel finds itself sorely lacking its own identity; this feels like an almost too-familiar formula, with very little of the infectious charm. Perhaps had this one included something of an appearance rather than a mere passing nod to Will Smith's character, Capt. Hiller, there might have been some soul to this spectacular beast. Instead, we are left with a thrilling ride that comes to a sudden and mildly awkward end, and the whole thing ends up feeling a bit, well, alien.