Customer Ratings & Reviews

Pros: Jeff Goldblum. HDR on an OLED. Atmos sound was great with some overhead surround. Cons: Not as great as the first.

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.

This is a predictable sequel to one of my favorite movies. You don't really have to watch it to know the plot. I don't think it did well in theaters for this reason. I probably wouldn't recommend it to friends.

I love the original and wished for a sequel. But this film falls horribly short of my expectations. 22 year after the og and they couldn’t come up with a better story.

Watching this movie in 3D is solid but certainly not necessary. I don't think it added much to the experience and the film itself is a far cry from the original.

This follow-up to the first movie does not have the same magic as the first. It's okay I guess. I got it because it was really really inexpensive.

I really didn’t like this movie. It was a waste of time and money and I had been so excited when it came out.

I bought this expecting a cheesy summer action flick, and thats what i got. I had fun watching it though

Just bad, so bad. I started watching this movie with low expectations but man this movie was bad

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.

This movie is an overreach for the people who made it. Should’ve left the first I.D. alone

In this movie I can see why some big names would not touch it. At least the first movie made some attempt at making it seem a bit more realistic / likely. This second one seemed more silly, borderline comedic. It just appears as a movie that made half the attempt or effort to make this a block buster movie. With so many side stories and side themes, I didn't know if I as watching "Jurassic Park", or "The Day after Tomorrow". They tried to make the movie "International" (perhaps in effort to boost foreign sells ) by bringing in Chinese actors and actresses, but gave them such small parts, leaving the question of why even bother? Whats the point? Not to mention the predictable "romantic" attempt with the leading chinese actress and one of the co-stars" at the end. ...Really looked thrown together. The confusion of multiple stories leads to not taking the movie seriously because it doesn't really have a central theme (definitely not a theme of Independence Day) . Predictable and half baked effort of the first movie (2 stars).

This movie deliver good visual effects but fall short in script

The movie was hype up too much and didn’t meet expectations

This sequel is too much like the original Independence Day

This movie was up to the point of release the most highly anticipated sequel that I have been waiting 20 years for. I saw the first one 4 times and countless times on tv and br. It stands up really well after 20 years. When the sequel was released theatrically I attended the 1 night double feature containing the first and second movie back to back. Seeing the first one in the theaters again was enjoyable and then seeing the second one. After watching the second one I was felt kinda let down. It didn't have that emotional impact that the first one and I felt nothing for the new cast of characters. Seeing some of the original characters was nice but that was about it. The special effects weren't really WOW factored like the first one. The end of the movie just pretty much a slap in the face saying "You are going to get a sequel because this sequel was bad!".

Ok to pass the time but not as good as the first one!

Was surprised by how much I liked this last summer when I saw it in the movie theater. I love original with Will Smith, but I knew that going in, no Will Smith, his son was leading the charge this time. OK. But then it got campy. Jude Hirsch riding the wave, really? The whole planet pulls together that quickly to fight them, wow, I guess world politics get really easy in the future. Yes, I wanted to take that "leap of faith" and go with it, but again, the film is unecessary, and judging that it did not do that well, and this film was $7.99 (not on sale) I think that it will sit on my shelf, and occasionally on one of those rainy Saturdays, I may watch it again, but not in the near future.

So having recently bought a new UHD player, I wanted to get a 4k movie to watch it on and since this movie was actually shot in 4k and not just an upscaled version, I figured I'd pick it up. I very much regret my decision The movie is, completely, an absolute disaster. We waited 2 decades for this?! The action sequences are stellar but the story, the set-up for a sequel, the acting (except for jeff goldblum), and the directing was horrible. Wait for this to go on sale. It's a complete waste of $30 and two hours of your life you'll never get back. better yet, wait for it to air on tv. however, the 4k quality is impeccable. The audio is intense and immersing. It's definitely the next wave in home entertainment.

The general concept should have worked: 20 years later (i.e. some time for travelling great distances across space) a new ship arrives to investigate what happened to their conquering force. Unfortunately, the execution of that concept is a mess. The special effects are fine if a bit over scaled for my taste, but bad dialog is painfully abundant, plot points are jammed in awkwardly, and we never make any personal connection to the characters that makes you care what happens to them. The 3D version is satisfactorily clean but its not enough to overcome other issues. Recommended only for completist collectors that want it to go with their ID4 copy or to add to 3D collection.