Twenty years ago 'Independence Day', the story of aliens attacking planet Earth, was a huge box office hit. Hollywood finds such success to be irresistible and so the anniversary is celebrated with 'Independence Day: Resurgence' which as the title suggests essentially tells the same story again, only updated by technology.
The United States is preparing to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of 'its' victory over the extra terrestrials when the aliens re-emerge stronger and more dangerous than ever.
Although set in this year, 2016, the images are not of this time but of some time in the future perhaps not to scare any young ones exposed to the mayhem unleashed in this sequel.
The plot of this sequel is so ridiculous and inconsistent as to be laughable so it is just as well that the film is leavened with humour much of it referencing the earlier movie. In any event, plot is not the point of this film. It is vision and sound that drives the movie and the audience is treated to plenty of both. Visually the film is quite interesting apart from the sense that much of the live action is obviously photographed in front of a green screen.
Predictably Hollywood cannot resist some moralising platitudes about the human spirit and the final scene is the most unsophisticated set up for another sequel that I can recall.
★1/2
I seem to recall that a lot of the world's most iconic buildings/cities (including Sydney harbour) were destroyed by the aliens in the first film, which might explain the scenery. I quite enjoyed the first movie and was tempted to go see the sequel but I have reconsidered after your review.
ReplyDeleteThis is only my opinion AdRad; you might like it.
DeleteI didn't notice any Australian sites this time around apart from the opening sequence which appears to emanate from Sydney, or South Eastern Australia generally. Seeing that brief reference I did wonder whether the film has various versions of that scene to reflect the general region where the movie is being screened.
From memory there was another reference to Australia but my mind is in confusion about what really was happening.