INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE
DIRECTOR: Roland Emmerich
CAST: Liam Hemsworth, Jesse T Usher, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Vivica A Fox and Maika Monroe
CLASSIFICATION: PG13
RUNNING TIME: 120 minutes
RATING: 3 stars (out of 5)
Munya Vomo
Will Smith is dead. Well, his character in Independence Day: Resurgence is dead. The Fresh Prince revealed that his character could not be part of the sequel to the 1996 hit movie because he had other commitments. This saw a shift of focus from him being the hero to Liam Hemsworth coming in as the overzealous Jack Morrison. Smith has played Captain Steven Hiller and the closest we get to him is his son, Dylan, (played by Usher) who, like Jack, is also a US Army pilot.
Just to keep the connection between the new and the old, we get Pullman and Fox returning two decades later and they breathe life and experience into what is otherwise just another space movie.
We meet Jack and Dylan at the beginning of the film and it is obvious that they are the main characters. The Steven Hiller references are made, (with Smith’s pictures from years ago being shown) just to keep you interested.
It’s been two decades sans alien attacks and then, as expected, the visitors show up and everyone is again running for dear life. The one thing that the 1996 film did not have that you get here is amazing CGI. It is 2016 after all, and directors live for visual effects. However, this is probably the most amazing thing you will get from Independence Day: Resurgence.
The inclusion of Pullman and Fox guides the story in a promising direction only (spoiler alert) to kill off both of them at some point. So if you think about it, all the veterans of the first film are not necessarily in the sequel and they have been overtaken by younger actors. It is like shooting a Rambo or Rocky film without Sly Stallone. They tried that with the Terminator films and those not starring Arnold Schwarzenegger did not fare well.
In a sentence, this film is about the US single-handedly defending the planet, as usual, against endoskeletal beings from outer space. The grasshopper-like aliens are more cute than scary, and their mission is to suck the energy off the planets throughout the galaxy. They have done it before and we are next.
They almost succeed, but thanks to resistant fighting from the humans, the aliens end up with goo on their faces. For the African viewer, it is cool to see some of the scenes take place in a location called “Central Africa”, where a lot of fighting takes place, too.
If you watched the scene in the original film in which Smith’s character flies in for the kill right at the end, expect it again, only Pullman will be pulling that stunt. As far as Independence Day standards are concerned, Resurgence is not yet uhuru.
If you liked the original Independence Day, the Star Trek films and Star Wars, you might like this.