First off, let me say that I am a huge fan of the original film, so I might be a tad biased here in my review, but that aside, I found 'Independence Day: Resurgance' to be an acceptable sequel and definitely not deserving of the venom that a lot of fans spat at it over the last month or so.
Is it cheesy? Without a doubt, but it's no more cheesy than any other action film that's come out in the last 30 years. Were there face- palm moments? Absolutely. Like when Dr. Okun awakens from a 20 year coma and is immediately able to not only speak, but move and hop up and walk? Why did they have to go with the whole coma bit? They could have just as easily said that he spent the last 20 years in a near catatonic state in a medical care facility. It would've explained why he was lying there with his eyes open and unresponsive on ID4, but there are a lot of face-palm moments in sci-fi/action flicks. It's part of the shtick at times and is something that fans of the genre have come to expect.
That being said, the film delivered on its promise, which was to show us what has happened to earth 20 years after the first attack and how we've reverse engineered and adapted the alien technology and utilized them for our own defense systems. We got to see the aliens return and mount a second attack on earth with an even bigger and stronger mother-ship known as a "harvester". We learned more about the alien civilization and what their true intentions for our planet were and we get to see the people of earth mount a second fight for survival with their backs against the wall. What more did you really want to see with this picture??
There were some sad parts as well. I hated seeing Vivica Fox and Bill Pullman's characters die. They were such huge, and integral parts of the original film and it stinks to see them go out that way, especially Foxes death because it was so unceremonious really. It also sucks that Will Smith had to be written out of the film. I think his inclusion would've made a huge difference in audience perception of the film and I think he would've been better off in ID4-2 than 'Suicide Squad'. I was particularly saddened to see Robert Loggia knowing it was the final film appearance for this great actor. I was moved at the small interaction of Loggia's character General Grey waving at President Whitmore at the ceremony. It was a very brief yet very poignant moment.
Although the acting could've been better and was a bit wooden at times (Usher's and Hemsworth's performances were particularly awful) it wasn't terrible overall. I'm not really sure what people were expecting to see when they saw this movie, but as far as I'm concerned, it delivered in bunches.
Is it cheesy? Without a doubt, but it's no more cheesy than any other action film that's come out in the last 30 years. Were there face- palm moments? Absolutely. Like when Dr. Okun awakens from a 20 year coma and is immediately able to not only speak, but move and hop up and walk? Why did they have to go with the whole coma bit? They could have just as easily said that he spent the last 20 years in a near catatonic state in a medical care facility. It would've explained why he was lying there with his eyes open and unresponsive on ID4, but there are a lot of face-palm moments in sci-fi/action flicks. It's part of the shtick at times and is something that fans of the genre have come to expect.
That being said, the film delivered on its promise, which was to show us what has happened to earth 20 years after the first attack and how we've reverse engineered and adapted the alien technology and utilized them for our own defense systems. We got to see the aliens return and mount a second attack on earth with an even bigger and stronger mother-ship known as a "harvester". We learned more about the alien civilization and what their true intentions for our planet were and we get to see the people of earth mount a second fight for survival with their backs against the wall. What more did you really want to see with this picture??
There were some sad parts as well. I hated seeing Vivica Fox and Bill Pullman's characters die. They were such huge, and integral parts of the original film and it stinks to see them go out that way, especially Foxes death because it was so unceremonious really. It also sucks that Will Smith had to be written out of the film. I think his inclusion would've made a huge difference in audience perception of the film and I think he would've been better off in ID4-2 than 'Suicide Squad'. I was particularly saddened to see Robert Loggia knowing it was the final film appearance for this great actor. I was moved at the small interaction of Loggia's character General Grey waving at President Whitmore at the ceremony. It was a very brief yet very poignant moment.
Although the acting could've been better and was a bit wooden at times (Usher's and Hemsworth's performances were particularly awful) it wasn't terrible overall. I'm not really sure what people were expecting to see when they saw this movie, but as far as I'm concerned, it delivered in bunches.