INDEPENDENCE DAY - Resurgence

 
Movie Review #9365 with Geoff Horne: INDEPENDENCE DAY : RESURGENCE.

It's bigger, it's better, it's 20 years later & the badass aliens from the original Independence Day, affectionately known as ID4, are back, this time with a bad mama in tow. No Will Smith, other than in a painting on a White House wall, but Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsh & Bill Pulman + a few others all return 20 years older, obviously.

In addition, some of the cute kids from ID4 make a return, woven into the story as now responsible grown-ups with histories & hangups of their own.

Premise is the same as before however rather than the usual sequel rehash, earth has made use of its captured alien technology & used it to advance some 200 years in 20. One of the hallmarks of the original was a certain amount of corniness interspliced amongst the seriousness of the world ending & Resurgence retains this while reinventing the landscape to accommodate all these new whizbang toys. Sprinkle in the standard heart throb hero in Liam Hemsworth + a comic foil & the scene is set for another rip-roaring boys own scifi adventure which doesn't disappoint on thrills & spills.

It's no better (despite what I said earlier) & no worse than ID4, just a bit different & while everyone tries hard, again it misses the mark of achieving true scifi legendary status a la StarWars or even Bladerunner. But, I do hear rumours of yet a further sequel to go and attack the aliens on their home turf & end this threat once & for all. Certainly the final scene supports this but I think the bigger threat is that the money men flog this horse even further & tear down what little bit of scifi legend ID4 has been able to create. 7/10.