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.
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Geoff HorneI'm a movie nut from way back with my first ever being The Hallelujah Trail from 1964. Ever since, I've been mesmerized by the giant screen, and the darkness that went on forever. Despite the infernally uncomfortable seats, (plus having to stand for God Save the Queen), I've been enticed ever since to duck into a theatre whenever I can for a few hours of escapism. Archives
July 2022
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