White House Down was a better Die Hard 4 than Die Hard 4. Confined space, classical music, individual and distinct bad guys, the white vest, elevators, basements, heck there is even a christmas reference. I enjoyed it very much, and it was much better than Olympus Has Fallen.
My interest in Independence Day 2 is kinda declining, for two reasons mostly:
David Arnold does not return, instead Harald Kloser is doing the score. And that is extremely disappointing, given that Independence Day is one of the best film scores in the last 20 years.
Then it looks to me that the whole alternate history idea has not been followed that much. Washington D.C and London seem to have been rebuilt just as they are today, and Dubai has apparently evolved in the last 20 years just as in real life. That's quite lazy.
And maybe a third reason: the visual effects look much more artificial than in the original. Yeah, they are bigger, and they are more complex with lots of fluid and procedural simulations, but to me personally, the effects from the 90s look better.
vs
And then the effect of continents breaking up and buildings breaking to pieces is not really new. 2012, Abramstrek 2, Force Awakens, Hobbit, Transformers, ... Whilst in the original, the eye candy was truly original and had not been done before.
vs
So in essence, it's more of the same, just bigger, and looks a lot more artificial/computer generated.