Independence Day - Resurgence
- Thread starter JarodRussell
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Enjoyable but rather flawed and not nearly as good as the original.
The good
The mixed
The bad
I know I sound overly critical but I did enjoy the film and I certainly didn't expect it to be a repeat of the original, which, in fact, was rather refreshing.
Lastly, did anyone catch how Nigel Farage paraphrased Widmore's speech during his Brexit victory speech the other day?
The good
- Jeff Goldblum. Seriously. You can't go wrong with the man.
- Brent Spiner. Despite really cheesy lines (including the final line), he was a lot of fun to watch. Zany unchained.
- Judd Hirsch. While his role in this film was even more superfluous than the last, he's always a joy to see on the screen.
- The world building. While the set-up for potential sequels was obvious (but not too painfully so), I enjoyed seeing the scope of the ID4 universe expanded. One of the things I always wanted in the original was to see more of the mothership interior and learn more about the species' culture. While we didn't get too much of the latter, I hope we'll see more of that in the potential sequel.
- The universe has more than one alien species! Recently in another thread, people argued about the nature of Russell Case's abduction and how it didn't align with these alien's modus operundi, when the obvious solution was that Russell wasn't abducted by them. Hell, it seems likely the new species we see here isn't the same species either. That being said, why didn't they (or any other species) make contact sooner? Seems awfully convenient they would show up just before the Harvesters.
- Filling in the 20-year gap. We get some nice back history about what has occurred in the interim: How Earth has come together in alliance, utilized the alien technology to better defend themselves, and suggestions of how the fighting continued on the ground level after the mothership was destroyed.
- Bringing back Dr. Issacs along with Dr. Okun. While his character didn't have much of a role in the original and I didn't expect his return (or even know about it), I enjoyed the good friendship between the two doctors. Pity Adam Baldwin didn't also return.
- Strong female characters. I especially liked how Jasmine went from exotic dancer to hospital administrator.
The mixed
- While I liked how they didn't repeat the three-act structure of the first film, the flow of this film felt rather flat. Rarely did it take the chance to pause and consider, like the original often did. Instead, it felt to busy to push out as much CGI as humanly possible.
- Speaking of the CGI, while it looked impressive in most places (except Jasmine's rooftop scene and the final scene of the film which both looked painfully green screen), I missed having more physical sets and creature creations of the original film.
- While it was great that they managed to get Robert Loggia in the film before he died, his actual appearance felt awkward. Maybe it was because I didn't recognize him and I thought it wasn't him (knowing he recently died and forgot he filmed this before passing away).
- The Atlantic-Ocean-sized ship was very impressive, although I wonder how the physics of such ship would effect Earth's magnetic field and gravitational pull. Likewise, when it skimmed itself over the moon's surface and the core drilling. But I suppose I shouldn't pull on that thread too much considering how the city destroyers of the last film hovered over the cities.
The bad
- The excessive speechifying. They deliberately tried to recreate the infamous Widmore speech several times and they all fell flat.
- The lack of memorable one-liners. One of the things that made the original so much fun, aside from the city and landmark destruction, were the zingers. Sadly, I can't name a single one that stood out in this film and all of the attempts to re-utilize the old ones fell flat.
- The dialogue. In general, the dialogue was pretty crappy and often came off very clunky with the lesser experienced actors, but even with some of the veterans.
- Unmemorable new characters. Aside from Dr. Katherine Marceaux and Dikembe Umbutu, I didn't really care for any of the new characters. Floyd Rosenberg and Charlie Ritter were particularly annoying and the addition of Angelababy felt a bit forced. A pity in the case of Sela Ward and William Fichtner are generally great actors but they didn't really have much to work with.
- The Queen. Maybe I'm taking her too seriously but her Godzillan appearance felt very absurd and out of place in a film like Independence Day. Maybe I'm being too harsh here. Also, why was she so hellbent on chasing after the bus and then Patricia Widmore? That seemed rather odd.
- The emotional beats simply didn't work as well as they did in the original. The whole thing felt flat and lacked the heart of the original.
- I'm getting really tired of films using the same old trope that beards are equated to wild, crazy and out of touch, and that shaving them off means the character is ready to be a hero. I wish we could get more heroic bearded characters without a trace of implied craziness.
- If killing the Queen caused a system-wide failure for the Harvesters, then how and why did the mothership leave?
I know I sound overly critical but I did enjoy the film and I certainly didn't expect it to be a repeat of the original, which, in fact, was rather refreshing.
Lastly, did anyone catch how Nigel Farage paraphrased Widmore's speech during his Brexit victory speech the other day?
Really? I seemed to recall early on that she was mad that she wasn't asked back and she thought it was because she wasn't "pretty enough." Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly.
Thanks for the science rundown. I figured it would be more devastating than what actually happened, but as you said, it's best not to think too much about it for a film like this.
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We just came back from seeing it in Glorious IMAX 3D.
Overall I'd say it was pretty good. The guy who played Capt. Hiller's son was not very charismatic, and there's a few WTF? moments, but who cares? I'm not looking for Deep Meaning from ID4 movies.
An enjoyable Saturday at the cinema. 7/10
Overall I'd say it was pretty good. The guy who played Capt. Hiller's son was not very charismatic, and there's a few WTF? moments, but who cares? I'm not looking for Deep Meaning from ID4 movies.
An enjoyable Saturday at the cinema. 7/10
Not only is it losing to Finding Dory, it's losing to Finding Dory on its second weekend. Ouch.
I love Judd Hirsch as an actor but his role in this movie was unnecessary. You could have killed him off when his boat got destoryed by the alien ship. The scene with the kids and bus ride to area 51 was unimportant to the whole storyline.
What with the new alien good guy ? One blast of energy beam from the Earth copy of the baddies weapons and her ship got destroyed. We are suppose to follow her now ? Then the new alien became a liabilty as the bad guys came looking for her.
The introduction of the new alien could have been handled better. Falling Skies did a good job of bringing in good guy aliens when humans were fighting the bad guy aliens.
Overall i was disappointed with the movie. Not as good as the first one.
What with the new alien good guy ? One blast of energy beam from the Earth copy of the baddies weapons and her ship got destroyed. We are suppose to follow her now ? Then the new alien became a liabilty as the bad guys came looking for her.
The introduction of the new alien could have been handled better. Falling Skies did a good job of bringing in good guy aliens when humans were fighting the bad guy aliens.
Overall i was disappointed with the movie. Not as good as the first one.
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OMG Falling Skies was a terrible show....... The final episode made me barf
I was refering to to the arrival of the Volm at the end of season 2. They arrived after the Humans have won a major battle. ID4 should have done the same. The ailens should have arrived after the Humans have defeated the Harvester queen. That could have lead easily to a sequel. The arrival of the new ailen in the middle of the movie just added to the convoluted plot.
Did you watch more of Falling Skies?
1. That show is a horrible mess.
2. The aliens showed up after we lost. The war was lost, like 97% of the human race was dead. The good aliens just randomly showed up.
I was talking about the battle that was fought in season 2.
I agree that the show screwed up the end.
Saw it on Friday and I too think it felt rushed. Nearly each scene could have been better if they could have more room to breathe. The plot of the first film was a bit more simple but hung together better and flowed much better, whereas this one everything seemed a bit more disjointed and forced together to make one film when it felt like there was more than one film here.
Who said they picked up the same distress call? Did the sphere itself say that or was it something someone else speculated on? If that was the case, that would explain why they showed up and I simply missed it.
I forgot about that in my comments, but it bugged me too. I like Judd Hirsch, but the stuff with the kids was kind of pointless. I guess you could say it was trying to show the effect the invasion was having on civilians, but they still didn't really serve a purpose in the big picture plot.
New characters weren't as developed as the new characters in Star Wars, but that's because the old characters kicked ass (and showed ass - we now have an answer to how smooth rulers face was in insurrection)
I don't are about the reviews, I really liked it. Obviously it could never be as good as the first one, which was the best film of all time. They realised they couldn't, there were homages to it, they knew that nobody but Will Smith can knock out an alien, so they didn't try. They knew nobody but Bill Pulman can do the speech.
Yes Julius's part was superfluous, but that's what gives it a bit more depth. Also highlights the number of kids that would be orphans (as Jake and Charlie were, and indeed Dylan and Patricia now are). I think reading the prequel first probably warmed me to the characters somewhat. Tanner didn't get much screen time - did he go off to Cheyenne mountain? I must look up the presidential order of succession.
An extra 30 minutes of run time to slow down the pace a little, and flesh out a bit more of the characters, would have been good, but overall I thought it was great.
Surprised not to see a Star Trek trailer. Ghostbusters and Dr Strange but no Beyond.
I don't are about the reviews, I really liked it. Obviously it could never be as good as the first one, which was the best film of all time. They realised they couldn't, there were homages to it, they knew that nobody but Will Smith can knock out an alien, so they didn't try. They knew nobody but Bill Pulman can do the speech.
Yes Julius's part was superfluous, but that's what gives it a bit more depth. Also highlights the number of kids that would be orphans (as Jake and Charlie were, and indeed Dylan and Patricia now are). I think reading the prequel first probably warmed me to the characters somewhat. Tanner didn't get much screen time - did he go off to Cheyenne mountain? I must look up the presidential order of succession.
An extra 30 minutes of run time to slow down the pace a little, and flesh out a bit more of the characters, would have been good, but overall I thought it was great.
Surprised not to see a Star Trek trailer. Ghostbusters and Dr Strange but no Beyond.
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