TRIGGER-HAPPY: Liam Hemsworth plays a war orphan turned hotshot pilot in Independence Day: Resurgence. TRIGGER-HAPPY: Liam Hemsworth plays a war orphan turned hotshot pilot in Independence Day: Resurgence.
* * *
INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE
Directed by Roland Emmerich, with Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Liam Hemsworth, Maika Monroe, Jessie T. Usher, William Fichtner, Brent Spiner, John Storey, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Vivica A. Fox and Joey King.
REVIEW: Leslie Felperin
IT’S BEEN 20 years since Independence Day blew up the White House and blazed new trails with blockbuster records. Now, the franchise is back with the instructively if somewhat literal-mindedly titled Independence Day: Resurgence. Obviously, audiences will not be asking if it is bigger, louder or a better showcase than its predecessor for state-of-the-art visual effects. No one really wants to know if most of the old cast that could be persuaded to come back have signed on again, and whether they are joined by a younger, sequel-ready generation. And surely only a fool would query whether the new entry is full of ludicrous science, jokes that demonstrate it doesn’t take itself seriously and world monuments being turned to sand-grain-fine rubble and toxic waste. Because the answer to all those questions is, duh, of course.
Surely, the only real questions anyone wants to know at this stage are just how many squillions will it end up making worldwide and is there a scene where a dog is saved at the last minute from immolation and flying debris. The answer to that last question is also, duh, of course.
But when it comes to box-office prospects, this could be a tricky one to call. Jurassic World recently proved that reboots of 1990s-era properties can draw big numbers with the right kind of retro-fitting. But then again, brand-name recognition and massive marketing campaigns aren’t enough to guarantee returns. In the endless rinse-and-repeat cycles of contemporary sci-fi-inflected action movies, set-pieces that ID4 helped popularise in the first place, and which its sequel reprises, look a little stale here because they have already been ripped off and rejigged countless times.
The main thing filmgoers will be looking for from Resurgence is bang-for-buck entertainment, and that it delivers reasonably successfully. Although the pic’s 120-minute running time sometimes feels draggier than its predecessor’s 145-minute sprawl, returning writer-director-producer Roland Emmerich’s knack for the pomp of vast-scaled destruction, fist-pumping moments of triumph and jocularity remains undiminished. This sort of entertainment is his happy place. It’s noble of him to want to try and give something back to the gay community with a low-budget misfire like last year’s LGBT history lesson Stonewall. But Resurgence arguably will do more to promote positive images of gay men by featuring Brent Spiner and John Storey as a pair of devoted lovers willing to die for each other and humanity.
Huge, leggy insectoid queens are at the centre of the sequel. It’s 20 years on from the events of the first film, and on an alternative version of Earth there are hover planes using some kind of anti-gravity gizmo, observatories and defense systems on the moon, while a Hillary Clinton-like woman serves as US president (Sela Ward).
Even though the upside of the last alien invasion is apparently that we’ve had 20 years of peaceful coexistence and no war, it would seem that America is still top dog because it’s Madam President who gets the deciding vote as to whether to shoot the crap out of a new alien spacecraft when it appears on the horizon. At least she gives the order with a heavy heart, even though chief alien detection expert David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) advises against destroying the newcomer because it doesn’t look like it was made by the same alien race. Turns out he’s right: There is a third set of ETs floating about, which take the form of shiny white levitating orbs. They look like Eve in Pixar’s WALL-E crossed with a giant volleyball, but with the voice of a teenage girl and a not dissimilar attitude.
Many screenwriting hands have made surprisingly light work of meshing together a plot thick with incident and characters new and old. The action toggles back and forth between various locales in inner and outer space. Along with Goldblum’s Levinson, returning characters include now former President Whitmore (Bill Pullman), who’s suffering from Alien Residual Condition, a kind of post-traumatic syndrome but with telepathic torment thrown in.
Like others who had close encounters with the invaders the first time around – Spiner’s long-haired boffin Brakish Okun, African warlord Dikembe (Deobia Oparei) – Whitmore has dreams and visions of a symbol as the aliens approach. According to his ESP early warning system, this time around the aliens are bringing their queen. And she’s pissed.
Ready to take her on is a new generation of feisty, trigger-happy young’uns, including war orphan turned hotshot pilot Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth), who’s engaged to Whitmore’s daughter Patricia (Maika Monroe), a soldier in her own right. Both are friends with Dylan Hiller (Jessie T. Usher), the son of Will Smith’s character from ID4. He apparently perished in a test flight years before, which heroically covers up Smith’s absence from the cast, although he’s hardly missed with such a crowded roster.
In any case, the whole point of this franchise is watching a lot of alien butt get kicked, and their slimy scrawny tushes are well and truly whopped here in gloriously rendered, hyper-realistic detail. – Reuters/ Hollywood Reporter