Review | Film review - Independence Day: Resurgence is misnamed, miscast and missing tension
Alien invasion sequel’s time-ravaged cast are hardly resurgent, the plot is essentially the same, Angelababy is stuck with a pointless subplot, and we’re left in no doubt as to which side will win
2/5 stars
Twenty years on from Roland Emmerich’s alien-invasion blockbuster comes a belated, spluttering sequel. With most of the original cast returning, bar Will Smith, perhaps Resurgence isn’t quite the right subtitle for a bunch of time-ravaged actors, including Judd Hirsch, Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum.
In truth, that’s one of the film’s more fun aspects – watching a grey-haired Goldblum, for example, pull that scientist shtick (mumbling lines like “what goes up, must come down”) one more time. He hasn’t changed a bit.
Neither has the plot, really. This time the aliens are back in greater numbers, looking to harvest the Earth’s molten core – basically using us as a giant intergalactic petrol station. With landmarks falling like matchstick models – London’s Tower Bridge included – it’s a stark reminder of what’s gone before. At least returning director Emmerich has a joke up his sleeve, when the White House – famously destroyed in the original – just survives an alien crushing.
There’s a new team of young bucks out to stop them, including the rebellious Jake (Liam Hemsworth) and Dylan (Jesse Usher), son to Will Smith’s hero pilot from the original. It Follows star Maika Monroe plays Patricia, Jake’s love interest and the fighter-pilot daughter to Pullman’s ex-president – who, now looking like Robinson Crusoe, has some fun as the meds-swallowing “crazy old man”.