Monday Movie Mania - Independence Day: Resurgence

Yeah, yeah. I know it's Tuesday. Not Monday.

I have a good reason for being late. It's called WORK. (We'll get to that tomorrow.)

Anyway, DH and I went to see ID:R, and.............

It left us a little underwhelmed.

The original was made twenty years ago, and maybe the writers lost the creative edge. Maybe I've grown jaded. This may be one of those things you see for yourself.


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SPOILERS


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PROS
1) Lots of explosions and bigger, badder spaceships.

2) Julius Levinson (Judd Hirsch) bonding with orphans again.

3) Dr. Brakish (Brent Spiner) losing his husband shortly after they were reunited, mirroring President Whitmore losing his wife in the original. It's the one emotionally touching moment in the sequel.


CONS
1) The chemistry between the new kids sucked. It wasn't for lack of trying, and I do love me a Hemsworth, but there wasn't enough backstory here to make sense for Liam's character, other than he was a fuck-up. Randy Quaid did the redeemable screw-up with far more charm in the original.

2) The PTBs decided "Let's play neuter the black man!" This is the same fucking team who turned Will Smith from scrawny teenage rapper to a major movie star with hunk appeal. What did Jessie Usher get as Capt. Dylan Hiller? A handful of throw away lines and getting to watch the aliens kill his mother. No interest, and eating Liam's exhaust.

3) The chemistry between the old adults was also sorely lacking. I'll watch Jeff Goldblum in anything, but he does his best work when playing off another actor. The producers/writers gave him a new love interest, but this is the first time I've seen Jeff not be able to riff with a fellow actor. Then his character's wife isn't there, and they don't tell us what happened to his previous ex from the end of the last movie! (I know, I know. Read the tie-in novels. That's bullshit, though. A one-phrase mention of her would have been enough.)

4) Let's neuter the black man - ROUND TWO! Deobia Oparei plays this supposedly badass African warlord who fought a ground war against the Harvester aliens for the last twenty years. He gets turned into comedic relief after the first quarter of the movie.

5) Dragging Robert Loggia to the film set while he was dying from Alzheimer's. Seriously, people what were you thinking, treating a respected actor like a fucking dress-up doll for your amusement?


I can totally understand why Will Smith bowed out of this project. If I don't consider it a sequel to the original it's a serviceable C-movie, the kind you have on the TV as the background noise with you clean the house. I have to give it 4 out of 10 stars.