Independence Day: Resurgence movie review – Some of the fights are impressive, most of the destruction routine
Independence Day: Resurgence movie review – Some of the fights are
impressive, most of the destruction routine (“The aliens are going for
the landmarks,” comments Levinson at one point as the Tower Bridge of
London collapses), and a large part of the dialogue perfunctory.
Roland Emmerich clearly has a thing for Earth. Independence Day,
Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012, White House Down are all his
acts of destruction. But really, which planet does he inhabit?
In the 20 years since the blockbuster Independence Day of 1996, we
are told, Earth has seen “no armed conflict” and “nations have put petty
differences aside”, courtesy the events of that film. At another point,
this “unification of Earth in unprecedented ways” is cited as the
biggest reason “worth fighting for”. There can’t be worse times for this
to be said, but in the week of the Brexit, very, very bad timing.
When the aliens make mincemeat of these pretensions of peace, guess
who forms the Independence Day version of Allied Powers? The Americans
and the Chinese, plus one hulk of a warlord, who is cherrypicked from
somewhere in the darkest Africa (literally, without power). There is not
even a token Indian to counterbalance this loaded Asian statement, or
even a destroyed Indian monument as the Indians were apparently judged
too sensitive. That will hurt, in certain quarters.
However, one can take heart from the fact that the rest of the world,
apart from America, China and the darkest Africa that is, is also
reduced to either aged faces on screen or excitable nomads herded under a
tent. Aside from a few drunken men on a ship occupying an extraordinary
amount of screen time.
It can be argued that why look for geopolitics in Independence Day.
Fair enough, let’s move on to the aliens, starting with their spaceship.
“We had 20 years to prepare. So did they,” says the film’s tagline.
Don’t go looking for any vast improvements in either the aliens or the
spaceship though, which but for one truly remarkable shot of the queen
alien giving a schoolbus-full of children a chase through the Nevada
desert remain the same as before.
The Earthlings have been busy, however, building new bombs, weapons
and a defence station on the moon that comes in for some severe
pounding.
Among the frontrunners leading the fight is Dylan (Usher), the son of
the character played by Will Smith last time; Jake (Hemsworth), who was
rendered an orphan in the 1996 film and who avenges his parents in a
way that escaped the Censor’s attention; Patricia (Monroe), the daughter
of former US President Whitmore (Pullman), who famously led the world
to safety then; and Rain (Angelababy), a Chinese ace pilot whose uncle
dies on the moon. In short, fathers, sons and daughters are of crucial
significance to this tale.
From the old film, Levinson (Goldblum) remains crucial to the world’s
alien defence, as does scientist Okun (Spiner), who returns from
20-year coma to white hair and a gay companion, while Whitmore (Pullman)
doesn’t let anything keep him down. That includes the current US
President, Lanford (Ward), who happens to be, gulp, a woman, but who
conveniently dies early enough. Before that, she takes some tough
decisions, just so the film can claim some political correctness.
For some reason, Charlotte Gainsbourg lends her thespian heft to a role that requires her to haul no more than a tablet around.
Some of the fights are impressive, most of the destruction routine
(“The aliens are going for the landmarks,” comments Levinson at one
point as the Tower Bridge of London collapses), and a large part of the
dialogue perfunctory. And yes, there is the speech by the US President
which “the world is listening to on short-wave radio”, about how,
“irrespective of colour and creed”, everyone should pray for the
soldiers going in for this inter-galactic war.
And yet, the winner is clear. Producers skipped a release closer to
July 4 apparently because of some big blockbusters then, but the film is
replete with America’s independence day references. And guess what
happens when the storm whipped up by the aliens washes up to the White
House doorstep? It stops, after just tumbling the flag.
Directed by Roland Emmerich
Starring Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Jessie T Usher, Bill Pullman, Maika Monroe, Sela Ward, Brent Spiner, Angelababy
