Beware minor spoilers within…
Three important things you need to know about Independence Day: Resurgence: 1) it works wonderfully well as an IMAX experience, 2) Will Smith isn’t in it, but that’s surprisingly alright, and 3) it will be the second movie in the soon-to-be-completed Independence Day trilogy.
All this is to say that if you’re a die-hard fan of the first 1996 movie, you can rest assured that your nostalgia and need for grandiose destruction will not be unduly tarnished by its sequel.
Director Roland Emmerich’s return to the grand spectacle of Independence Day is precisely that – grand – as he pulls out all the stops in ensuring that nearly half of Earth is wrecked by the sheer presence of the returning alien mothership. It may lack the original’s charm afforded it by its heavy use of practical effects, but CGI technology has sufficiently progressed to the point where it makes up for that in spades.
Besides all the death and destruction, the movie also takes a few sparse moments for world-building and to explore its updated cast of characters. Set two decades after the first, the movie features an Earth united by the initial alien invasion, with all its major leaders now working to repel the inevitable “resurgence” of the alien invaders. Technology has taken a large leap forward as humanity fuses the alien technology left on Earth with their own. In other words, it’s become an arms race to defeat the aliens, albeit one rendered almost useless by the sheer scale of the second invasion.
The cast is led by Jessie Usher and Liam Hemsworth, with Usher playing Will Smith’s fictional step-son Dylan Dubrow-Hiller (thank God it’s not Jaden) and Hemsworth, hotshot orphan fighter pilot Jake Morrison. Smith was originally slated to reprise his role as Steven Hiller in Resurgence, but dropped out after Fox refused to meet his request for a USD50 million salary for two sequels. As a consequence, Hiller is now deceased in this movie, which now focuses more on his stepson Dylan Dubrow-Hiller’s attempt to live up to his father’s legacy. Resurgence plays off Dylan’s buddy-ish relationship with Jake, with an admittedly hastily shoe-horned background story about their past rivalry. Nevertheless, Usher and Hemsworth are charismatic in their own right, and manage to hold up the tone of the movie fairly well.
Fans of the first will be happy to see most of the original cast return. Jeff Goldblum is back as David Levinson, who is now the director of Earth Space Defense; Levinson’s father, Julius, is again played by Judd Hirsch. President Thomas J Whitmore (Bill Pullman) has stepped down since, plagued by the psychic aftereffects of the first invasion. The same sickness also affects Dr Brackish Okun (Brent Spiner) and new character Dikembe Umbutu (Deobia Oparei of Game of Thrones fame), whose psychic links to the aliens turn them into prophetic harbingers of the new invasion.
Goldblum is…well, classic Goldblum in Resurgence as life, uh, finds a way back in form of his trademark quips. The lack of fellow quipster Will Smith gives Goldblum much more room to quip his way through Earth’s defence. He’s not just all quick wit in Resurgence, however; his leading role as Earth’s de facto defence adviser also gives him more room for general badassery. That said, verbal mic-drops are the order of the day next to the wanton destruction in Resurgence, much like every other blockbuster these days. Joss Whedon would not feel too out of place if he had co-wrote this movie. The rest of the OG cast riff jokes off each other quite well, bringing life (I will never get tired of that quote) to the otherwise straight-up destruction of the movie.
All in all, Resurgence pays good homage to the first movie, without being so crass as to imagine itself a reboot. Though nothing will match the classic shot of the White House being laser-ed to ash, its visuals are iconic in their own right. It’s loud, it’s fun, and Malaysians should thrill at the sight of the Petronas Twin Towers being sucked into oblivion.