“Twenty years ago I saw Independence Day with my Daddy. Yesterday (as of writing) I saw Independence Day: Resurgence with my Mom. Although on some level, I feel like I saw it with my Daddy too, as he was on my mind through most of it. And Mom’s review after the movie: “”It was so you, and so Daddy””
The buzz going in for the film wasn’t good, so I had my concerns. Here’s how I see it though. The original was one of the greatest blockbusters of all time, so the bar was impossibly high. Especially when you consider that twenty years ago, the special effects were groundbreaking, whereas today, every other week there’s a movie that’s blowing up national landmarks. With expectations properly set, I thought it was an acceptable sequel.
The most important thing was that the story did follow a logical progression. Okay, maybe the throwaway line about what happened to Will Smith’s character was a bit harsh, but otherwise, it followed well. It was fun picking up with some beloved characters, seeing where they were now. What I loved most was the portrait of a united Earth, where all petty differences had been put aside against a common enemy, and that unity continued in the decades after the way. God knows given some of the state of our world today, there’s a lot we could learn from this.
Okay so we’ve established that this was never gonna be as good as the first, and it wasn’t really anywhere close. Doesn’t mean I enjoyed it any less. The action was there, the characters we love were there. Maybe some of the story was forced, and the timeline may have been just a bit too rapid to believe, but I was with it. This will likely go down as another unnecessary sequel of 2016, but at least it was one of the more enjoyable ones.
Independence Day: Resurgence – \m/ \m/ \m/”