We always knew they were coming back. Using recovered alien technology, the nations of Earth have collaborated on an immense defense program to protect the planet. But nothing can prepare us for th...
“We will not go quietly into the night, we will not vanish without a fight, we’re going to live on, we’re going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!”
Ah what a wonderful quote from a terrific 1996 Roland Emmerich film named “Independence day”.This excellent movie was so favored by fans and critics alike that it spawned a sequel almost exactly 20 years later. However, the fan fueled hype and the pressure to live up to expectations only succeeded in tightening the film’s noose.
When the trailer came out, I did not expect the film to be well received critically, nor by my own taste.Once again (As usual) I was right. Not only was the film entirely irrelevant to modern cinema, it disgraced the filmography of respected actors including but not limited to, Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman. The new characters in the movie are horrendously one dimensional, and cringe-worthily unfunny. Liam Hemsworth failed to capture me in his appalling rendition of a Han Solo impression and his co-star Jesse T. Usher does not deliver a fun enough experience to make me satisfied that Will smith was not in the movie, he rather keeps me wanting for an alternate version in which Dylan Hiller does not exist and his step-father survives. Bill Pullman gives a charming performance as a PTSD former president who just wants to save the world; Bill Pullman is heart-warming in a film covered in liquid nitrogen. An acting performance I was particularly upset with was Brent Spiner. His character annoyed me, and this was largely due to the writers; however, Spiner did not help in the slightest, giving far too many references to the first film and acting that could be considered as “Over the top”. The CGI however is, glorious, after all it is 2016.
Roland Emmerich succeeds in making a senseless popcorn flick for 8-year- old boys to enjoy, but not so much for anyone with even the slightest taste for excellent films. Judd Hirsch’s side story was one that was widely spat upon and interestingly enough, that seemed to be the only part of the film I enjoyed. Roland Emmerich has a few good films, I will even slightly forgive him for Godzilla ’98, but this film is atrocious, and I hope all the good actors and actresses that had their hand in this movie get their redemption one way or another. Overall, this movie had way too much pressure, and it failed on nearly every level. Bravo Roland Emmerich, you have made possibly the worst movie of the year, I hardly think he’ll be INDEPENDENT from that.
