Movie of the Week: Independence Day - Resurgence

[jacey]

Quite by chance I saw the original Independence day on TV just a few days before going to see Resurgence at the cinema, so I had the original movie firmly fixed in my brain with it's starry ensemble cast. Very pleased to see most of that cast reprising their roles. i can only speculate that Will Smith didn't want to play himself twenty years on, but everyone else aged relkatively gracefully, especially Goldblum and Pullman.

For anyone who'd had their head in the sand the original Independence Day saw our heroes fighting off all powerful alens by blowing up the mother ship from the inside in a suicide mission that didn't kill off the heroes. Now, a generation down the line mankind had been scavenging and using alien tech in an effort to beat them at their own game next time. Of course, Resurgence is the story of Next Time. The aliens are back, and they've had twenty years to get ready, too.

This time our hotshot heroes are the next generation, sons of the original heroes: Liam Hemsworth (Gale in the Hunger Games and brother of Chris) acquits himself well as Jake Morrison, the young pilot who has a problem with authority and Jessie T Usher as Dylan Hiller, the golden boy of flight school, son of the character played by Will Smith in the original. Jeff Goldblum reprises David Levinson, the scientist who is now in charge of preparing for the next time and Judd Hirsch, once again the comic relief, is his aging father. Brent Spiner reprises Dr Okun (no it appears he wasn't killed in the original; he's been in a coma for 20 years).

There are absolutely no surprises. This is pure hokum, but it's entertaining hokum. Don't expect any Oscar nominations for this one.