Independence Day, which first came out 20 years ago, has a venerable position as one of film's most enjoyable 'guilty pleasure' movies. Yes, it's cheesy. Yes, it's ridiculous. But damn, it looked good and was buckets of fun back then and still is. It didn't need a sequel, but I was surprised to hear when one was in production and was mildly excited at the thought.
I didn't expect much, we've moved past being wowed by fantastic CGI (indeed, people seem to appreciate much more the practical effects which are put to good use in certain films and TV shows these days), but I thought it'd be great to tune out and watch an even bigger ship and even more aliens again attempt to take out an extremely patriotic and stoic human race.
By the time I left, I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, feel anger, hate, one thing I did feel was ripped off... gone is the charm and appreciable cheesiness of the first film, what we have as a replacement are characters you can't possibly like, let alone root for, inane and predictable self-sacrificial acts that fell flat and generated no emotion whatsoever, scene after scene of horrible one-liners mixed with 'it was great working with you' exchanges of dialogue from the indestructible arrogant young army types and attempts at humour in the face of millions of human deaths, by-the-book disaster film rivalries that turn into friendships which also ended up turning my stomach, boring plot lines that resurfaced again and again which slowed down the pace of the main conflict, are immediately forgettable, add nothing to the story and went nowhere, an alien race whose entire existence is based on militaristic invasion with 20 years to prepare continuously showing their glaring ineptitude at said invasion rather than having humans fight back against insurmountable odds like the first film, a cheap-looking CGI alien queen with a shield that survives a nuclear blast yet can't take a few shots from an aircraft based on the technology from her own race who'd rather chase a busload of kids than shoot down said aircraft firing at her, a coma patient who wakes up after 20 years and can immediately make jokes and walk around with no sign of muscle atrophy whatsoever, a disabled, insane war veteran who can still perfectly fly a jet based on alien technology...
I could go on, needless to say if you see this, be expecting every disaster movie trope and cliché with none of the charm and likable humour of the first film, and just try and enjoy the above-average special effects. Aside from that, there's really nothing else there.
I didn't expect much, we've moved past being wowed by fantastic CGI (indeed, people seem to appreciate much more the practical effects which are put to good use in certain films and TV shows these days), but I thought it'd be great to tune out and watch an even bigger ship and even more aliens again attempt to take out an extremely patriotic and stoic human race.
By the time I left, I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, feel anger, hate, one thing I did feel was ripped off... gone is the charm and appreciable cheesiness of the first film, what we have as a replacement are characters you can't possibly like, let alone root for, inane and predictable self-sacrificial acts that fell flat and generated no emotion whatsoever, scene after scene of horrible one-liners mixed with 'it was great working with you' exchanges of dialogue from the indestructible arrogant young army types and attempts at humour in the face of millions of human deaths, by-the-book disaster film rivalries that turn into friendships which also ended up turning my stomach, boring plot lines that resurfaced again and again which slowed down the pace of the main conflict, are immediately forgettable, add nothing to the story and went nowhere, an alien race whose entire existence is based on militaristic invasion with 20 years to prepare continuously showing their glaring ineptitude at said invasion rather than having humans fight back against insurmountable odds like the first film, a cheap-looking CGI alien queen with a shield that survives a nuclear blast yet can't take a few shots from an aircraft based on the technology from her own race who'd rather chase a busload of kids than shoot down said aircraft firing at her, a coma patient who wakes up after 20 years and can immediately make jokes and walk around with no sign of muscle atrophy whatsoever, a disabled, insane war veteran who can still perfectly fly a jet based on alien technology...
I could go on, needless to say if you see this, be expecting every disaster movie trope and cliché with none of the charm and likable humour of the first film, and just try and enjoy the above-average special effects. Aside from that, there's really nothing else there.