INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE

20th Century Fox

Rated PG-13

Running time: 120 minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Independence Day: Resurgence on YouTube.




In Twentieth Century Fox's Independence Day: Resurgence, it has been 20 years since the war of 1996, but a distress signal had been sent out - and the aliens are coming back.

In the sequel to Independence Day, Produced, Written, and Directed by Roland Emmerich and based on Characters created by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, it has been 20 years since the alien war of 1996. Humanity has combined their technology with the alien's technology to help improve the defense of Earth - but the aliens have responded to a distress signal from a mothership from the previous war, and have returned to Earth in greater numbers.

While the first movie seemed more of a contemporary movie - Independence Day: Resurgence, the first movie sequel as of 2016 to be released twenty years after the original movie, is set in the present day but seems more of a science fiction film than the first one with all of the alien technology involved as well as having a huge base on the moon. However, Resurgence seemed less silly to me then the original Independence Day. Aside from one character that eventually became comic relief, the main silliness to me was what looks like an unintentional pokemon referance. The film also reminds me of the movie Starship Troopers.

This movie is a combination of old, as well as a new generation of heroes Maika Monroe, Jessie T. Usher, Liam Hemsworth, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Angelababy, and Sela Ward as these characters work together as an international generation of heroes in order to fight off an even bigger alien invasion on Independence Day. While the movie seemed bigger, there did not seem to me to have as many powerful dramatic scenes in this movie as the first movie had. For political reasons there were certain landmarks that were not depicted destroyed during the movie.

Some of the background of the movie might be a little confusing. A lot of the background is explained in the prequel novel Independence Day: Crucible, which is like required reading if you want to understand what happened in between the two movies, as well as understand the references that Resurgence had made.

A lot of the stars from the first movie Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch, Vivica A. Fox, John Storey, and Brent Spiner reprised their roles in this one and were like mentors to the new generation. Will Smith is not in this movie, aside from a couple of pictures, and while there were occasional references to Smith - there was no memorable scene at least to me where they explained what happened to him. That was explained in the book Crucible. Usher as Smith's adopted son in the movie had big shoes to fill as he leads the new generation of fighter pilots against the aliens. Former President Bill Pullman, despite his aging abilities, is still a leader in this movie.

Once again the movie spent a lot of time at Area 51, which in a way ties the movie back to the original Independence Day.  It also explained how Brent Spiner's character returned for this movie. The movie also spends some time at Cheyenne Mountain with President Sela Ward as they lead the attack against the aliens.

There was a cameo with Robert Loggia who reprised his role in this movie, his final film role. The movie was Dedicated to Robert Loggia during the credits.

I love that they created a website for the movie warof1996.com

The movie sets up the sequel Independence Day 3.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Independence Day: Resurgence from YouTube.



Click below to watch the Superbowl TV spot of Independence Day: Resurgence from YouTube.



Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running time: 120 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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