MovieChat Forums > Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) Discussion > Why this wasn't as good as the original....

Why this wasn't as good as the original...

posted 6 years ago by AmeriGirl26 (14687)
10 replies | jump to latest

1.) They waited 20 years before actually making this, which is ridiculous on a lot of levels. Then you have to hear people saying over and over "20 years ago, 20 years ago, 20 years ago," and I'm like "I KNOW the aliens invaded 20 years ago! What has happened since then, you idiots?!"

2.) They act like almost nothing happened in that 20 year gap besides having slightly better tech that was reverse-engineered from all the ships that crashed to earth in the previous movie. You would think something like this would have happened at least 1-5 years after the first film, not 20.

3.) Will Smith didn't come back, so that left a huge hole in the film. Steven Hiller was an awesome character in the last one, and not to have him there, with an uninteresting adult son to fill his shoes was a very weak spot in the film.

4.) All the people we'd grown to love and cheer for in the previous film have either become old, obscure, or just plain unrecognizable in this film. I didn't even recognize Jasmine or the former president. And their presentations were very forgettable. It was like watching "The Force Awakens" all over again and seeing your favorite characters as old and faded. Not fun and causes audience apathy.

5.) The new ship, while obviously terrifying in both size and destruction factor (how often do you see a ship so huge it has its own gravitational field?) was not really all that exciting when it came to the devastation it wreaked on earth when it showed up. In fact, you look at what it does and think "Oh gee, like I haven't seen aliens rip up all the major cities of the world before. *snore* Wake me when it's over."

6.) Having Dr. Okin miraculously survive having his mind reamed and an alien tentacle STRANGLE him, as well as the president finding that he truly was dead, was ridiculous. They made it very clear that Dr. Okin was as dead as a door-nail in the first film after the alien was shot to death. Having him just miraculously come back because he was in a coma for 20 years is a common and over-used cliche from comic books.

7.) Almost nobody from the new generation were all that interesting as characters. They were extremely forgettable. I can't even recall their names right now.

I could go on, but you get the picture.

[–] strntz (12675) 6 years ago

I haven't seen the sequel yet and probably won't, unless I'm bored while flipping stations. While I can't comment on anything in this film, I can comment on this:

6.) Having Dr. Okin miraculously survive having his mind reamed and an alien tentacle STRANGLE him, as well as the president find that he truly was dead, was ridiculous. They made it very clear that Dr. Okin was as dead as a door-nail in the first film after the alien was shot to death.

I originally figured Okin was probably dead but it wasn't important to the film. No one pronounced him dead, certainly not a doctor. We saw the alien talking through him, but I suppose in order for his vocal cords to work, he'd probably have to be alive at some level. Hell, it's not all that uncommon to read about people supposedly dead and found still alive before being embalmed. There were two in 2018. Here's one:

https://www.livescience.com/62997-woman-declared-dead-found-alive-in-morgue-fridge.html

I suspect the rest of your complaints are probably on the money, but I don't find any problem with Okin surviving the alien's grip.

[–] DarthRoger (867) 6 years ago

Well the original ID was vapidly stupid, so I can only guess as to how much worse this thermonuclear crapfest was.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8801) 6 years ago

The original Independence Day may fall into the "dumb fun" category, but I love it and think it's a very well-made film. It's a popcorn film done right, and one of those films that I can watch over and over and still enjoy.

Resurgence is a true piece of shit though.

[–] Fonz (638) 5 years ago

I agree with this. I loved ID back in 96 but it doesn’t hold up well at all.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8801) 6 years ago

This film was definitely one of the most disappointing films of 2016, and also one of the most disappointing sequels of all time for me. I even tried rewatching it a little while back to see if my opinion would change and, nope, the film was still a fucking mess.

I'm not sure I agree with all of your points though.

1. 20 years is a long time to wait, and considering how successful the first film was it's amazing we didn't have a sequel within a few years. To compare it to another Will Smith film about extraterrestrials, MIB 2 was out within five years. Still though, I don't think that the sequel taking 20 years to arrive was inherently bad.

2. I would imagine that alien tech would be difficult to reverse engineer. It would be so advanced that our engineers would have a hard time understanding what they're even looking at. It would take time to learn how to make use of it.

3. Eh. I think that Will Smith as an actor has been on the decline for a while now and I can't say I much missed him, though perhaps his presence could've helped. Smith or no Smith though, what they really needed was a good script. That's where this film definitely fails. Well, that and the over-reliance on CGI instead of using more practical effects like in the first movie.

4. I can feel you on that. I guess, in reality, the actors ARE older though so I'm not sure what could be done about it. That is, except for Judd Hirsch. Amazingly, that dude looks almost exactly the same as he did in the first film. WTF?

5. Yeah, I can understand that. It's kind of like Star Wars using the Death Star concept over and over. It's like, "C'mon guys, get some new ideas."

6. You're right that it wasn't believable, but in a film like this I can forgive it. The film is already ridiculous anyway, and it was good to have Brent Spiner back.

7. Totally agree. The new characters sucked and felt generic as hell.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

"how often do you see a ship so huge it has its own gravitational field?"

Not to be too geek about it but all matter has its own gravitational field.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (14687) 6 years ago

True, but usually most objects are too small to have such a powerful effect on others. That ship was the size of the Atlantic Ocean, which is colossal, if you ask me, and capable of canceling out the local gravity enough to cause buildings, cars, and everything else to come flying up out of the ground as the ship passed over. Most starships I've seen in sci-fi films don't do that (or can't do that), not even the saucers from the first "Independence Day" movie.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

The ship in question couldn't either. This is where the sci-fi element really, really takes a back seat to legitimate science. Not to make too much of it but for a body to do that it would have to have a stronger gravitational force than the earth. When you start to talk about something having that kind of gravity well you start to talk about messing with the orbital mechanics of the moon and the earth. You also start talking about all kinds of undesirable effects that relate to concepts like the Roche limit/tidal forces involved. Things would fall apart pretty quickly.

Yes, I know it's just a movie. That's fine. But I just have to state that I cannot overstate how poor the science end of it is.

[–] spurtle467 (1551) 6 years ago

Aside from the other reasons mentioned, the original had the initial alien invasion going for it. It was a big selling point for that film for that time, with an alien species arriving and the slow build up to them attacking. Once that's already been done and seen, another repeat invasion, which is what this film was, just isn't going to seem that interesting anymore.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (14687) 6 years ago

It's true, once you've seen one alien invasion that way, you've seen them all. I've heard of similar complaints from multiple superhero movies where people get bored after seeing the same type of action sequences with random property damage over and over again.