The only fight for survival that will really matter during your two hours watching the sequel to 1996’s Independence Day, will be the fight to keep your eyes open during the movie’s runtime. Independence Day: Resurgence definitely brings back memories from the 90’s, but bad memories. Memories of movies that went straight to video. Memories of movies that you would find only in the Blockbuster discount bin. Memories of Speed 2: Cruise Control and Battlefield Earth… 

Director Roland Emmerich returns to the franchise that he created in 1996 with Independence Day, continuing the story twenty years after the events of the first. Since aliens attacked the Earth in the last installment, their technology has been reverse engineered and implemented into everyday society. The movie follows multiple characters’ struggles to do their part to stop the second alien invasion. A majority of the cast from the first movie has returned including Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch, Brent Spiner, with the notable exception of Will Smith, who wisely chose to shoot Suicide Squad instead. 

Independence Day: Resurgence is a complete charisma vacuum. Perhaps, one of the movie’s many missteps was to heavily rely on nostalgia to tell their story. The entire first half of the movie is littered with needless exposition and spending time getting reacquainted with characters that no one really missed…or asked to see again. Emmerich treats each side character, who may or may not of had a funny quip in the original, like they are American icons that we’ve been craving to see on screen. Which is simply not the case. There hasn’t exactly been a demand for Hirsch, Spiner, or Vivica Fox for a reason. It might seem harsh…but that’s only because you haven’t seen the movie. 

The cast of newcomers, including Liam Hemsworth and Jessie Usher, are like cardboard cut-outs for characters. It’s not just that they are bad actors, they barely seem like actual breathing people. When they do show slivers of human emotion, it simply looks like they are playing dress up in a high school play.

The problem is exemplified by Usher’s character who is supposed to be the son of Will Smith’s Steven Hiller from the first movie. Why couldn’t he simply be another pilot that happened to black? It’s so coincidental that it takes you out of the movie. Just like the scene when they reveal Hiller’s portrait on the wall of the White House, which reminds you of how smart Smith was to escape the franchise. There are countless moments like this that are completely tactless and so on the nose…that you can’t wipe it off. 

The attempts at comedy and action are equally misguided leaving you to honestly wonder if the movie was made by a human or a computer program. Speaking of computer programs, the one saving grace of the movie should have been in its spectacle. The visual effects are sloppy and the action sequences barely seem choreographed, beyond the character’s unfunny quips. The only mildly impressive effect and moment of fun is when the Queen emerges in the desert, but that quickly goes off the rails.

Every performance is uneven, hammy, and amateurish. Jeff Goldblum is treated as if he is an iconic action star coming back to save the world, which despite his appearances in the Jurassic Park series, he never was. While it’s hard to tell what zany movie Brent Spiner is acting in, but it surely isn’t Independence Day: Resurgence. However, it’s hard to solely blame the performers, when there is a terrible script, direction, and overall vision. This falls on the feet of Emmerich and Fox Studios. It’s honestly inconceivable that the studio greenlit this doodoo stain on film history. 

The PoG never takes pride or has enthusiasm in bashing movies or people’s work. However, when a film is this uninspired and lazy, it would be unconscionable to not warn you about the two hours you will lose from your life by going to see Independence Day: Resurgence. What a sloppy movie. Ugg.