INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE
Early Thoughts
Hey, guys! So, my original plan for today was to see Independence Day: Resurgence and then
write a review for it. But, I feel that I would be more apt to write a review
to a sequel of a classic film...if I actually watched the classic film. So,
here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna give you guys a short little article
divulging my early thoughts on the film. Then, I will watch the first Independence Day so I can give a fairer
and possibly more interesting assessment of its sequel. So, here we go.
...I thought it was kinda good. As a dumb summer sci-fi movie, it was
pretty serviceable. My absolute favorite part is the climax, because it's the
kind of sci-fi mayhem that movie fans like myself can only dream of, corny
one-liners and all. I also love the look and cinematography of this film. This
is a great looking movie. The technology looks sleek - almost as good as the
futuristic tech from The Martian - and
the camerawork by Markus Forderer does great at giving some size and scale to
the movie, especially during the action scenes.
Y'see, one of the things about Roland Emmerich that I and a lot of my
favorite film critics understand is that he makes dumb movies...but he makes
them well, to quote Bob Chipman. He knows how to construct cool-looking money
shots, he never oversexuallizes his female characters, and he knows how to use
character stereotypes in an entertaining fashion. This puts him at odds with
somebody like, say, Michael Bay, who does basically the inverse of everything I
just mentioned (and no, I'm not gonna call him the Antichrist because,
seriously guys, aren't we over the Michael Bay hate at this point?).
If I did have a problem with the movie, it's that there are some
character relationships that I wish were either fleshed out more or cut out
entirely from the movie. I will go into the specific relationships in my later
review. Also, Jeff Goldblum's character doesn't seem to contribute much to the
plot, other than just stating the obvious (which ain't Jeff Goldblum's fault;
it's more of a script problem). And also, even though this film had its share
of funny moments, I wish there was just a little more charisma. Again, I
haven't seen the entire original film, but the bits I have seen always featured
Will Smith, and he always added great charisma to the film. The younger
characters in this film - played by Liam Hemsworth, Jessie Usher, Angelababy,
and Travis Tope - are fine and get the job done. But I feel that if there were
somebody in this film - aside from Brent Spiner reprising his role as Dr. Okun
- who could insert some more charisma into the film, it could have been a
little better.
But, as is, it's perfectly adequate. I'd say it's definitely worth the
price of...a matinee showing, if only for those big action set pieces. In terms
of dumb summer blockbusters, you could do a lot worse.
So, those are my initial thoughts. After I watch the first film, I will
be writing a proper review, where I can be more in-depth with the pros and cons of
the movie. So, stay tuned! It should be up by Wednesday!
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