I decided to review
this movie because the scenario of an Alien Invasion does fall,
broadly speaking, under “horror.” Indeed, the original
Independence Day had some
truly intense scenes. That said, however, this film never really
gives us that intensity, instead acting more as a pure action film.
As
for the quality of the film, however, I’d say it’s probably worth
a rental. In understanding what Roland Emmerich was doing I thought
of two things. Firstly, Moviebob’sreview of the original film, where he explains how it acted as a call
for Global Unity. Secondly,
I thought of Francis Ford Coppola’s comments that The
Godfather: Part 3 should be seen
as the coda
of The Godfather series,
rather than it’s conclusion. Both
of these are important in understanding what Emmerich created with
this film.
The
thing I noticed most about this movie was just how standard much of
the plot was. Most of the creativity seemed to go into showing us
Roland Emmerich’s idealized world, in which humanity had united and
become a stronger people as a result. Notably, where the original
film shows humans overcoming petty differences to unite, in
Resurgence all the
tactical mistakes the humans make are made for the best possible
reasons, with everyone determined to protect their world at all cost.
This
makes me suspect that Emmerich’s goal was simply to give
Independence Day a
coda. He wanted to show us the world that the first film called for,
and threw in another alien invasion, because how else could he get us
to see it? We’re not going to sit through a mockumentary on 20
years post-Independence Day (...okay,
I probably would, but most people wouldn’t).
The
single most interesting character in this movie is an African
“warlord” who has spent ten years fighting a war against
surviving aliens. Firstly, I find him fascinating as a parallel to
President Whitmore. While his territory is apparently not recognized
internationally as a country, the film shows him being treated with
roughly the respect afforded a World Leader, and like Whitmore in the
first film he acts as a leader who takes a direct hand in the
fighting, not seeing himself as above the battles.
More
significantly, though, it’s mentioned that this “warlord”
replaced his more brutal father...and as far as we can see he’s
just as focused on the good of humanity as anyone else. I think that
ties into the theme of the “better world.” Twenty years later
the last remnants of the bad world have died away, and in the new
world the closest thing that even exists to a barbarian is a somewhat
gruff and grumpy man with a heart of gold.
And
yes, there’s a sequel hook. I don’t think there will be a sequel
based on the box office, but if there is I expect it will be another
coda. They seem to be setting us up to show us even more unity and
an even better world. I’ll probably see it, though, if it happens.
So,
as I said at the beginning of this review, I like this movie enough
to recommend renting it. If you have fond memories of the original,
this will likely be a nice trip down memory lane. But, it isn’t
creative enough with it’s alien invasion, nor does it try to be.
So, I can’t in good conscience tell anyone to see it in
theatres...also, yeah, not horror...
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