Independece Day 2: We got old

Synopsis: We are 20 years after the events of Independence Day, the world is living an era of peace and cooperation. We are even on the moon, building weapons and shit, but something goes horribly wrong. The aliens that we destroyed 20 years ago, are coming back and very very pissed at us. They brought a new ship, that is bigger and lands on 1/4 of the planet, they kill hundreds of millions of no one and a few someone for about 10 minutes, then we fail a couple of times to take them down and when they are about to win, they don't because fuck them. Oh yeah, there is also an outrageous amount of time spent to set up a sequel, but after this post I will not dedicate any minute of my life to it.

As you may have noticed, I didn't like at all the movie, so I will try to be calm and explain myself. 

First, the confrontation with the past is inevitable if you call your movie Independence Day 2. The first one was the perfect storm of blockbusters, it was funny, there was tension, the practical effects were great, there were messages that even the child version of myself caught from now and then, there was the best president in USA history (we will get to him in a moment) and the. best. extra. ever. 

On top of that, there were emotions, so well displayed that even today I cry watching that movie. Therefore, knowing that such a masterpiece could not be beaten, the confrontation is not going to be generous.

The major emotion this movie transmits is 

Holy crap, 20 years? Seriously? Daaamn, look at him! How old he got!

The movie starts slowly. If the first scene of the 1996 masterpiece was the arrival of the aliens near the moon, this time we have to wait 30 minutes (at best) to see the plot moving to what we came for.

The building up of the new characters is too specific and doesn't make much sense, being such characters absolutely flat and uninteresting. I mean, Will Smith was a pilot dreaming of going to space, facing the ruthless politics to get such honor. They explained that to us in one minute, while moving the plot along. This made us more involved in his emotions when he finally got into space. This time, for 20 minutes we collect the existence of new characters and still we have no reason at all to care about them. For a while they feed us this Top Gun-like rivalry, except that is lost in like a second and ultimately irrelevant for the plot.

The feeling is that, since the main purpose was to set up the universe for the sequel(s), they just introduced too many characters without having nothing to make them do. At the same time, they wanted to keep part of the old cast, that worked perfectly for the 20 years effect but sometimes is also too much. For example, it was good to see the old general at the commemoration of the independence day (like 5 seconds, I felt something, well done), but show us Will Smith's wife that now is a doctor and dies without doing anything was too much. Her death on screen is justified by a horrible dialogue happening an hour later, it just makes the movie crowded.

One of the most memorable aspects of the first movie was the USA president Whitmore, by far the best president in history. A man that does not leave the White House in a crisis to make people feel safe, a man that leads his troops from the front line, and I don´t care if his healthcare policies were sloppy and he did nothing for gun control, that speech is still inspiring humankind. The producers know what incredible gem they found in 1996 and they want to keep that fire on. He gives another good speech, that is one of the many winks to the fan, but it just happens in a random moment, to a random audience. Therefore they just go big and mix the amazing president that he was to another old character, forever remembered as a loving father, alcoholic pilot, and true hero.

  

This guy

To sum up, it is a movie poorly executed. The uninteresting characters for an unwanted sequel, the visual effects that somehow looked better 20 years ago (as practical effects usually do with respect to CGI), the constant references to the first movie that are funny 20% of the times at best, the completely impersonal death of millions (in contrast with the first movie, where the victims were characterized enough to look human), and the slow development of the plot are just a few of the critical point of this mess.

Nevertheless, there are reasons to think about few interesting aspects (but I admit it could be just me overthinking to fill the page). 

The first though regards the aliens, 20 years ago they were so much better than us and they still are, we copied their technology but they still beat us. They seem to be more evolved than us, living in constant connection to a collective mind. However, it turns out that such collective mind and consciousness was not collective at all, but rather shared by their queen, the only mind that matters. At the same time, for 20 years humankind appears to have experimented something very similar to a collective consciousness, living in peace for a common goal. Indeed there is no need to have any major asshole on the human side (as the Secretary of Defense of the first movie was). And still, the only one that matters is America, Fuck Yeah. I found it an interesting parallelism.

I also found interesting seeing that 20 years ago one of the themes was the fear and mistrust of technology. The aliens were using our satellites against us, a mysterious computer virus can take the aliens down but is looked with skepticism, etc. Now technology is naturally part of our life and the movie reflects that very well. On the same level, 20 years ago the importance of recycling and preserving the world was embodied by the main character and here apparently not even he is giving a fuck about it anymore. It could be the recognition of a lost cause, it could be that the battle is won and such message is unnecessary or, more simply, it could be the poor writing appreciated along the entire movie.

All that being said, if you are thinking to spend your time and money to watch this train wreck, I strongly recommend you not to. It's luckily a movie that is going to be forgotten very soon, at least by me as soon as I reach the end of the period.