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Independence Day: Resurgence (2016), PG-13, 0 stars

We're back after 20 years...and this is what they come up with?
20 years ago...many audiences were entertained by the first Independence Day movie. Despite the campy premise and some fairly stalk characters, the movie was popcorn fun. The difference between that fun movie and this abysmal sequel is charisma and many actors look like they were having fun with the set-up, action and the disaster genre. So, coming into this movie, my expectation was on a good par because it had the potential to deliver on a campy popcorn level again just like its predecessor. After this experience, this movie is on the level of unnecessary sequels that deserves a person who deserves to be punished to watch this movie Clockwork Orange-style. It was one of the most painful moviegoing experiences I've ever encountered in the past few years.

It's 20 years later, and people have moved on with advanced technology thanks to the "War of 1996" in which different characters reference repeatedly throughout the movie to remind the audience. Patricia Whitmore (Maika Monroe), a former pilot and the daughter of former President Thomas Whitmore (Bill Pullman), works for the current President, Elizabeth Lanford (Sela Ward). She is friends with Dylan Hiller (Jessie T. Usher), son of Steven Hiller (Will Smith who astutely to not participate in this movie), who has died in an accident. Her fiance is Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth), who is on a moon base working on a machine with his best friend, Charlie (Travis Toth).

David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) is investigating at the site of a crashed alien ship where an African warlord and his comrades fought the aliens and take their weapons. The warlord claims to have seen visions involving the aliens and they also discover that the ship has sent a distress call to its home planet. Well, that's not good news since aliens, based on the trailers and tv spots, are coming back to declare another war with earth. Like the hashtag said, "Don't mess with Earth".

They have come back. 
This movie is way too serious for its own good and its self-seriousness in this campy and fun material is dragged down to an inept film that has no redeemable quality no matter how good the special effects are. This time I did not much care whether or not Earth will be saved this time because there are no stakes. It is just the aliens back to fight for their dignity and for Fox to get as much cash from the audiences as they can. The filmmaking structure is so pedestrian and dull that they spend most of the movie introducing so many characters and plot points that it feels like almost more of a build-up or a first draft than a finished movie.

All of the cast looks tired, bored or just phoning it in. I did not believe Jeff Goldblum as the original David from the first movie just a caricature of himself saying one-liners that are corny. Bill Pullman looks ruggedly sad but maybe excited inside to know that he will be getting a paycheck. I did not understand what was Judd Hirsch's character's story with the book and saving many kids on a bus. It felt like another disaster movie cliche. Brent Spiner's character, Dr. Okun, who comes out of an alien coma, has so much screen time that the dialogue he recites is terrible and so forced. The newcomers - Monroe, Hemsworth, Usher, Toth and Angelababy - have nothing to offer on the table as they look like they want to make their own Independence Day movie. Like I said, they have no charisma in their personalities.

Director Roland Emmerich has made his second worst movie in his career - I have not forgotten 10,000 B.C. - has so much cluttered exposition, terrible dialogue, inept storylines, awful one-note performances and a predictable and stupid ending that tries to gear up audiences to get excitement for a third movie. WHY? EMMERICH? I have to make a comment that this is ironic that two directors who specializes in disaster films - Michael Bay and Emmerich - Bay has made a better movie than Emmerich and it was good. 13 Hours is like Citizen Kane compared to this piece of junk. This is junk. This is one of the worst movies in recent memory and there's no joy in its performances and storytelling because its piles of premature celebrations, expositional storylines and coincidences that it became infantile. No question it is one of the worst movies of the year and one of the worst movies of the decade.

ZERO


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