Independence day — Resurgence: Big, yet not great

Cast: Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Jessie T Usher, Bill Pullman

Rated: 6/10

It’s much too familiar if you can jog back your memory to the 1996 original which came in to sweep you with its own version of alien invasion, albeit with a much smaller space ship and way lesser CGIs.

Independence Day: Resurgence plies you into a much, much bigger alien ship, a behemoth as big as 3,000 miles in diameter. Naturally then, the invasion and the design of destruction is much bigger too and that’s where the film scores most — its lifelike visuals of a queen bee alien throwing death in all directions, not to mention the energy it generates to steal the core of the Earth and end life on the planet.

The story, the characters, even the premise is much the same as the original version. So, in a way, it does breed familiarity but the grand scale on which it unfolds this much too similar story gives it back some punch.

Just when the American President is giving a salutary speech of return of peace to Mother Earth, a sinister force from an alien hive is seeking to take away life itself. Encased in a shield so strong that it is unbreachable, this queen bee is a force none in humanity has seen or imagined, not the delectable psychiatrist on a trail of unravelling alien signage, not the scientist doctor, not even “Mr President” who was the centre point of action in the last film.

A lot of officialese and big talk later, the great American solidarity pulls back from the brink and all is saved till the next invasion. The realism, sadly, goes missing alongside the Prez and the film, despite great designs and greater special effects, falls here and there in the campaign it stretches through territory that is not too unfamiliar and thus less scintillating.

But worth a watch nevertheless. 

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 26 June, 2016