INDEPENDENCE DAY RESURGENCE - It's Not That Bad!

[Monterey Jack]

Actually I always liked her best with the 80s hair!

Girls are 75% sexier with 80's hair.

[AndyDursin]

Just when I thought it was stunning there's been very little press for this INDEPENDENCE DAY sequel, along comes this article...looks like Sequelitis has another victim lined up.

“Independence Day: Resurgence” is not on the cover this week’s Entertainment Weekly, which just landed.

The stars of “Resurgence” are not all over the TV, appearing on “Ellen” or the “Tonight Show” or “Jimmy Kimmel,” showing clips.

In fact, there is dead silence surrounding the hugely expensive, highly anticipated sequel to the massive 1996 Roland Emmerich hit “Independence Day.”

That movie was released on July 3, 1996 to tie in with the actual Independence Day– July 4th weekend. This one is set for June 24th, very specifically NOT that tie in.

There have been no advance screenings, no press. There’s no press junket this weekend. My junketeer friends have received no information. There’s some kind of premiere on Monday in Los Angeles next week, a couple of days before the opening night in theaters. But nothing else is set for New York at all, and that is a bad bad sign.

But the cast did sneak into New York last week for stealth publicity: they rang the opening bell at the New York stock Exchange. They appeared in an AOL Build Speaker series, whatever that is. They were on Sirius XM Radio. On Friday, there was a premiere in Mexico City.

Shhhh. Don’t tell anyone, but “IDR” is coming. The cast must be wondering what’s going on. Or they know.

Maybe it’s a huge $200 million flop. But Fox should have counted on the good will of fans who’ve waited 20 years (like me) to see what happened. Alas, this much we do know: Will Smith passed on the script. Randy Quaid is MIA. Margaret Colin and Mary McDonnell didn’t return. Robert Loggia and James Rebhorn couldn’t return– they’re deceased. There’s a Hemsworth involved.

Fox is just coming off a disappointment with the latest “X Men” movie, which made $100 million less than the prior one domestically. Studio chief Jim Gianopolous is out the door and replaced by Stacey Snider (who should do great things). So if “IDR” is really really not good, they are downplaying it. But my guess is Gianopolous’s exit news, which came this week, is tied to “IDR” and its box office fate.

Or maybe it’s really really great– and we will all be pleasantly surprised. But there are also eleven — 11– writer credits. Five of them are for the screenplay!

PS What did Will Smith know that we didn’t know? The studio shot of Jeff Goldblum and Liam Hemsworth in space suits is worrisome. If they go into space to fight the aliens, the whole “ID4” vibe is altered. Of course, Will is no expert on space movies, as we know.

http://www.showbiz411.com/2016/06/18/in ... alth-press

[Monterey Jack]

"Highly anticipated" sequel...by whom, exactly? Unless you were twelve when it came out and it was your personal Star Wars, I can't think of anyone honestly anticipating this.

[DavidBanner]

No surprise, this.

Had they made a sequel in a normal amount of time, say by 2000, they might have been able to garner an audience. Now it's just an odd throwback. Oh well. Another 200 million dollar direct-to-video exercise.


BTW I believe it would be very difficult for Mary McDonnell to return for this movie, given that her character slightly died in the 1996 film. Granted, Brent Spiner's Okun is coming back, but who knows what science-ish malarkey they've come up with to explain that.

I also must seriously wonder why they recast Mae Whitman as Whitmore's daughter. She's still around and available. Interesting that Roland Emmerich decided she needed to audition for her part when she already had it. On the other hand, she may have been relieved to not be in it.

[AndyDursin]

11 writers is hilarious by any measure

I might go if this is bad just for the Trainwreck factor. Lol

[Monterey Jack]

I also must seriously wonder why they recast Mae Whitman as Whitmore's daughter. She's still around and available.

It's literally because she's not "hot enough". That's why they cast It Follows' Maika Monroe in the role instead. Shameful, but it's true.



Dammit, I think Whitman is pretty damn cute.

[AndyDursin]

Whitman has lots of charisma and personality too...but I'd also have liked to have seen Lisa Jakub come back.

119 minute running time -- Emmerich's shortest genre movie since, like, forever? (Or at least MOON 44 lol)

[AndyDursin]

Incredibly, a handful of reviews have emerged -- and they're mostly positive, citing the film as dumb fun. The big problem is the short running time and non-existent character development.

As spectacular as you’d hope from a sequel to the 1996 planet-toaster, and as amusingly cheesy. You’ll enjoy yourself enough that you won’t even miss Will Smith.

http://www.empireonline.com/movies/inde ... -2/review/

Weirdly, the only thing not extra-huge is the running time – and that’s where the problems arise. ‘Independence Day: Resurgence’ is crammed with pornographic destruction and madcap action, not to mention almost all the characters from the first movie (minus Will Smith) plus a heap of new ones – and it’s only two hours long. So it’s goodbye to proper character development and the slow-build tension that made the first film such a thrill, and hello to exposition delivered at double speed and a cop-out ending that makes absolutely no sense.

Which isn’t to say ‘Resurgence’ can’t be a lot of fun in short bursts. Emmerich’s glee is infectious as he trashes Big Ben but leaves the rebuilt White House standing, and there are few things on earth cooler than Jeff Goldblum exasperatedly explaining how doomed humanity is, again. But it’s all too much too fast, and the cumulative effect is like watching a two-hour trailer – more dizzying than thrilling.

http://www.timeout.com/london/film/inde ... resurgence

[Monterey Jack]

Sue me, but I'd rather watch a brisk, two-hour movie than the 150-minute bladder-burster that typifies the usual franchise sequel these days. You want the extra character development? Wait for the "director's cut" Blu-Ray where I can pause halfway through to take a pee.

[AndyDursin]

I do think if you have a movie crammed with that many people and 10 minutes of credits in that kind of a movie its likely not enough time to do anything with character development.

Most movies today to me do feel like 2 minute trailers extended to 2 hours. Pacing is an issue I often feel frequently and complain about.

The Conjuring 2 was perfectly paced IMO and really spent the right amount of time setting up the situation. I did not feel it was bloated or overlong at all. The first ID4 even with its faults did the same. Sounds like this one doesn't have that going for it but it looks like it might be fun regardless.

[BobaMike]

I agree Andy..pacing is a problem in most big movies. We just saw Finding Dory, and I felt the movie was very rushed. In Nemo, it took the whole movie to cross the ocean, yet they manage to do it in the first 10 minutes of the sequel. Then after that it was just one chase scene after another. Needed some more "down time".

[AndyDursin]

I agree Andy..pacing is a problem in most big movies. We just saw Finding Dory, and I felt the movie was very rushed. In Nemo, it took the whole movie to cross the ocean, yet they manage to do it in the first 10 minutes of the sequel. Then after that it was just one chase scene after another. Needed some more "down time".

That's how I felt too. The chases took up the whole 2nd half of the movie, maybe more (wasn't looking at my watch, I was looking at our son who did a good job staying interested!).

[AndyDursin]

Add another positive review into the mix...

This scattershot but frequently spectacular sequel sees Roland Emmerich reclaiming his title as the DeMille of global destruction.

We had 20 years to prepare… so did they,” states the tagline of “Independence Day: Resurgence,” a cheerfully ludicrous re-encounter of the third kind that doesn’t show any particular evidence of all that planning. Sketchily conceived in all departments but its sensational, more-is-more visual effects — which is, let’s be honest, where its efforts should be concentrated — this belated, cluttered sequel to the 1996 smash “Independence Day” breaks far less ground than its alien invaders, but confirms director Roland Emmerich as modern cinema’s most spirited conductor of popcorn chaos.

Perhaps excessively concerned with burnishing the supposed legacy of its predecessor — a distant memory, if that, for much of its target audience — this cinematic Big Mac entertains abundantly on its own second-hand merits. While unlikely to become the pop-cultural behemoth “ID4” was two decades ago, “Resurgence” should cast a sizeable shadow over its box-office competition.

http://variety.com/2016/film/reviews/in ... 201800114/

[AndyDursin]

I should say "cheerfully ludicrous" is right up my alley, of course.

[AndyDursin]

Front page review --

http://andyfilm.com/2016/06/23/6-28-16- ... -releases/

Decent fun, really nifty climax, some rocky elements early on and a number of useless character reprisals -- but also a big sense of humor and lightheartedness that serves it well. This is not a grim, dark "reboot," but a crowd-pleasing sequel that actually had some light applause at the end, along with liberal doses of David Arnold's original score.

It's not great, but I got my money's worth and felt satisfied.