By Ian Bonham

Independence Day: Resurgence (12A)

Staring: Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman

Director: Roland Emmerich

Writers: Roland Emmerich, Dean Devlin, Nicholas Wright, James A. Woods, James Vanderbilt

Duration: 2 Hours

Now showing at Leisure Cinemas

It’s not an overstatement to say that the original “Independence Day” movie, which hit our cinemas 20 years ago this year, redefined the ‘popcorn movie’. Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin decided they wanted to do something huge on the big screen, and I mean really really huge! The script they came up with played fast and loose with H.G. Wells’s story “War of the Worlds”, even down to a virus stopping the aliens at the end (although in this case a computer virus!). However they delivered that story on a properly epic scale to cinema-goers, and go they did! Although the movie was beset with huge challenges, creating the effects required without the CGI of today’s standard, it grossed over $800m worldwide. That’s really no mean feat for a movie released 20 years ago, let alone one today even!

The rumours of a sequel have lurked ever since, spoken of in hushed tones by Sci-Fi geeks and Movie Reviewers alike. Could Emmerich and Co make lightning strike twice, and how could they top the epic scale of the original? Emmerich is not one to make sequels as a rule, and he’s been busy bringing us films such as “The Patriot”, “The Day After Tomorrow” and “2012”. There have been stories of a script that was stuck in development hell, visuals unachievable with the technology at the time, and general behind the scenes arguments. Also, as original hero Will Smith’s Hollywood star rose and rose, he started to become priced out of the equation. This is a big ensemble cast piece and if one name wants gazillions of $, the others will want a price hike too!

So, the new one: Resurgence. Nicely this film picks up its story 20 years after the original, in the same way Jurassic World did. Since we last saw the team children have grown up, the world is changed and rebuilding, and one other thing: the crashed alien spaceships of the last movie have been salvaged and studied, and the humans now have weapons to help them defend the Earth based on the alien tech that wrought so much destruction last time. This has given the digital art teams their first chance to play; helicopters with no rotors, new fighter jets with just sub-light speed engines, and a moon base. Visually it’s very pretty. Actually, no, it’s stunning. I watched the 3D conversion first time and it really is a scrumptious visual feast. Also, I tip my hat to the Sound FX teams here too as the audio is beautifully rendered with some lovely sounds.

We are introduced quite rapidly to the ensemble cast, old and new faces, quite rapidly. This is Ok with the ones we know, but the new ones can seem a little one-dimensional initially. I put this down to the speed pieces are being set on the board, but worry not, they get fleshed out as the movie progresses. Progress it does, at a rapid pace. Everyone in the movie is expecting the aliens to return and I think it’s not much of a spoiler to say they do. They are also really REALLY bloody angry this time!

After that opening 30 minutes is out the way, through the remaining 90 minutes Emmerich reminds us why he is the master of the ‘Popcorn Movie’ delivering a master-class that would leave Michael Bay feeling the heat. You really do get very little time to take a breath as he delivers set piece after set piece. You almost forget the script is a little hokey at times, and the dialogue a bit ropey, because your eyes (and ears) are being thoroughly assaulted by the next explosion. I was concerned the charm of the original would be lost a little here, where instead of blowing up physical models it was all CGI (sign of the times!). However Emmerich uses it so well to deliver some global destruction I found myself, almost, buying in to it. Also, after the quite heavy going ‘themes’ in action movies of recent times, Disney/Marvel and Warner/DC I’m looking at you, seeing stuff blowing up on screen just for the sheer fun of it was quite refreshing.

All in all, you have a cast who appear to be having a huge amount of fun, beautiful visuals, and wonderful sound. It’s completely silly, and thoroughly entertaining. The third act does seem to be cribbing slightly off another famous Sci-Fi movie, but that’s OK as the original nicked from “War of the Worlds” (See if you can guess which movie I’m thinking of…?). Unusually for me, I’d say this is one to see in 3D too, as the conversion is excellent. It is a little darker in themes than the original, and slightly less laugh out loud humour, but it works as a modern update of a 20 year old franchise.

Go along, grab some popcorn and Cola, and I think you’ll have a huge amount of fun!

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