20 years is a long time for a sequel, especially one based on what is perhaps one of the more iconic films in the nineties. The 1996 film Independence Day (ID4) made us of its American holiday namesake, as well as an exploding White House in its marketing, to drive it to the top of the box office charts for the year with $817 million worldwide, while helping to solidify its lead actor, Will Smith, as a bona fide global movie star. The original 1996 film, now eyed as a classic in the sci-fi genre, spawned out plenty of imitators with common themes: to FUCK EARTH UP destroy Earth with whichever disaster special effects could muster up, or the less delicately named - 'disaster porn'. 

Armageddon, Deep Impact, Cloverfield, War of the Worlds followed suit, and even ID4 director Roland Emmerich could not resist returning to the genre with the crazy-looking The Day After Tomorrow and the now silly-looking 2012. The sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence is being released in a marketplace already saturated in terms of city-leveling exploitation, with no landmark safe from the clutches of the Hollywood blockbuster, meaning this new installment needed to bring something new to the table. Most of the casts are back from the original, sans Will Smith, but with Emmerich, pioneer of disaster flicks returning, is this another defining entry in the alien invasion catalogue?

Resurgence kicks off 20 years post-ID4 in the present day of 2016... albeit one with space-aged military technology, harvested from the alien remains from the original, and moon drilling activities, where we are introduced to our new leads Jake Morrison (post-Hunger Games Liam Hemsworth) and Dylan Hiller (Jessie Usher), the step-son of the now deceased Will Smith character. This is but one of several interlining stories of Resurgence, where we are soon brought around to many different sides of the impending alien invasion, mostly as a plot device to reacquaint with characters from the original.  Jeff Goldblum returns as David Levinson and the man fits his role like a glove in one of his more well-known, and Goldblum-ish roles to date, making us wish that he returned to another reboot of a 90's sci-fi classic, and his line in the trailer "They like to get the landmarks" is a standout. However, Bill Pullman's ex-President character, despite responsible for THAT symbolic speech by the end of the original, is relegated into an unstable man suffering from alien hallucinations, while his involvement this time around feels muted. Brent Spiner's Dr Okun also returns, despite appearing to die in the original, in another subplot that feels unnecessary amidst a bigger, longer, uncut alien threat arriving on Earth.

What Resurgence tried to emulate was the converging storylines from the original, with characters from different walks of life (a pilot, a scientist, a POTUS) teaming up to take down the big threat, something which Michael Bay's first Transformers film tried and failed to do. Resurgence sadly feel into the latter's ball pit, as other than the story involving Goldlum and Hemsworth, the rest of the minor tales feel like deadwood which doesn't add anything to the already sprawling current narrative. These include an unwanted , surprisingly long segments featuring David's returning dad (who could pass off as Goldblum's dad by now) with the young girl from White House Down, and a shameless plug to build the franchise for further entries in the form of, wait for it, a white sphere. Also, in true Transformers fashion, comic relief characters are injected into this already bloated roster of characters in the form of an accountant with a African warlord who 'attacks from the back'.

With so many returning and unnecessary new additions, there's isn't much room to breath for the new kids on the block who actually matter. Hemsworth and Usher, whose characters coincidentally have links to everyone, bring little to the table, and mostly only serve as players in the backdrop in the fight to save the world, leaving these supposingly central characters feel like forgettable afterthoughts missing the charm brought by Will Smith 20 years ago. It's not entirely their fault however, as the way the film transitions from one story to another is jarringly distracting.

Right when Resurgence's story, or the action pieces start gaining traction, the film immediately sucks you right out with either the pointless comedy relief characters, or a boring subplot (Levinson's returning dad the prime suspect) that serves no purpose in what is supposed to be a straightforward action film of "Earth vs Aliens: Round 2". Many of the scenes felt anti-climatic, relying much on suspense to further prolong the film, while the promise of extended worldwide destruction this time out, sadly gets overlook as, right after a mass alien onslaught on the moon and on London, complete with collapsing Burj Khalifa and Twin Towers (as heavily advertised in the trailers), Resurgence soon realigns its core focus back onto American soil. Resurgence is also guilty for joining the ranks of Hollywood franchises bending over for the Chinese box office audiences, with the audition of Chin Han (a Singaporean however), Angelababy (whose sole purpose is to serve as a romantic interest) and an absurd, yet blatant Chinese product placement that reeks of Transformers: Age of Extinction, solely meant to attract audiences from the Middle Kingdom.

20 years after the original defined the sci-fi disaster/disaster porn genre, Resurgence unfortunately feels lost amidst the pile of pretenders trying to emulate its forefather. Compared to ID4, the only redeeming factor Resurgence has is its upgraded creature and special effects, which looked spectacular in that brief five minute segment of 'Earth plus moon' destruction. Even with favourites Goldblum and Pullman returning, Resurgence lacks the charisma brought out by Will Smith (who now inadvertently serves as the missing puzzle piece), and yet still heavily relied on past characters (those who bothered showing up anyway) to make Resurgence a mildly interesting affair, as the newer additions are heavily short-handed with such an excessive roster and an uninspiring characters. That, coupled with one plot arc too many and an unoriginal storyline makes the two decades for a sequel to the 1996 classic all the more unworthy. Perhaps the void left by the Fresh Prince is perhaps even deeper than the large hole he aliens drilled.