Independence day: Resurgence a bloated mess

CEBU, Philippines - It’s been 20 years since “Independence Day” blew up the White House and blazed new trails with blockbuster records. Now, the franchise is back with “Independence Day: Resurgence.”

Obviously, audiences will not be asking if it is bigger, louder or a better showcase than its predecessor for state-of-the-art visual effects. No one really wants to know if most of the old cast that could be persuaded to come back have signed on again, and whether they are joined by a younger generation of actors. And surely only a fool would query whether the new entry is full of ludicrous science, jokes that demonstrate it doesn’t take itself seriously and world monuments being turned to sand-grain-fine rubble. Because the answer to all those questions is, duh, of course.

Surely, the only real questions anyone wants to know at this stage are just how many squillions will it end up making worldwide and is there a scene where a dog is saved at the last minute from immolation and flying debris. The answer to that last question is also, duh, of course.

In the endless rinse-and-repeat cycles of contemporary sci-fi-inflected movies, set-pieces that “ID4” helped popularize in the first place, and which its sequel reprises, look a little stale here because they have already been ripped off and rejigged countless times. Monument destruction, for example, is taken to heroic new heights in “Resurgence” as Malaysia’s Petronas towers are carried halfway around the world to send London’s Tower Bridge falling down.

The main thing filmgoers will be looking for from “Resurgence” is bang-for-buck entertainment, and that it delivers successfully. Although the 120-minute running time sometimes feels draggier than its predecessor’s 145-minute sprawl, returning writer-director-producer Roland Emmerich’s knack for the pomp of vast-scaled destruction, fist-pumping moments of triumph and jocularity remains undiminished.

Huge, leggy insectoid queens are at the center of the sequel. It’s 20 years on from the events of the first film, and on an alternative version of Earth there are hover planes using anti-gravity gizmo, observatories and defense systems on the moon, while a Hillary Clinton-like woman serves as US president (Sela Ward).

Even though the upside of the last alien invasion is that we’ve had 20 years of peaceful coexistence and no war, it would seem that America is still top dog because it’s Madam President who gets the deciding vote as to whether to shoot a new alien spacecraft when it appears on the horizon. At least she gives the order with a heavy heart, even though chief alien detection expert David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) advises against destroying the newcomer because it doesn’t look like it was made by the same alien race. Turns out he’s right: There is a third set of ETs floating about, which take the form of shiny white levitating orbs. They look like Eve in Pixar’s WALL-E crossed with a giant volleyball, but with the voice of a teen girl. (She calls our civilization “primitive” because we still have bodies.)

The action toggles regularly back and forth between various locales in inner and outer space. Along with Goldblum’s Levinson, returning characters include now former President Whitmore (Bill Pullman), who’s suffering from Alien Residual Condition, a kind of post-traumatic syndrome but with telepathic torment.

Like others who had close encounters with the invaders the first time around — Spiner’s long-haired boffin Brakish Okun, African warlord Dikembe (Deobia Oparei) — Whitmore has dreams and visions of a symbol as the aliens approach. According to his ESP early warning system, this time around the returning aliens are bringing their queen. And she’s pissed.

Ready to take her on is a new generation of feisty, trigger-happy young’uns, including war orphan turned hotshot pilot Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth), who’s engaged to Whitmore’s all-grown-up daughter Patricia (Maika Monroe), a soldier in her own right. Both are friends with Dylan Hiller (Jessie T. Usher), the son of Will Smith’s character from  “ID4.” He apparently perished in a test flight years before, which heroically covers up Smith’s absence from the cast.

There’s barely time to work in Dylan’s mother (Vivica A. Fox) before she must suffer a fate like so many others on the planet. But at least she got to be a doctor, an improvement over her stripper job in the first film.

The female characters get slightly better positions and plotlines this time round, what with the female president, lady fighter pilots — not just Patricia but also Angelababy’s top girl gun Rain from China; and Charlotte Gainsbourg is on hand as a psychiatrist love interest for Goldblum’s Levinson.

In any case, few will come seeking a politically correct representation of a utopian future. The whole point of this franchise is watching a lot of alien butt get kicked, and their slimy tushes are truly whopped here in gloriously rendered, hyper-realistic detail. Emmerich and his visual effects teams pull out all the stops, and there’s a glorious beauty in never-ending shots of spaceships landing and mayhem being wreaked. But for all that massy weightiness, it is to the film’s credit that it always takes time to reassure us of the safety of a little dog.  (FREEMAN)