Independence day resurgence - non spoiler

[mr friendly guy]

Otherwise known as Humanity, fuck yeah.

I saw a review on an Australian newsite about it being so 90s. I am not exactly sure what they meant unless they meant reusing some of the same formulaes, like the President giving a rousing speech like Bill Pullman's speech etc. As someone who enjoyed the presidents speech back in the 90s I would say enjoy this as a popcorn movie.

[darth_timon]

I rather enjoyed it. It wasn't as good as the first one (it didn't feel epic enough, for lack of a better description), and some of the acting felt very flat, but it was enjoyable.

[mr friendly guy]

If enough people watch it they plan a sequel but this time we will have humanity going out into the stars. In many ways this reminds me of the Robotech saga, in the sense humanity unites when evidence shows the aliens exist. We then gain enough tech to take the war to the aliens. They certainly set it up right.

So moral of the story.. sci fi tropes work go see the movie.

[Joun_Lord]

Is it quite so America Fuck Yeah as the first or is it a bit more a worldwide affair?

Because I love America as much as the next guy or gal or damn dirty Martian taking our jerbs but even I think the jacking off of America was a bit over the top in the first movie. I'd like to see more of a global conflict rather then America doing everything and everyone else just waiting for the Yanks to show them the way.

[mr friendly guy]

Is it quite so America Fuck Yeah as the first or is it a bit more a worldwide affair?

Because I love America as much as the next guy or gal or damn dirty Martian taking our jerbs but even I think the jacking off of America was a bit over the top in the first movie. I'd like to see more of a global conflict rather then America doing everything and everyone else just waiting for the Yanks to show them the way.

I would say its more of a humanity fuck yeah. Although to be fair, all we see is American and Chinese pilots in a multi nation alliance, but we do have British, French characters and African badass alien killers. I mean the alien ground troops are more than a match for regular American secret service, but no match for the African alien killer armed with katanna's, you just know this an example where the "rule of cool" outweighs the "rule of reality." But fuck, its cool. Although katanna's are swung not stabbed. Minor nitpick.

We also see the security council at work, so we get to see Russia, France etc. But in a homage to Bill Pullman's speech which was "America + the rest of the world" fuck the aliens, the speech from the president this time was more "the whole world, lets combine" and fuck the aliens. In any event, the speech struck the right chords with me. I might consider getting the blue ray when it comes out.

[The Romulan Republic]

Is this better/smarter than the original film?

I'm trying to decide weather this is worth paying ten bucks to see in theatres on my limited budget?

[mr friendly guy]

I personally feel its better than the first film, but that depends on what you like about the first film.

The alien destruction of our landmarks particular the destruction of the White House was a feature of the first film. While the special effects was better I don't get the feeling that they focused so much on that this time round.

There is less America fuck yeah, and a somewhat more humanity combined feel. Granted its still American centric, but I think they pushed the right buttons to give the impression it was the whole world uniting against the aliens.

Oh, and we don't use a computer virus to win this time.

I am not going to make a recommendation to someone with a limited budget in case you don't enjoy it. I can only describe without spoiling it what I thought about certain aspects of it.

[Terralthra]

Saw it with friends. Wasn't impressed. Movie lacked the epic feeling of the first, among many other terrible things about it. It was fun to see it with friends where we all laughed at it together.

And they weren't katanas. An idiot called them katanas. They weren't, and very clearly not.

[mr friendly guy]

Saw it with friends. Wasn't impressed. Movie lacked the epic feeling of the first, among many other terrible things about it. It was fun to see it with friends where we all laughed at it together.

And they weren't katanas. An idiot called them katanas. They weren't, and very clearly not.

I must admit I didn't get a good view of the swords. I just heard the British character call it katannas. Hopefully it wasn't, because katannas are meant to be swung, not used in a stabbing motion.

[NecronLord]

They're actually designed with stabbing as a secondary function; kenjutsu modern katana based martial arts have stabbing techniques. There's enough historical variation in Katanas to make some better than others at this. I've not seen the film but if they're fighting armoured enemies (like Locusts in biosuits?) then that would be a sensible approach.

I can't imagine any human winning in melee combat with a locust that hasn't just been through a plane crash though. Could you spoiler-tag me the details?

[Terralthra]

Saw it with friends. Wasn't impressed. Movie lacked the epic feeling of the first, among many other terrible things about it. It was fun to see it with friends where we all laughed at it together.

And they weren't katanas. An idiot called them katanas. They weren't, and very clearly not.

I must admit I didn't get a good view of the swords. I just heard the British character call it katannas. Hopefully it wasn't, because katannas are meant to be swung, not used in a stabbing motion.

Sure, but Floyd is depicted through the entire movie as incompetent. I doubt their intention was that he know what kind of sword it was other than "katana sounds badass".

Not for nothing, though, but there are plenty of thrusting maneuvers in various sword arts (iajutsu, kenjutsu) practiced with a katana. It may have been optimized for draw slashes, but the tip is still sharpened and the spine of the blade strong.

[J Ryan]

They're actually designed with stabbing as a secondary function; kenjutsu modern katana based martial arts have stabbing techniques. There's enough historical variation in Katanas to make some better than others at this. I've not seen the film but if they're fighting armoured enemies (like Locusts in biosuits?) then that would be a sensible approach.

I can't imagine any human winning in melee combat with a locust that hasn't just been through a plane crash though. Could you spoiler-tag me the details?

Spoiler

The swords (not an expert so can't tell you what they actually are) are used to pierce a specific place on the back of the Bio suit equivilant of the top of the spine. This is a character who is shown to have been fighting alien tenements in Africa for years and when asked how do you take them down his response is the hard bit is to get behind them. Once the Bio suit is disabled the alien tries to crawl out and is stabbed straight through the head. I think he also used them to chop some tenticles in a later scene.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

Your spoiler tag's broken, J Ryan. Might want to try re-posting it, without the quote.

[Lost Soal]

Spoiler

The guy is armed with twin machetes. After years of this african nation fighting a ground war against the aliens they have discovered that the suits have a weak spot on the back, where the tentacles are attached.

[NecronLord]

Seen it, loathed it. Those are indeed not katanas though, that Floyd character was meant to be a nit I think.

[Lost Soal]

So anyone who's seen 2012, did they just take the escape from the collapsing city in a plane scene and replace the bits and pieces with the ID scenes?

[Black Admiral]

Not long back from watching it, and I'm rating it a fairly solid 7/10. It delivered pretty much exactly what I expected it to, but it did it with a great deal of enthusiasm and heart, and I admit to being a massive sucker for how cool the hybrid fighters ESD uses look.

[JamesStaley]

I'm back from it and I thought IT ROCKED! I think it has the potential to be the top-grossing movie of the year, if not one of the top-grossing movies of all time.
It is a pure escapist, popcorn fantasty movie, so don't expect shakespear, but you should have a good time with it.
Just a note.....look how far we've come with workpod-drones since 2001" A Space Odyessy. That was one thing I really like about the movie.....the way the "arms" fold to become the landing gear. I need a model of one!
James Staley

[DaZergRock54444]

The pacing of the film disappointed me, I enjoyed it, but there were some parts that just didn't do it for me. Though the final fight was pretty cool.

[amigocabal]

This movie has the themwe of humanity uniting against a common threat.
Spoiler

The ending shows that humanity will unite with the remnants of interstellar civilization against a common threat.

[Terralthra]

I'm back from it and I thought IT ROCKED! I think it has the potential to be the top-grossing movie of the year, if not one of the top-grossing movies of all time.
It is a pure escapist, popcorn fantasty movie, so don't expect shakespear, but you should have a good time with it.
Just a note.....look how far we've come with workpod-drones since 2001" A Space Odyessy. That was one thing I really like about the movie.....the way the "arms" fold to become the landing gear. I need a model of one!
James Staley

It got beat on its opening weekend by Finding Dory's second week open. I don't think setting records is in the cards.

[Guardsman Bass]

I'd go with 7/10. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't superbly edited in the way that the first Independence Day film was and didn't feel as epic. Part of that is simply because they're telling the same basic story all over again, albeit in a way that broadens the conflict to interstellar scale. You can't really make the same movie over again and expect it to have the same impact, although as far as "spiritually retreating the first movie" sequels go this was one of the best.

The characters also left a bit to be desired, although they weren't bad. None of them had the fantastic cast chemistry of the characters from the first one. It was nice that they broadened it, though, to emphasize the planet-wide connection (including with the Chinese pilot, who I think is some type of Chinese pop star IRL).

The effects looked fantastic, though. And while the whole movie felt incredibly brief (seriously, how much time actually passed in the whole movie's storyline - 12 hours?), it still felt pretty big even if it wasn't as epic as the first one. Roland Emmerich is still a great director when it comes to massive disaster movies.
Spoiler

1. I'm pretty bummed that we didn't get more battle scenes in space, considering all the emphasis on how much Earth has put into off-planet defenses. Who wouldn't have wanted to see an epic battle around goddamn Saturn? Instead the action mostly happens on Earth, where it can't help but be compared to ID4 and fall short.

2. I think I still prefer the version of the Harvesters from the first film (and film novelization), where it's outright stated that their entire civilization moves from world to world in a single hive ship consuming resources unsustainably until the planets are exhausted and it's time to move on. They were almost like a perverse reflection of humanity's worst environmental tendencies turned up to eleven and with roving space colonization added. But this is still good, and it opens the door for a much bigger Space Opera-esque movie if this film makes enough money to justify it (it's not doing so well in the US box office, but better abroad - and while the $165 million budget is big, it's vastly less than the most expensive Marvel movies).

3. It's not that the characters were bad, but they're totally unmemorable aside from Machete Warlord and the carry-over characters from ID4 - who are only memorable because of ID4. Not a lot of great chemistry between them, not like the fantastically fun duo of Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith from ID4. That's a problem, because a big part of ID4's enduring charm was how the insanely archetypal characters were still vibrant and good to see over again.

4. The Queen was kind of cool-looking, even if she's just a magic Plot Button to end the conflict in the way the computer virus was (although the virus thing never bothered me as much as some).

[Elheru Aran]

I thought these pictures might be illuminating...





Yes, the Harvester mothership is bigger than the fucking Moon.

[Dass.Kapital]

I thought these pictures might be illuminating...





Yes, the Harvester mothership is bigger than the fucking Moon.

Well.. the diameter, yes.

In 'thickness'/'depth' it's not that large.. For a given definition of 'large'.....

I just found the tactics, as depicted, rather.. lackluster?

"Okay every one... fly right at it!"

Um.. okay? Still.. the budget for the movie can only be so big.

[SAAA]

Decisively a worthy summer Blockbuster. To be honest there are some flaws, prevalentely on the acting (especially the younger guys) and some missteps in the pacing (also it really felt short?) but... nothing really made me cringe.
The too much CGI syndrome is almost bearable here due to the quality of it and well the fact that there's no other choice with this plot.
Golfblum was ok but he needed Smith soo bad. There's just him here stealing the show, like Han in SW7.

That motherships tough... well Roland pushes things to the extreme once again.

I thought these pictures might be illuminating...





Yes, the Harvester mothership is bigger than the fucking Moon.

Larger sure, also If it has the same density of the first mothership (that massed a fourt of the moon) we are looking at a planetary mass here, something like Mars moving that close near earth... wow. Aliens have such amazing tech yet fail once again!