After 20 years of dormancy of alien technology left on Earth after the events of Independence Day, the alien presence suddenly returns. It is a resurgence, if you will. There are far more specifics involved in the plot, I guess, but none of it really matters. This movie is about one thing and one thing only: awesome science fiction fight sequences.
We get this, eventually. Until then, it is mainly just boring exposition. Even after the inciting incident, we return to a lot of talk with little action. Multiple subplots weave together, some far more intriguing than others. The dead weight of the less interesting throughlines pad the runtime to an unnecessary extreme and flattens pacing to a standstill.
The action sequences we do get are fine. Not stellar, but fine. They are mainly comprised of souped up Space Invaders sound effects, copy and paste CG spaceships, and highly intensified editing to mirror intensity where it doesn’t exist.
Fine is the best way to describe the film. The action is fine. The acting performances from the likes of Jeff Goldblum, Liam Hemsworth, and Maika Monroe are fine. The script with its minor instances of passable humor is fine. The movie is fine. Merely fine. With a two hour runtime, fine is simply not good enough. For a sequel to one of the bigger blockbusters in American cinema history, fine is simply not good enough.
The Post-Script
Coming from someone who sees Independence Day for what (a fun popcorn film) and still doesn’t find it particularly appealing, Independence Day: Resurgence seemed from the get go as a non-starter. Still, I went in with no ill expectations and came out feeling that the entire experience was bland. Even if the brand name signals dumb fun and an overabundance of CG action scenes, Independence Day: Resurgence misses a lot of what made the original exciting.
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—Alex Brannan (@TheAlexBrannan)
CineFiles Movie Reviews 
The fights definitely are a lot of fun, but I agree that it is a little underwhelming aside from that. The writing is really not that good and a lot of the characters just come across as annoying. I know that we’re not supposed to focus on the plot holes here, but seriously, why did none of the Alien Queen’s minions try to help her while the heroes were blasting from all sides? The whole point of their tornado was to protect her so when the heroes came in from the sides, you’d think that they would have helped out a little.
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