10 Reasons Why ‘Independence Day: Resurgence’ Fails Fans of the Original Movie

With the 4th of July just passing by us in recent days, I thought it would be valid to look back at last year's Independence Day Resurgence and realize all the reasons why it failed to measure up to the beloved Sci-fi classic. Now when I went to watch Independence Day: Resurgence in the theaters, I had great hope. Finally, after so many years we would have the old crew and new blood fighting for our freedom, not against tyranny, oppression or persecution but annihilation. Unfortunately, the result was less than appreciable. Here are 10 reasons to hate the new Resurgence movie: While I know it had big shoes to fill, here's all the reasons why it failed to measure up:

1) They kill all the characters we love and no great leaders in those that remain.

President Whitmore that made the most amazing speech on the 4th of July? Martyr time. Will Smith? Dead. Will Smith’s wife? Dead. Joint chiefs? Dead. The old movie had a president in a leading role that defined the film, there is no president in a leading role in this film since she conveniently dies in the early part of the movie. So no great leaders here. Except maybe David but that’s a stretch to say the least. And the military general that comes off as a typical caricature of a tough no nonsense military general. He tries to make a great speech but it comes off as cliche and shallow, with no great meaning behind the words nor inspiration.

2) They have laser weapons now and hovercrafts, but no great air battle scenes.

Okay the great part of the previous movie was that humanity had to deal with a powerful force with only what they have available. All this movie had was weird laser weapons and aircraft with their wings upturned. And there is no scene in the air which really defines the movie. There is difficulty in even differentiating enemy and friendly craft too. Both shoot green lights now apparently. The aerial assault in the previous film was an epic one both times. But there is only one assault here and it sucks big time. It is limited in scope, they become an infiltrative group soon and the only new things are Death Star like cannons. The moon-base is a laughable one since they basically can't even get one shot in before it's destroyed.

3) Aliens are exactly the same. And it is a mistake.

When Dr. Oken opens up the alien armor to reach inside with the alien supposedly being dead there is fear and genuine horror when the small alien awakes. Now that we are in the 21st century, they should have updated the aliens' armour at least. Instead we get the same grotesque, plasticky aliens crawling and some aliens grasping weapons with hands instead of tentacles that actually look worst than the original movie. Plus the hive mother is just a regular alien dosed with an enlargement ray. I mean I love the old ones too but at least she could have been made a tiny wee bit more scary? Look at what they did with Alien Covenant or Prometheus for Pete's sake. Horrible movies but the CGI was good

4) The destruction of the ship was laughable and didn't happen. It conveniently went away.

Okay so the aliens didn’t learn the last time some weird humans smuggled aboard on an alien craft or even a mining craft decoyed to look like it had the sphere of God knows what knowledge. No, let’s just let it in without checking it for nuclear weapons or human signatures, surely they can’t fool us again right? And why in the world have we no human scanning technology yet after Will Smith conveniently barged in last time. Instead we send foot soldiers to look. For a bunch of interstellar traveling super advanced species, they are amazingly dumb. And apparently the hive mind means once the queen is dead, no matter how many powerful automated weapons you have the ships return home. No question.

5) Just what was that sphere anyway?

It looks like Marvin the paranoid android. It had no weapons to actually help the humans. It’s nearly destroyed by said primitive humans. Now I know they had alien technology but seriously how the fuck was this resistance fighting those aliens if they could not even fight the salvaged parts from them. How the hell are they any good of a resistance if they believe the hive mother can’t be defeated and the only thing they want is more refugees instead of actually sending in a small army to fight the hive mother and enlisting the humans.

6) How was the hive mother defeated anyway?

So fusion explosions don’t damage her bio-suit shield but plasma weapons do? From a single craft, no less? The amount of intelligence is astounding.

7) President Whitmore’s character is destroyed by this movie.

I really liked this guy in the last movie. I don’t like that they make him into some bearded hermit with psychic powers whose only usefulness is to martyr himself. I get that they were going for the whole veteran thing but seriously? Not to mention the fact that he's basically killed off to handover the story to the next generation. Whitmore saved the planet and is a hero of the last war. To make him this, is insulting.

Whitmore’s speech was iconic for my generation. This movie had no such great speech. Probably because it had no memorable characters. They keep playing his speech over and over in the movie maybe because at some level they knew that. They even got him to make another speech but unfortunately it lacked the luster and the hope and the feel of the original.

9) No good speeches.

You just had the entire eastern seaboard destroyed. They EMP blasted your entire defense network. And this was one hive ship. What the hell would you do against their home planet. Your entire moon-base took one shot out of them. A fleet of them could easily destroy you. Your pals got destroyed by repurposed technology so I doubt their weapons will do anything for you. Only Mary Sue solutions will help you so very little hope for the next movie.

10) Overall, it was a very forgettable movie.

I guess my greatest beef with this film is that it's not different. Independence Day stood out because it didn't fail to experiment and try new things. I guess a problem this movie faces is that it came out 20 years later. With such big blockbuster action Sci-fi franchises and Fantasy ones such as Star Trek, Star Wars and MCU the novelty of the approach they have taken has worn off. You can bring all the old characters and actors you want but nostalgia can only get you so far. And that is why this film fails.