And when it comes down to it, Will Smith is barely missed much at all.Ģ0 years later, Emmerich still finds a way to bring a similar sense of patriotism and “us against them” mentality that helped make the original movie so popular among Americans, although one character’s call to arm all civilians against the alien threat hits a little too close to home. Actors like Jeff Goldblum and Judd Hirsch have clearly gotten more in touch with what makes them so enjoyable on screen since their previous work with Emmerich, and they bring so much more to their characters with that added experience. Travis Tope’s Charlie offers some of the comic relief among the pilots with his amorous aspirations towards Angelababy as China’s pilot Rain.Īs much as Emmerich manages to instill new life into his original alien invasion idea with new characters, it’s seeing the original cast twenty years later that’s fun in a similar way as The Barbarian Invasionsor Richard Linklater’s Beforeseries. President Lanford and Deobia Oparei ( Game of Thrones) as an African warlord who joins the fight on the ground. Other fun new characters include Sela Ward as U.S. Newcomer Jessie Usher is fine as Dylan Hiller, the son of Will Smith’s character without deliberately trying to be as key to the fight as his father was.
Rugged Hunger Games vet Liam Hemsworth does a fine job filling in some of the vacuum as pilot Jake Morrison, while Maika Monroe ( It Follows) is given more to do as his girlfriend then just being “the pilot’s girlfriend.” She plays Patricia Whitmore, a former pilot herself as well daughter to former President Whitmore (Bill Pullman’s character from the original movie) who is also back looking worse for wear. But more importantly, most of your favorites from the first movie are back-other than Will Smith, whose character has died “during a test flight” and there’s enough connection between the new, younger characters and the established ones for it to make some sense. Brakish Okun (Brent Spiner), who has been in a coma since the previous invasion, comes out of it just in time to have visions of the aliens’ return.ĭuring the first 20 minutes, there are a lot of new characters introduced quite quickly (maybe too many). David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), now director of Earth’s Space Defense program, travels to Africa to examine one of the alien motherships that crashed there and has suddenly gone back online. This includes a Space Defense Base that’s been built on the moon (and possibly on other planets) to keep an eye out for possible alien invasions.Īs the world is preparing to celebrate the 20th anniversary of fending off the aliens in the first movie, some of those originally involved are already getting worrying signs of an alien return. Where the original Independence Day was very much a “What If?” story, its sequel is just as much about “What Next?” In other words, what would the world look like 20 years after that disastrous alien invasion that killed millions? We learn pretty quickly that the leaders of earth have embraced the alien technology in order to prepare for another possible alien invasion. It quickly became one of the precursors for the modern summer blockbuster with filmmakers like Michael Bay building upon that successful formula Emmerich created. Twenty years ago, director Roland Emmerich and his producing partner Dean Devlin showed what might happen if aliens invaded the earth with their mega-hit Independence Day.