Independence Day: Resurgence

As everyone knows, Independence Day: Resurgence, is a sequel to the original Independence Day, which came out 20 years ago. Most of the characters who survived the original are back. The one exception is Will Smith. I guess he didn't want to do it. He cannot really be replaced, and there is no way to replace Randy Quaid, who turned out to be just like his character in Independence Day in real life. The plot of the new movie is almost identical to the original. The Aliens are coming back to destroy the Earth and Earth isn't ready. Like in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, people are having dreams where they see a round shape with a slash through it. So added to the cast is Charlotte Gainsborough as a sort of Robert Langdon Symbologist. I'm not sure why she is there, but it's nice to see her. She's wonderful, but usually makes arty foreign films. I hope she made some money. Robert Loggia, who was perhaps the best thing in the original Independence Day died recently, but has been inserted by CGI into one scene as a tribute. He is missed. 

The President is now a woman (Sela Ward), but the ex-president (Bill Pullman) is still around, and tries to channel his inner Randy Quaid. The crazy scientist at Area 51, played by the wonderful and crazy Brent Spiner, has been in a coma for 20 years but wakes up just in time. Jeff Goldblum is now a respected Alien expert, but his father (Judd Hirsch) is still insufferable. Will Smith is gone, but is represented by his now grown up son (Jessie T. Usher) a hot-shot pilot, and Viveca Fox returns as the boy's mother. Two other young pilots, one Pullman's daughter (Maika Monroe) and Gale from Hunger Games (Liam Hemsworth) make up a love/hate triangle. 

The original Independence Day is a classic not because it is a great film, but because it falls in the category of a bad film that somehow rises above the material to make a very entertaining movie. The sequel is fun too, but Spiner and Pullman cannot make up for the crazy out-there performances by Smith, Loggia, and Quaid in the original. And what's wrong with Jeff Goldblum? He almost seems like a normal person in Independence Day: Resurgence. What's with that?