It’s been 20 years since the War of 1996, when the Earth banded together to fight off an unprecedented alien attack. Over the past two decades humans have reverse-engineered the alien technology that was left behind, utilizing it for some amazing advancements, both technological and social. The United Nations established the Earth Space Defense organization to help prepare the planet to defend itself when the aliens inevitably return. Under the supervision of ESD Director David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), the world-wide organization monitors alien activity from both a base on the moon as well as its headquarters at Area 51 in Nevada. As the Earth prepares to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its victory, David Levinson heads to Africa to meet with Dr. Catherine Marceaux (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and warlord Dikembe Umbutu (Deobia Oparei), who show him an alien destroyer that had suddenly come back online after 20 years. They soon learn that the ship had sent a distress signal back to its home planet in 1996. Back in the US, the captured aliens start to wake up and rattle their cells, Dr. Brackish Okun (Brent Spiner) awakes from his 20-year coma, and he and the others who had made physical contact with the aliens 20 years ago start hearing high-pitched, ear-piercing noises and having strange visions. Then a wormhole opens in space and a strange spherical ship makes its way towards the moon base.
Former President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman) appears to be a shell of that man who gave the rousing speech that united the world for battle in 1996. Over the past 20 years he has constantly worried about the day the aliens would return, and this has driven him a little crazy. His daughter Patricia (Maika Monroe) served as a pilot in the ESD before taking a job as an aide/speechwriter for current President Elizabeth Lanford (Sela Ward). She is now engaged to ESD pilot Lieutenant Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth). Jake has a bit of wild side, and was put on Tug duty after nearly killing fellow pilot Dylan Dubrow-Hiller (Jessie Usher) during a training mission. Dylan is the step-son of deceased war hero Steven Hiller (played by Will Smith in the first film), and has some big shoes to fill. His mother Jasmine (Vivica A. Fox) is long past her stripping days and is now a hospital administrator.
As the anniversary celebration on the US capitol commences, the aliens make their presence known—in a ginormous ship over 3000 miles in diameter. And so it’s once again all hands on deck as mankind must do battle with the aliens and protect the planet.
Independence Day: Resurgence follows a similar recipe to the original film, mixing character drama and intersecting stories along with spectacular action and battle sequences. There are a lot of different character stories going on at once—there is a lot of animosity between Jake and Dylan since the near-death flight training incident; Jake’s best friend Charlie Miller (Travis Tope) is in love with fellow pilot Rain Lao (Angelababy), niece of the moon base commanding officer Jiang La (Ng Chin Han); David and his father Juius (Judd Hirsch) had a bit of a falling out and haven’t talked to one another in a long time, and once the battle begins, Julius tries to get back to his son (much like Jasmine’s storyline in the first film); and Patricia had given up a bit of her own career to be with her father during his struggles, and is now also dealing with having fiance Jake on the front lines of the battle. Similar to the first film, there are also several other side stories involving the people these characters interact with on their journey towards ultimately coming together for the final battle. I really enjoyed Brent Spiner’s extended role in this sequel—he and Jeff Goldblum add a lot of levity to the film.
This sequel also contains some amazing action sequences that mirror the original film—the initial alien saucer attacking the Earth, a large-scale aviation battle, and a trip inside an alien ship—but also adds a lot of outer-space action as well. All of this culminates in a really impressive, large-scale final showdown. Independence Day: Resurgence had the daunting task of following up an amazing masterpiece of a film. As a huge fan of the original, I really wanted to love this sequel, and while it does a lot of things right—it brings back characters we loved, introduces some interesting new characters, and contains some great action sequences—it ultimately falls short of recapturing the magic of the original. Even General Adams’ (William Fichtner) rallying speech doesn’t come close to the president’s iconic speech from the first film (though that would be a nearly-impossible task). This second film felt more like a retread rather than something original, and maybe had too many stories all happening all at once.
As for the technical presentation of the Blu-ray, it’s excellent. The picture looks sharp and detailed and captures all of the action and explosions beautifully. When the film first opens, there is a shot of a futuristic helicopter flying across the screen. This looked a bit flat on the 3D version of the film, and I was nervous that this was a sign of things to come. However, the good news is that the 3D looks a lot better throughout the rest of the film. The 3D is primarily used to add a nice sense of depth and dimension to most scenes, especially those that take place on the moon, the sky battle sequence, and the final showdown. There was also a nearly pop-out moment in a scene where the captive aliens try to break out of the Area 51 observing room. The audio track on the Blu-ray sounds amazing—there is great use of the subwoofer to add punches of excitement to the action sequences, and all of the surround and stereo channels are used nicely to add dimension to the audio and give a fully-immersive experience. This is especially evident in the scenes where those who have had contact with the aliens start hearing sounds in their heads, and as space debris hits the ship our main characters are flying.
The Blu-ray also contains an excellent selection of bonus material, the most entertaining of which is an extensive 55-minute look at the making of the film. Also included are a director’s commentary, 8 minutes of deleted scenes, a fake special news report, a fake morning show segment, a gag reel, concept art galleries, and trailers. The discs come housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase along with a digital copy code insert, and this is placed inside a non-lenticular slipcover.
What’s Included:
Film: (1:59:44)
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Blu-ray 3D:
- 1080p / Widescreen 2.39:1
- Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, English Descriptive Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1, Russian DTS 5.1, Ukrainian Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Ukranian
- 1080p / Widescreen 2.39:1
- Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, English Descriptive Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1, Russian DTS 5.1, Turkish Dolby Digital 5.1, Ukrainian Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Portuguese (Brasil), Russian, Swedish, Arabic, Estonian, Hebrew, Icelandic, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Turkish, Ukranian
- Digital HD copy redeemable via iTunes, Google Play, or Vudu (UltraViolet)
- Deleted Scenes (8:24)
Eight deleted scenes with optional audio commentary by Roland Emmerich. The scenes aren’t fully-finished in regards to effects and color-balancing, so the director gives explains some of the behind-the-scenes movie magic evident in the scenes and the reason why each scene was ultimately cut. Play All or select from “Alternate Opening”, “Bus Stop”, “White House Destruction”, “Charlie Asks Rain Out”, “Roadside Conversation”, “Queen’s Chamber”, “President Lanford’s Death”, and “Catherine’s Goodbye”. - The War of 1996 (5:11)
In this United World News (UWN) Special Report, journalist George Ropata reminds viewers of the events of 1996 and the Earth’s unification, and technology and defense system. He interviews David Levinson and Commander Jiang Lao about the Earth’s moon base defense system, and Captain Dylan Hiller, Lieutenant Rain Lao and pilot Jake Morrison about the Earth’s united army. - It’s Early ABQ! (3:07)
Morning show host Terry Dudley (Fred Armisen) interviews Julius Levinson about his book “How I Saved The World”, but when David Levinson shows up on set, things go awry. - Another Day: The Making of Independence Day: Resurgence (55:25)
A four-part look at the making of the film. Includes lots of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with director/producer/writer Roland Emmerich, producer/writer Dean Devlin, producer/composer Harald Kloser, co-producer/visual effects supervisor Volker Engel, production designer Barry Chusid, executive producers Larry Franco & Carsten Lorenz, art directors Ron Mendell, Christa Munro & Clint Wallace, special effects artist Allen Pike, general foreman Joe Montenegro, director of photography Markus Förderer, and actors Jessie Usher (“Dylan Hiller”), Judd Hirsch (“Julius Levinson”), William Fichtner (“General Adams”), Bill Pullman (“President Whitmore”), Jeff Goldblum (“David Levinson”), Brent Spiner (“Dr. Okun”), Vivica A. Fox (“Jasmine Hiller”), Liam Hemsworth (“Jake Morrison”), Maika Monroe (“Patricia Whitmore”), DeObia Oparei (“Dikembe”), Nicholas Wright (“Floyd Rosenberg”/writer) & Charlotte Gainsbourg (“Catherine”). Play All or select from:- A New Squadron (17:41)
The cast and filmmakers talk about bringing back the characters from the original film, returning for the sequel, and handing things off to the next generation of characters. - Earth As We Know It (18:03)
The cast and filmmakers talk about how humans have utilized alien technology over the 20 years since the original attack. Also includes a look at some of practical effects of the film, from the original concept art to building the full scale Moon Tug and hybrid jet fighter, and the Moon Base and Area 51 sets. - The Tools of the Future (6:40)
The filmmakers talk about how they pushed the boundaries further in this second film, utilizing the advancements in digital technology from the past twenty years. The cast talk about shooting on the blue screen sets. - The Invaders (13:15)
The cast and filmmakers talk about the arrival of the sphere, the landing of the mothership, the alien fighters, the three different alien creatures, and the big chase across the Salt Flats.
- A New Squadron (17:41)
- Gag Reel (6:14)
The cast has a lot of fun on set—particularly entertaining are numerous scenes of a young actress trying to wrangle a dog, and lots of fun improv with Jeff Goldblum. - Audio Commentary by Roland Emmerich (1:59:44)
While the director often speaks in a very monotone voice, his commentary provides some interesting production stories and explanations about what’s happening on screen, what was changed as the production went along, and more. Subtitles provided in English, Spanish, French, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Russian, Swedish and Korean. - Concept Art
A collection of photo galleries. Each slideshow can be stepped through manually, or allowed to auto advance every 5 seconds. Select from:- Aliens – 69 photos (5:48)
- AI – 8 photos (:43)
- Humans – 35 photos (2:58)
- Locations – 18 photos (1:33)
- Original Presentation Images – 17 photos (1:28)
- Theatrical Trailers (5:18)
Play All or select from “Theatrical Trailer 1”, “Theatrical Trailer 2” and “TV Spot”. - Sneak Peek (9:16)
Play All or select from trailers for “Discover Digital HD”, Assassin’s Creed, Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, Independence Day: Resurgence – Battle Heroes Mobile Game Trailer.
Blu-ray:
Digital HD (Redemption Deadline 10/18/2019):
Extras:
Only available on the 2D Blu-ray disc
Final Thoughts:
Independence Day: Resurgence had the daunting task of following up a classic, revered film. And while I don’t think it totally succeeds at this, it does provide a fun revisit to the characters and world set up by the original film, and prvides soem pretty amazing action sequences. The film looks and sounds excellent—the 3D starts off a bit iffy, but fortunately the opening scene is the exception, and there ends up being a nice sense of depth throughout the rest of the film. The Blu-ray contains an entertaining selection of bonus material as well as a digital copy of the film. I think the film is worth checking out for fans of the original movie, but with tempered expectations.
