Directed by Roland Emmerich
Written by Nicolas Wright, James A Woods, Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, James Vanderbilt, Carter Blanchard.
Jeff Goldblum, Liam Hemsworth, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch, Brett Spiner, Maika Monroe, Jessie T Usher, Travis Tope, William Fichtner, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Sela Ward, Angelababy, DeObia Oparei, Nicolas Wright, Joey King, Vivica A Fox, Robert Loggia.
Twenty years after the first attack on Earth, and we are now an advanced civilization, having used the alien technology for better. There has also been peace on Earth since the attack as well. When a new and larger ship enters Earths atmosphere, it is up to human kind to try to save the day once more.
With only a select few returning for this enstallment such as Goldblum, now the director of Earth Space Defense, Pullman is now a broken man and former President. Will Smith was rejected of an enormous salary demand. Hirsch is also back as David’s dad, and Fox is back as Smith’s widow Jasmine – now a chief of staff at a hospital.
This movie is half an hour shorter that its predecessor, but it is a struggle to get through, with the primary action taking almost an hour to get going. The destruction scenes are somewhat underwhelming as well, as they seem to completely rely on CGI this time. The first film’s action was so fantastic because it utalised practical effects as well as CGI, and that honest filmmaking feels lost here.
There were also a few re-casts – primarily Monroe taking over the role of the still working Mae Whitman. Usher took over the role of Dylan from the apparently(?) retired Ross Bagley.
Some of the acting is wooden and lifeless, and painful to watch. With no real “lead” star, all the performers are more of an ensemble, and the script is lacking any definitive direction.
The plot starts off fine (new attack) but then it just falls apart in the 2nd act when an even more frustrating element to the story is added. To add insult to injury, this leads to an extremely arrogant (and so far unfulfilled) set up for a sequel. There were six people responsible for this screenplay, so maybe less is more?
Smith was lucky he missed out on this.
1.5/5
Featured Image courtesy of Google Images.
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