What I liked: I liked that we got to use the last 20 years to coopt all of the alien technology to advance our own civilization. I like that even though apparently we now have cold fusion driven vehicles and weaponry all of the designs are exactly the same: spaceships? F-15s, helicopters? Helicopters without blades, telephones? Wireless handsets. Why redesign things when you can just pop new technology into the existing chasis? I liked that the hope for the universe is a sphero. I liked that they had a better plan this time: instead of just sending fighters in we will send in fighters AND bombers. Ok, it’s not that much better but at least we’re using more of our resources. I liked that we got to see more of what the rest of the planet was doing about aliens this time (I know it’s Independence day but I feel like other people might have a vested interest) I liked windshield wipers and spaceship stealth. I liked the random boat in the middle of the ocean. I appreciated the crochet, radar, and ham radios. I liked the crazy scientist, I’m not sure why he was allowed to run around a secure military research base, but whatever gets results I guess. I’m glad someone finally acknowledged that the aliens aim for recognizable landmarks when destroying things. It was fun to see what some of the characters from last time are doing now. I did have trouble keeping track of who I was supposed to recognize (cheatsheet: President and daughter are back, Will Smith’s wife and kid are back, two scientists are back, Jurassic park guy and dad are back, some other peripheral characters are back. Captain Kirk is not in the movie and one of the generals is not actually a star trek character, the secretary of defense is not the same as last time, no one from the crop dusting family is back).
What I didn’t: Ok first, let’s talk about the lack of supervision going on. Most of our people are members of the military or are in military installations. Apparently in our alternate present there are exactly 0 consequences for stealing vehicles or disobeying orders. Which is unexpected since they are constantly giving orders for things that should be self explanatory like “run.” Also something is funny about security in our alternate present. Someone who was president 20 years ago has security override codes for secure locations and it is very easy for people to walk into pretty much any room they want. Also who puts all of the controls for door locks etc inside the area you want to lock? That is a terrible plan! Speaking of terrible plans, I already mentioned that our first few attack plans weren’t great, but what about the aliens? There are clearly some volume issues. If you have a giant mothership the size of the atlantic ocean it is probably much easier to stay in orbit than to land and then take off again. And if you are designing a little terrarium it helps if it is not continuous with the outside of the ship if, you know, you’re flying through the vacuum of space. Also I have some real doubts about how many people could actually fit in the sphero ship. And if you are setting an elaborate trap, it might be easier if there is some goal to the trap. Were they hoping to find a location? Deplete the forces? Extend the movie? What? That probably wouldn’t work out too well. Also, Anything that survives a direct hit with >12 fusion warheads probably isn’t going to be destroyed by a direct hit from...anything else. I know I said I was glad to see what the characters from last time were doing, but I think the movie could have relied on them a little less for it’s main characters and plot. Yes they were important, but it has been 20 years. This could be motivated by the fact that Jurassic park guy and Dad weren’t as funny as they were 20 years ago. The whole thing was just a little too reminiscent of pre Ender’s Game for me. Finally, there are some very strange things happening with gravity. You will recall that gravity=(m*m)/distance^2. If there is something (a giant spaceship for example) that is farther away than the surface of the earth and is smaller than earth it really shouldn’t pull things off the surface of the earth. Also if there are airplanes tumbling out of the sky from a few hundred feet they should probably hit the ground in about 30 seconds, not 5 minutes. Rather tangentially related I am concerned about the lack of craters left over from the last independence day. The spaceships were 15 miles in diameter accelerating toward earth at terminal velocity, yet there is no apparent crater. The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs is estimated to have been about 6 miles across also accelerating toward earth at terminal velocity. It left a crater 110 miles across and 12 miles deep. And it killed all the dinosaurs. I’m not saying the world ended in 1996, I’m just saying maybe there should have been a really cool crater at some point.
Who should watch this? A good choice for an independence day movie. The first one is better, this one is fun too.
Would I watch it again? I’m glad I saw it. For rewatching I will choose the first one.
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