ID4: 4 reasons Independence Day 2 failed to live up to the original

Independece Day 2, aka Independece Day: Resurgence failed to match the original.

The sequel to the original ID4, Indepencede Day: Resurgence, failed to match the hype of the original. The first was a brilliant film about perservence and unity while the second one was a just a clustered mess of bombastic ideas and poorly designed CGI.

It didn’t have the same wit and charm of the first film and really just felt like a bunch of 2016 think-tank writers watched the first film and made their own version of it “…but bigger”.

The film was panned by critics and fans alike and failed to deliver where it counted.

These are four reasons that Independence Day 2 failed

No Will Smith

How are you going to do a Will Smith-vehicle without Will Smith. Smith was the centerpiece of the original film, and was flanked brilliantly by Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum. Neither man was going to garner the box office hype needed, which was why Smith was so needed. He was already a huge star thanks to his television show and rap career, and the film benefited off of that. Smith didn’t just not appear in the sequel but was killed off and replaced by his son, played by Jessie Usher who brought none of the same charm to the role that Smith did.

Bigger is not always better

The first film was already a pretty big issue. The sequel focused on an even bigger invasion and even bigger alien ships. It’s like someone just said “uhhh, how about we make the threat bigger by makeing the ships bigger?” and some other knob went “BRILLIANT!” Yet, it was anything but. The fact that it was the same plot as the first film, but only more made it feel less like a sequel and more like a joke or a meme.

The technology upgrade

Upgrading the Earth’s ships with alien technology was a poor idea. Part of the charm of the first film was the fact the humans were an actual underdog in the fight. Now this felt more like a battle of superpowers and that just isn’t what fans were wanting out of a sequel.

Looks worse

This is so true, the special effects seemed lifeless, and the charm of the original’s production is nowhere to be seen. The original was a masterclass in how to blend modern techonlogy with minitures but the sequel wasn’t even the best looking film of 2010, and it came out in 2016.