So all those scenes are a wash, as are the scenes involving Goldblum, Pullman, and a manic Brent Spiner (remember him from the first movie?)-which is to say, all the exposition. The young pilots in this film, attractive as they may be, are not those actors. The dogfight dialogue in particular-вЂњHeвЂ™s on your six!вЂќ etc.-makes the glaring point that in order to sell this stuff, you need really charismatic actors, on par with the Will Smiths and, yes, Tom Cruises of the world.

This is the sort of movie that assumes charm without actually having any, its inane dogfight chatter and clunky one-liners seeming both lazy and aggressively effortful. We care exactly zero about any of the new characters-not when some perfunctory backstory is thrown at us, and certainly not when Hemsworth is shown puckishly peeing on an alien ship while giving the aliens the middle finger (Emmerich, cool your jets on that one)-and the returning players mostly stumble around, mugging and striking old poses, hoping something will stick. But no we get the dirty-blond hunk instead, and off Resurgence whizzes into its storm of dullness. Bizarrely, HemsworthвЂ™s character seems to exist solely to take focus off of the main black character-who, being the son of the hero from the last one and all, seems the sensible heir apparent to the franchise. Fox and Will SmithвЂ™s characters (Smith has died in a training accident some years ago, we learn-thatвЂ™s what you get for saying no to the sequel, Will!) Maika Monroe as PullmanвЂ™s daughter, now working as an aide to the president ( Sela Ward) and Liam Hemsworth, the Pepsi of the Hemsworth family, playing a war orphan/hotdog pilot whoвЂ™s too cocky, and competent, to follow the rules. The alumni are Jeff Goldblum, now some sort of fancy director of an anti-alien agency Bill Pullman, a former president lost to nightmares and visions of alien attack and, well, Judd Hirsch, as everyoneвЂ™s favorite wacky old guy. This movie has more in common with 10,000 BC than it does with its predecessor, which is not a comparison anyone wants to make. But Resurgence is much more of an action movie, particularly in its hurried pacing (disaster movies have a structure of gradual discovery this film does not), and EmmerichвЂ™s direction is aimless. As a director, Emmerich has generally had a sure hand with disaster movies-the original Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, and even 2012 have a goofy, retro verve mixed with modern special effects. Still, Roland EmmerichвЂ™s new movie relentlessly coasts on its legacy, not realizing itвЂ™s in a stall.Д«izarrely taking a cue from the terrible Transformers movies, Resurgence eschews the originalвЂ™s plucky disaster-movie panache and goes instead for blandly epic destruction and senseless melee.

But all it really does is make us yearn for those good old days, when we sat in the air-conditioned dark and watched that first glorious, silly, transporting movie-instead of whatever this junk is.Д¬onstantly referencing the better thing that came before is not a sturdy foundation for a sequel, not even for The Force Awakens.

Independence Day: Resurgence, a sequel to the defining вЂњcity blows upвЂќ blockbuster of the millennial age, often refers to things that happened вЂњback in вЂ™96.вЂќ This is meant to show continuity, to evoke a sense of cultural memory.

The movie independence day resurgence