Independent from original thinking. Director Roland Emmerich and his band of four co-screenwriters waited 20 years to crap out a sequel, and this is the best they can come up with? Even the updated CG effects effects aren’t an improvement. If Independence Day was, as my predecessor Duncan Shepherd observed, “A conscious and conscientious throwback to the invaders-from-space fables of the Eisenhower era,” its sequel makes a contentious and contemptible retreat towards ‘70’s disaster films. The performances range from mediocre (the generally unblemished Jeff Goldblum, this time unable to fidget his way out of a role) and barely intelligible (Charlotte Gainsbourg, unhooked on phonics), to douche chill-inducing (a wacked Bill Pullman) and bush league (everything about Nicolas Wright’s antsy spaz is wrong). And depicting America’s first woman President (Sela Ward) as a globalist hawk committed to exposing Area 51’s little green men as alien truthers? How stupid does Hollywood think we are? (2016) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.