Ah, Lucky number 13.
I have no problem with the number 13. I was born on the 13th. As luck a number for me as any other. (Probability & Statistics not withstanding).
I remember seeing Independence Day back in 1996. My wife and I had just moved to Calgary that weekend. We hadn't even moved in to our house yet. And She was 6 months pregnant with our first child. But here's this big blockbuster Roland Emmerich. So we went. Besides, there's the added bonus of the actors Jeff Goldblum AND Brent Spiner. What's not to like?
Cinemasins frequently puts out their "everything wrong with..." series of YouTube videos (most enjoyable: check them out) and Independence Day was as guilty of plot-holes and general goofiness as any Hollywood film, but it was fun, and I liked it. Will Smith is also a "take-him-or-leave-him" actor, but his on my "like him" list, so it make for a good time.
20 years later, the creative team decided that this was a milk-able franchise. At least, that's the way it feels. The followup story is weak, the writing was unmemorable, and lead actors mostly wasted. Jeff Goldblum drops some cheeky one-liners here and there, which he;s good at, but they're not particularly good, and mostly given away in the trailers. Brent Spiner's Dr. Okun, a wacky scientist at the Area 51 lab, who was given up for dead in the original film, reappears freshly awoken from a long coma, and within hours is leading the revitalized research program, still wearing his open-back hospital gown. Stuff like this stretches the suspension of disbelief to its breaking point.
Ugh. Bill Pullman: wasted. Judd Hirsch: wasted. Jeff Goldblum and Brent Spiner: Wasted.
Two Hours: Wasted.
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