Independence Day: Resurgence - 8 Reasons It's The Worst Movie Of Summer 2016
7. It Says It’s Bigger, But Has No Sense Of Scale
Few sequels embody the notion that follow-ups must be bigger than the original with more intensity than Independence Day: Resurgence. In being a repeat we get the same old stuff, just scaled up: the spaceship is bigger than the last one; the level of destruction is bigger than the last one; the aliens are bigger than the last ones. This movie’s bigger, we’re told over and over.
Except nothing about the movie actually feels bigger. There’s no sense of scale to give weight to the massive attack, so for all the damage it feels much less involving and the destruction oddly unevocative. Part of this will be the distant CGI, but it’s more from how the film isn't all that interested in making it a global event; the world is made up of China and America (for obvious financial reasons), and as a result everything's so homogonous and the montages of a world united feel phoned in, especially as they're so infrequent.
It's not helped that we rarely venture outside of the point-of-view of our main characters (who are either returning cast or related to the stars of the original somehow) and when we do it’s in a vastly reduced capacity; the first assault on the alien ship is a major military move, yet we only see it from the cockpits of three pilots.