Independence Day: Resurgence - 8 Reasons It's The Worst Movie Of Summer 2016
2. It Has No Purpose...
No matter what you think of Independence Day, there's no denying it succeeded in everything it tried to do; Emmerich set out to make a special effects spectacle that "kicked E.T.'s butt" - move blockbuster cinema on from the cheery Americana of Spielberg and Lucas - and did just that, providing a destructive companion to Close Encounters and leading to a whole new age of mainstream cinema; a landscape where, in summer, the explosion was king.
It was so impactful that even Spielberg followed the trend with War Of The Worlds. Heck, this can still be felt in the mass destruction present in the likes of Man Of Steel. And while we're a bit worn by cities getting blown up en masse, there's no arguing which movie purposefully got us to this point. Such cultural impact is something to be applauded (regardless of whether the content of the film itself lives up to the legacy).
In stark contrast, Independence Day: Resurgence has no real aims other than boosting the coffers of Fox and giving Emmerich a dependable hit after a long string of ineffectual duds. It's a cynically-conceived movie that only intermittently even tries to create the illusion of striving for anything else. It's just another Independence Day rip-off, and boy do we not need any more of those.