The Long Awaited Independence Day Sequel Was Dead On Arrival 

I think you missed one of the biggest differences: the original was a WAR movie, it plausibly represented how the US Air Force might respond to such a radically unexpected foe. Huge portions of the film are dedicated to military bases, strategic meetings, large-scale battles, piloting prowess, coordination between armies, and a gradual escalation up to using nuclear weapons. Even the climax hinges on tactical considerations like quantity of airplanes and pilots, ammo depletion, etc. It becomes a semi-serious exploration of how an alien war might actually progress. (Regardless of how realistic you think it actually is, it presents itself as a grounded military story.) But the sequel was a superhero movie. A group of implausibly young, implausibly attractive heroes doing crazy nonsense, alongside returning characters who have no reason to be involved except that they were in the first movie. The climax is "godzilla vs a schoolbus", not an actual battle. And it just ends up feeling hollow, because it doesn't have that more grounded take on how to actually fight for our world.

Also, keep in mind that in this movie, many of the characters have flushed out story arcs. This is quite rare and unique for movies of this genre. Steven Hiller (Will Smith) wanted to be an astronaut, David Levinson wanted to have a more fulfilling job, and President Whitmore was a "lame-duck" president of lack-luster performance. In the end, the crisis tried and tested them, but they never gave up. Even Randy Quaid's character got some sort of catharsis in the end. Not many movies do that.

It boils down to: every scene in Resurgence looks like it's on a green screen whereas ID4 looks and feels real

Where did they rip off this video??

where did you steal this one from?

Will Smith saying "Welcome to Earth!" after punching an alien in the face will never not be badass!!!

There was a ton wrong with this movie. Obviously the scale of the ships in ID4 were huge, but they were “believable”. This movie just went with the idea of BIGGER, and it was beyond overkill.

The first movie had the human condition in the forefront. Against significant losses and tragedies, people getting together and doing the best they can to overcome the odds. The characters felt real and relatable. A president who is also a loving husband and father trying to sensibly lead in an unprecedented crisis, a very smart broadcast systems specialist whose rejection of aggressive ambition caused him his loving marriage, a capable pilot whose passion to go to space was hindered because of his race and his choice of a life partner, a traumatized Vietnam vet ridiculed and looked down by everyone including his older son despite his struggle to do what’s best for his kids, and many, many other multi-faceted characters. Add to this great cinematography, soundtrack, sound effects, wonderfully alien designs, and you got a great survival movie of epic proportions. The new one has ridiculous, arrogant, unsympathetic characters who belong to “teenage superheroes” genre and were never really even struggling at any point in the movie, some sjw stuff that had no relevance or need to be in the movie and was so ill-attempted that it was obvious they thought the crowd they were playing to were morons, some very lame “close calls” like a mountain sized super smart alien that just can’t catch or shoot a school bus that serves to nothing but making the audience cringe. All they had to do was to portray the world with a collapsed, heavily wounded human civilization against the surviving merciless and noncommunicable alien forces spilling out of the ruins of city destroyers. Make it similar to District 9, show us how aliens salvage and adapt their own tech to build bases near their downed space crafts, which no longer have power now that the mothership is destroyed. Humans would also try to decipher and utilize alien technology, to push back ground attacks and to rebuild civilization, and try to stop the aliens from sending a distress signal. The movie could have ended with humanity defeating the remaining invaders, but failing to prevent the distress signal which would imply a second wave of attack in an unknown future.

Almost 30 yrs later, I still remember the thrill of watching the original ID4, the one liners, the explosions, and the characters played by Jeff Goldblum, Will Smith, and Bill Pullman. Yeah it wasn’t high art by any means, and it was silly and over-the-top, but I still think the original movie was a fantastic disaster popcorn flick of the 90s. 7 years later, I barely remember anything about the sequel aside from the fact that it was a sequel that honestly didn’t need to exist, or at the very least could’ve been so much better.

I barely remember anything from the sequel, but I do recall that one other thing the original had was actual scary moments. The scene where the captured alien held Okun to the glass wall to demand "RELEASE...ME..." was terrifying to me as a kid.

What small creator did you guys steal this script from?

I think u nailed it: the strength of the human spirit despite our frailties is something that always moves me in media. Last night I rewatched Demon Slayer: Mugen Train and that really leans into it. The ending scene is based around this, and it really hits your emotions.

Creatively bankrupt hacks. Not just the movie but also these Nerdstalgic RU-vidrs.

Please stop plagiarizing other smaller youtubers, thanks!

This is the only film I've ever fallen asleep watching. I never bothered going back to watch the rest of it either. Instead I just went back and watched the first again instead.

Unsubscribed because Nerdstalgic plagiarizes videos. I.E. District 9 VFX video that has since been taken down

Which small RU-vidr did you steal this script from?

I think one thing not mentioned is the size of the cast in Resurgence. Sure ID4 had a lot of supporting cast but it's main focus was always on Smith, Pullman, Goldblum, and Quaid. Resurgence not only has Pullman and Goldblum returning but also had focus on Hemsworth, Jessie Usher, and Maika Monroe, and gives more focus on most of the supporting cast that survived and returned for the sequel (like Jude Hirsch, Brett Spiner, and William Fichtner) aswell as its own supporting cast. This made the story feel rather bloated. I'll also point out that at times the cgi effects look really good but other times it's very obvious it's cgi.

which creator did you steal this from

They should have called the sequel “Independence Day: Regurgitate”.

Why everything now has to be a franchise? Why can't movies be one and done things? 🙏

What I realize watching certain movies including these ones is the fact that A GREAT double feature doesn't always mean you watch the original with the first sequel because the sequel turns out so bad. No, you instead take a similar movie (usually released around the same time). In the case of Independence Day (1996) I'll likely choose Armageddon (1998). Other examples are: Anaconda (1997) and Lake Placid (1999) despite having sequels. And people shouldn't forget The Shallows (2016) and 47 Meters Down (2017) with the latter one having a bad sequel as well... Sorry for getting off track but I wanna mention this!

"Doesn't anyone have any missiles...?" "Sorry I'm late Mr Preaident!!" The Russell Case character went a long way in the original and Resurg def lost a lot of heart without a similar character

I still kinda liked the sequel for its gigantism, mass destruction and spectacle but it didn't need to be ID2. And no matter if you like the original's lead actor, a sequel without him will always feel forced and disconnected.

I think there was this miserable/depressing feeling to the movie, which is NOT what you want from your summer blockbuster sequel. (This ain't no Empire Strikes Back either btw) It's weird because I thought making an amazing sequel would've been an easy task. I missed Will Smith in it. There were interesting ideas, but that's it. I have no desire to see it again.

I think the idea of setting a story after an alien invasion instead of during was brilliant. It gives me "the leftover" vibes. What would the culture be like in a world that had survived an alien attack. They take that brilliant premise and then tell yet another alien invasion story.

independence day still gives me chills! "I'm Backkkkk!"

Where’d you steal this video from?

The problem wasn't the delay, or Will Smith's absence It was bringing back Roland Emmerich to helm the project After spending the following 20 years making more disaster movies with the same formula, he became unable to bring anything new He literally has nothing else to offer

Rolland Emmerich thought he could do the same thing forever That's why his career went downhill

I loved the first movie as a kid, never even knew they made a sequel

Independence Day is one of my fav movies. It knows exactly what it is and celebrates that, its awesome. The second one took itself too seriously and the cast - with the exception of Goldblum - was juat bleh.

This is my first time ever hearing about a sequel.

Fun fact, the reason the laptops can hack the alien motherships is because our technology in id4 was still based off of reverse engineering the captured ship in roswell, based on the limited data we could gather.

Honestly, is just because Hollywood writers got lazier and dumber. You want a great example of lazy? It’s the comparison of these 2 movies. The second Independence Day has a moment where the hot shot main character, on the mother ship, he distracts the aliens by whipping out his D and pee… That’s not funny, that’s not what draws audiences, it’s just a cheap gag. Also, there isn’t any decision making that is smart or trying to outwit the opponent. In the first movie, they tried to communicate, got shot at, retaliated with the might of most of the forces, got beat up, tried to adapt, fired their most destructive weapon and failed, found out their signal was a weakness, and when the final battle happens, they use 1 jet to see if the shield is working instead of wasting hundreds of missiles. They had to learn and adapt to a superior entity. Smart writing and choreography. Now it’s just, copy and paste more stuff on screen, everything bigger, just put particles everywhere, don’t think just enjoy. There’s no strategy or tactics anymore. No smart villains being outwitted by a smarter protagonist. Things just happening on screen. A prime example is Star Wars sequel trilogy. I mean, that’s why John wick is so hot right now. It is just a dumb action flick, but he way outsmarts his opponents and out skills them in every way. Sheer will.

The biggest mistake made in the Independence Day franchise is to make no sequel to the second film.

I feel like there's only one real reason why I ended up buying both movies together, and it was because "Fox is getting bought out by Disney, so who knows if we ever will get any more movies in this franchise from the same director again?". Whether Resurgence was really a sequel that will ever hold up to the same extent that the original ID4 has seemed to be more of an afterthought. Still like that they showed us the alien queen though, I'll give it that.

Cause it was shit. A cash in sequel missing the lead, telling us he died off screen lol.

Where did you steal this video from 😂😂

Independence Day was almost universally panned by critics when it came out, and only became a big hit, because of the spectacle. That only works if the thing you're showcasing is a novelty. We have SO many films like Independence Day now, it's not novel. Thus, it didn't work. People think they liked it because of the story, but when you remove the 'splosions, it's a mediocre script with some great actors doing their all to sell it. No one feels like they need to sell anything in these new films, and that makes everything feel unearned.

5:33 Yeah your plot armor is showing Patrick

I think this was a problem with all the Star Wars expanded universe and subsequent films. The original trilogy is the classic rag tag bunch of underdogs who find it within themselves to overcome impossible odds. But then everything became so 'superlative'. Perhaps this is most evident with the Millennium Falcon. It was the little ship that could. But now it's the most powerful spacecraft in the galaxy. So where's the jeopardy? And the farm boy becomes the most powerful Jedi. Leia is the galaxy's best diplomat, and a quasi Jedi to boot. Han is an all conquering hero, rather than the shady rogue who eventually did the right thing for his new found friends etc. The Kessel Run thing is perhaps the epitome example. What was just a nonsense bluff from a chancer trying to pull the wool over the eyes of potential clients for a quick buck, is now some actually real impressive achievement. But if everyone is a superhero now; then of course they will win. I mean, we all know the heroes will win (but cf ESB) but at least it should be a bit of a struggle for them.

I always thought that Independence Day should have ended (or ID2 should have began) with ground troops emerging from the wreckage of the alien ships and the battle continuing, very much like Battle: LA The idea of Earth adapting the technology of the aliens and making ships is very Robotech: Macross which is dope, but somehow they screwed the story up

I think the only idea in Resurgence that was good is that humanity is the only species that successfully fought them off and the other alien races NEED us to join them. It takes the right amount of "HUMANITY, F YEAH" that the first one had and dials it up to 11, which is more important to the feel of the series than a ton of CGI.

The sequel should have been about the aftermath of the alien invasion from the first movie. The humans predict a second wave of attack in 20 years due to the debris left behind by the aliens. The aliens travel in stasis for centuries or thousands of years to conquer planets. The humans prepare for the second wave using the same strategy as before, but things don't go as planned. Just as the humans think they have won, modern alien ships suddenly appear in their universe, revealing that the aliens had placed a jump-portal on the edge of their universe. A jump-gate releasing new ships which are much more advanced than the ones from the first invasion. So, the first wave was just cleaning up, the second wave setting up the jump-gate and the third wave becomes the real thread. So, the heroes face new challenges at the beginning of the sequel, but at last, they've flown too close to the sun. The stage is set for Independence Day 3, where the focus will be back on a new battle and survival against the beloved formula of the first movie: David vs. Goliath. That is what I hoped for, when the sequel was announced, and what we got? Hollywood's usual formula of silly story, bigger canons, more explosions and much more Space Invaders FX. :(

They should've known that, just like those old 50's alien movies, the sequels never top the original.

Killing a main character off screen. Never a good idea.

Great video.

I think they could pull off the third movie… having humans barely survive and take for granted everything they built with the alien technology. You could have a divided society, where most of world has lost hope and just want to survive. Then there is the vocal minority that wants to follow the orb alien to the united galactic rebellion… who are not all they seem. Ultimately taking the fight to the alien home world. In the end humanity has to face the reality, we too have committed the same sins as our enemies, and a choice between who we are and who we want to be needs to be made.

Because instead of building it on the heroic president declaring a new War of Independence, the tried to build the sequel on the racist old man who had blatantly declared that gentiles "are not perfect".

I'll be honest, I forgot there WAS a sequel until your video. lol

Part of the problem with this film is it reliance on nostalgia. Some films really work with it such as Ghostbusters afterlife and Picard season three but it just didn’t work with this film. They needed to do something new.

I always thought this movie had some really, really good ideas in it that were wasted because it wanted to do the same old, same old. I wanted to see the movie where the Aliens came to Earth asking for our help in destroying the other race, which I'm pretty sure was going to be the third movie, but it needed to be THIS movie because just rehashing the first movie just made the one we got kind of boring.

Dude. Well written. Well thought out. Great video.

How did this movie fail as a legacy sequel but something like top gun maverick succeeded? 😮😑

Two things that bothered me that wasn't mentioned in the video: 1. Not bringing back Mae Whitman as the President's Daughter 2. The China pandering and the Chinese product placement.

I watched Indenpendence Day Resurgence but somehow got Pacific Rim vibes lol

I frickin love ID4

Today i cane to know that there is an Independence Day sequel

Wow I never noticed the canned cat sounds when the alien bursts out of the ship before.

If only we had a president like Whitmore

Three things pisses me off with these new Hollywood movies: 1. Everything is BIGGER just because. Like the BIG Predatoe in the new Predator movie. It's just lame. 2. Nostalgia by references to earlier installments either by characters mentioning it or by showing clips as part of the new installment. Fourth wall breaking, anyone? 3. New blood. The next installment has to have a new generation to carry the legacy. This is what they did with the whole Sequel Trilogy in Star Wars. Nobody cares! I don't need new characters doing the same as the previous ones; I need NEW STORIES with fitting characters that drive the plot forward with their own actions.

I literally forgot this movie existed...

I bet if the aliens had joked about Will Smith's wife the invasion would've ended sooner.

Y u steal vibeo

I recall Independence Day sequel and I remember feeling it was okay. It was a far cry for the original, but I felt it wasn't bad.

As far as legacy sequels go, made decades later… this was fine. Didn’t love or hate it. I would still like to see a ID4 part 3, it would have to release in 2026 to mean anything.

I'd argue T2 went bigger and was better for it, but is one of the only movies to have successfully done so aside from every Fast & Furiois movie starting with 5, which turned into "They're definitely going to space, eventually." despite being (relatively) grounded for the first 4. (Or the 3 I watched. I skipped Tokyo Drift) Also, arguably Crank & Crank 2... but eh. Crank was way better, imo, and there's a reason there's no Crank 3... or I haven't heard of it if there is one. So if say T2 is just about the only movie that basically doubled down on everything and is better for it, and is actually somewhat serious. Not a ridicu-thrills movie like the Fast movies. So the only one I'd count. That I'm aware of, anyway. To be clear, it's not like I even watch 1 movie a year, guaranteed... I'm not a huge cinephile... but yeah. Oh, actually... I think it's a bit unfair since not every movie necessarily doubled down and some did but were way worse for it... but the MCU in general. Despite me actually liking each Iron Man less than the previous, I liked Cap 2 most, Cap 3 (Civil War) a lot, and Thor 3 way more than 2... and Infinity War and Endgame are among the best in the MCU. Partially because they went so big. Even if Thanos's motivation legitimately makes LESS sense than the comics! Where he wants to COURT DEATH (Manhua fans, anyone? Lol) an actual entity that embodies the concept of Death. He wants to impress her and date her. An uber simp. But it makes more sense than wiping out half of all life in the universe due to a resource shortage with a device that can manipulate reality any way you want it... Including, say, DOUBLING the amount of resources in the universe? Tripling it? Space is mostly empty, why not 10x the amount of resources in the universe? Legit makes ZERO sense to kill anyone when he wasn't even trying to impress Lady Death. A 5 year old could figure that out. Anyway... T2.

ID4 was a movie about how humanity deals with facing overwhelming odds that just happens to have an alien invasion as the inciting event. IDR was a movie about an alien invasion and how advanced technology is leveraged to repel said invasion. One has hearth the other doesn't.

I loved where they took the universe, and how humans reversed engineered a lot of their technology. They got some cool tech out of it. But I didn't like the ending. It felt too "final boss" like. And there was no sense of urgency like the first movie. But I actually enjoyed this entry. I didn't hate it like many people did. But the original was definitely better

Have you guys ever met a fighter pilot? They’re reserved & quite, until you ask them about flying.

I mean this movie kind of led to a resurgence in Jeff Goldblum’s career, so at least something good came out of it

ID4 was such a perfect film, it didn't need a sequel

How was Bill Pullman’s speech infamous? Or is it that thing where you really just mean “famous”?

I genuinely don't know why writing for film sequels thinks bigger is better.. Or that so deeply subverting a beloved characters beloved journey ever works... We now have decades of constant failures to remind studios and writers that audiences hate it. That's all the data you'd need.

Died in a training exercise? Why didn't they just say he retired? Thats why this movie is straight to dvd material

I completely forgot that there was a sequel despite watching it

The most comparable "do it again, but bigger" is The Force Awakens. That's what made The Last Jedi so enjoyable, to me. We were back to original storytelling.

Now I can hardly wait for sonic three to end up being discussed here. Like merging two most convolluted parts of shadow's history, Amy Rose's possible future utilization, and ect. Else?

so, Suicide Squad fucked us up in two fronts: it made Will Smith not appear on ID Resurgence - and possibly save the movie - and we ended up having Suicide Squad as well...

I hope the 3third movie brings back will smith how classified aleged death MIA

NS was bought out 2 years ago, OG dude just reads a script twice a week now. If you look at the backlog of videos you can see the quality nosedive approximately 2 years ago, give or take 2 months.

I luckily never wasted my time watching this.

6:30. This I don't consider a problem. It would have been incredibly unrealistic if, after successfully repelling an alien invasion, humanity just looked at technology possibly a thousand years more advanced than our own and said "Nope, we're good..." If you're even going to do a sequel (which is probably the real main issue) this is kind of the route that has to be taken.

Yeah the movie was terrible and it was definitely a movie that I guess was supposed to appease Chinese audiences.

The problem with the movie was it traded fun for pandering. It was pandering to older audiences ("see him? He was in the first movie!"), it was pandering to modern movie tropes (see all the nonsense with the female pilot, who was the president's daughter, I think?), and it was pandering VERY HARD to the Chinese! It stopped being a mindless afternoon flick that was meant to be enjoyable, as the first one was, and was more focused on making sure everybody could "see themselves" in it. But, that wasn't what the first one was! Part of the magic of the first movie was the US! The monuments destroyed? American! The "savior" pilots? In the final battle, American. The entire concept of the movie? Hello, Independence Day IS America! Call it the hero stereotype if you will, but the movie pushed heavily into the "America has to be the heroes" trope, which could be seen as making fun of Americans but did so in a way that even Americans realized it! (How many reviews of the movie have pointed out, as I did, that ONLY American icons are destroyed on screen?) That is okay, though, cause the movie says, "We know you think you always have to be the hero; well, okay, you get to play the hero but to make it more interesting, here's what you have to lose first." And honestly, audiences accepted that bargain! Of course, it helps, as others have pointed out, that this move - for all the aliens and sci-fi and everything - it truly is grounded in reality. This is how it would go if this were to actually happen. That reality was sorely missing in the second movie. Ignoring Pullman's character (cause that was fantasy), but anyone who knows government bureaucracies knows there is no way in hell Goldblum's character would last more than 2 years in that role - and he'd only get that BECAUSE of his hero status from the first movie!

It was new??? I recently watched it and thought that I just had a bad deja vu but I still remember they said that the earth has been evaded once before. Goofy kinda fun honestly

The Americans saving the world in ID4 always granted though.

If ID Resurgence was made in this decade it would have hade the top gun maverick effect and trust me Will Smith would have returned

I was 11 when this came out and it was the greatest thing I'd ever seen. The original that is

What other movie goes bigger than the original? "Addams Family Values"

6:30 is so true!! In the comic book medium Captain America and Superman both inspire those emotions personally.

My problem with it was that the President's daughter was someone I couldn't be bothered to like, and then after they insist on having her they don't even focus on her, they switch to her boyfriend. It felt like they needed a strong female trope and then realized they didn't even believe in her to carry her part of the story.

Man! Just apologize for what you did😂 Content stealing wasn't the problem, problem was stealing from small channel 🙄

I still maintain the far better sequel would have been following the ground war of that landed ship in Africa in the wake of a global apocalypse. It was such a throwaway scene but that is where the potential and the $$ would have been

So much of the original movie relies on the charisma of Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum. The likes of Liam Hemsworth were nowhere near the caliber needed to carry a sequel. Goldblum himself didn't have it anymore. Tightening up the script and getting a different director wouldn't have made up for it.

Why is it called ID4?

I never realized bad boys predates MIB

it really comes down to the writing, i think that Emerich did a crap job with the writers, he didnt hire people who could really deliver a screenplay that touched your guts and heart, he just wanted cash, and when you write like that, its not in the best interest of the reader or in this case, the audience, its not in good faith, and you can tell because its painful to watch. I recommend reading "The friends we keep" its a great book explaining why certain modes of communicating in story have to be genuine and relatable, otherwise as Frank Herbert says, the plugs dont fit, and this shows in the movie...

They made a sequel to Independence Day??