Brought back to earth
Alien invasion sequel is a flagwaving celebration of allAmerican values and US dominance — and a box office bomb
new Hollywood was cool.”
With this year’s avalanche of superhero and quasi-science fiction films, enough may be enough — the box office will tell. Budgets of the wide-screen 3-D mega-hits are generally deflated to hide promotion costs, but even so world earnings of US$2.7bn (the largest ever) on Avatar ’s budget of $425m is a sensuous siren to the storm-struck sailors of movie production.
On its first weekend some days ago, Pixar’s animation Finding Dory hauled in $135m (no budget revealed) and even Variety seemed uncertain whether ID 2 could swim past the kindly little fishies. It reckoned: “Independence Day 2 is counting on being a bigger player overseas, where it’s launching in numerous markets . . . including China. Box-office analysts believe it has a strong shot at opening to $100m or more offshore, despite the absence of Will Smith, who didn’t return for the sequel.” It bombed. As if to ameliorate Smith’s absence, the confused script of ID 2 has two species of aliens: spidery ones and big bouncing balls. I couldn’t quite make out who was fighting whom. Smith is certainly missed (the scene in which he tugged that octopus over the desert was unforgettable). To make up for him we have some names: Bill Pullman as president — though there also seems to be a female one; Brent Spiner spends a great deal of time in a coma; and even Africa plays its part, with a ferocious warlord (DeObia Oparei) leading the local resistance.
An unrecognisable Jeff Goldblum stirs the unease further, while Charlotte Gainsbourg is woeful and must have done it for the money. Liam Hemsworth is the young dude with an attitude problem, and Jesse T Usher is Dylan, the “son” of Smith’s character. He has a major crush on Maika Monroe, written into the script to “give balance”, as some say, to gender and cultural issues.
The battle scenes are as enormous as the aliens’ starships — one as big as our moon. But even allowing for the hurried confusion of toppling towers and masonry, we have already seen the White House destroyed. Not only that, the film takes its credo from peace on earth and love to all of the American Dream.
Independence Day (the holiday) is for the world. Yet no nation other than the US is shown actually going to total war against the ETs.
The movie’s ethos is in the end a flag-waving orchestration of American values and overall command. When a final decision is taken — to go “out there” and destroy the aliens — it’s a lame tribute to an oncoming Hollywood franchise.
I shall resist seeing it again, over and over. Why don’t the aliens win? What’s their problem anyway? Is their hive mind being run by Donald Trump? I actually don’t care.