Even Liam Hemsworth as the new hero Jake Morrison did not annoy me as much as I expected, though Hemsworth is still a far cry from Will Smith's 'Elvis has left the building!' persona. Sure, lots of things happen in the film, including stuff and cities going kablooey in high style, and high-tech aerial dogfights to give 'Star Wars' a run for its money. The sins of sequelitis has been bestowed upon this sequel to his 1996 smash hit, and Emmerich is to blame, either for his laziness to phone it in out of frustration to fulfill the fans or bucking in to studio demand to condense the film into a mere 2 hours. Unfortunately, that is where the similarities end. Okun, Emmerich and his co-writers, including returning scribe Dean Devlin, certainly did not skimp out on the comic silliness. There's also a refreshingly silly undertone which sets it apart from the grim and serious blockbusters of today, and with added Jeff Goldblum and Judd Hirsch who return as the Levinsons, and 'Star Trek' alumnus Brent Spiner as the eccentric Dr. There's a lot of heroics here by many a character who do their equal part to stop this new alien menace, having already made a stuffed calzone of the Earth's crust comprising from London all the way to Singapore.

In 'Independence Day: Resurgence', set and finally released 20 years after the events of the first film, the aliens get medieval on us with an even bigger mothership. Again, it is undeniably cheesy and jingoistic, but done suitably well, I can have a ball with any material. I recently re-watched the first film and was surprised at how robust its shelf life is.

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