ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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After watching the original recently and loving it all over again, I watched this bloated and disappointing sequel today and wondered why I was foolish enough to buy the DVD of this movie — with all it's glaring science errors, it's sad character blunders, and it's blatant attempts to dazzle the audience with overblown CGI FX to cover up for the movie's lack of intelligence!

I won't bother to list this movie's screw ups, I'll just point out that the original offered us a skillful blend of science fiction concepts, brilliant FX, and charming characters who were all brought together for climax that thrilled the world!

Conversely, this movie bombards us with meaningless scenes of global destruction that make it easy for any audience member to dash off to the snack bar and return without missing a damn thing which matters to the garbled plot!

The cast members who returned from the original movie presented absolutely none of the charm they did in 1996 — and the ones who didn't return were wise enough to steer clear of this misguided attempt to make lightning strike twice.

I have great respect for Roland Emmerich, and I have several of his movies in my DVD racks.


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But this one is a bitter disappointment.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Several days ago I watched Independence Day for the umpteenth time and really had fun with it.

In fact, yesterday I wondered if I could perhaps forgive the sequel for all the faults I've listed in prior posts and watch it again, in hopes of prolonging the good feelings I'd gotten from the original.

Unfortunately, I started getting frustrated again by what seems like blatant science errors during the first thirty minutes.

And yet — wonder of wonders — today I decided to finish the movie. Since I started watching it AFTER the frustrating part, I was able to appreciate the story a bit more.

That turned out to be a stroke of luck, because after mentally ranting and raving yesterday about all the bad science in the first part of the movie, I was able to focus on the story . . . which was better than I'd previously thought!

Encouraged by this change of heart, I then decided to watch a few of the extras — which were pretty damn good! After that, I clicked on "Commentary by Roland Emmerich" and began watching the movie again!

I'm glad I did, because he explained several things about the story that had baffled me the first time, causing me to miss some very important plot elements and character interactions.

Anyway, I strongly recommend that anyone who disliked this movie, even though they loved the original, should watch it with Mr. Emmerich's commentary so that you'll have a better grasp on what he meant to convey in the film, even though he wasn't always successsful.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)