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Independence Day: Resurgence (Film and Score)


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I think we all agree Mr. Data was the best part. 

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2 hours ago, Shatner's Rug said:

The trailers made it look like the earth was going to be ravaged so much, it'd be uninhabitable. But it seemed like the aliens did less damage here than they did in the first one!

 

The movie didn't make it clear, but it was strongly implied that basically all Atlantic coastline cities were completely destroyed. That would be quite a lot of people, but for some reason the movie focused less on the mass destruction than the first one did.

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I saw it yesterday, after having read some reviews on IMDB...so I wasn't expecting much. :lol:

 

I think the biggest problem with it is the pacing. Everything just happens so quickly one after the other, there's no real build-up or tension anywhere. I feel like if I blinked I might've missed the actual alien invasion. The film could've certainly benefitted from being extended a bit, or the story cut down in places.

 

That said, as soon as I saw the shot where the mothership knocks down the flagpole on top of the White House, I thought to myself "What the heck, this is so bloody ridiculous I might as well just stop taking the whole thing seriously". And I ended up quite enjoying it in the end. Sure, the film itself was schizophrenic as hell, but it had its own funny, cheesy and campy quality, and I found myself laughing at quite a few places just because of how crazy the scenarios were (like Judd Hirsch driving a bus with Jeff Goldblum and a bunch of kids while being chased by a massive alien).

 

I wouldn't call it a good film by any means, and it's definitely not on the same level of quality as ID4. But if you're going to see it in the cinema, in order to enjoy it to some length you really have to leave reason behind at the door. And if you're not willing to do that...don't bother, because you'll be disappointed.

 

As for the score, I haven't listened to it on its own yet. So just from seeing the film, I thought the music was OK, the action music was even pretty good. But I couldn't help but (seriously) cringe in the scenes in front of the White House. They used the President's theme from Arnold's score but it came across as a bit jarring in the context of the film (actually I don't think there was anything in the film that wasn't jarring! :sarcasm:).

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Okay, I caved and saw it.

 

I don't know which was worse: Independence Day: Resurgence or the trailer for Star Trek Beyond, one of about 38 trailers I had to sit through before the wretched movie began.

 

I was in good spirits. I had a nice buzz going on before I entered AMC Downtown Disney. I would be going directly to The Haunted Mansion (and the Pirates of the Caribbean as it turned out) immediately afterward. There were only 4 other people in the theater with me. What the fuck went wrong? Very little went right, that's for damn sure.

It's boring as hell. There are no good characters aside from Brent Spiner. Certainly no memorable lines. Very little destruction. Awful music. Bill Pullman gives a really bad performance, which made me sad. We all know he's a good actor. It's just another crappy modern sequel to a good film that feels like it should never have been made.

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It reallty was a miserable movie experience, huh?

 

It's all a setup for another potentially better sequel that will never happen, thanks to shoddy filmmaking and poor box office return. I can't believe I've been getting attacked for calling out this trash for what it is.

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Bill Pullman was OK in a role that is completely redundant.

Goldblum was OK, but I wish there was more of him

Hirsh was ok but there was no reason for him to be in this

Sela Ward is a good actress but had little to do

William Sandler is a great actor but had little to do

The guy the hired to play Will Smith's son didnt have the charisma or screen presence of Will Smith.

Thor's brother was just OK

Why was Charlotte Gainsburough in this? Is she buying a house? It was actually distracting.

 

Yep, Brent Spiner was the best one this time.

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13 hours ago, Stefancos said:

Why was Charlotte Gainsburough in this? Is she buying a house? It was actually distracting.

 

I thought that was Hilary Duff?

 

In terms of characters, the focus in ID4 was between the President, David and Captain Hiller, even though there were still a crapload of other characters. A threesome? That's excellent. I'm a little tired...

 

That being said, this one had almost no focus. The closest thing to a main character was the hunky guy, but that's debatable. I will say this: he was alright. But he didn't really have much of anything to work with here. He was just a nice guy that was marrying Bill Pullman's daughter and accidentally almost killed Will Smith's stepson. Which brings me to my point. All of the supporting characters didn't really have characters. He did. But their characters were basically however they related to him. His fiance. His friend. His guy he almost killed. He was the only one with any kind of motivation and/or arc. Everyone else was just there, for no real reason. Except for maybe Brent Spiner, who was still relatively pointless (I don't know what the deal was with that talking Geffen Pictures logo?), but was a breath of fresh air in such a monotonous boring-assed piece of shit movie.

 

Emmerich just doesn't have it anymore. There was no payoff. No redeeming fun action and destruction. Criticize the fuck out of Godzilla, but you know that taxi chase at the end is a guilty pleasure. Now compare that to the giant alien chasing the school bus. Ugh.

 

The ingredients were there. You had Bill Pullman ready to go over the top and give us a zany Zero Effect-esque performance, or maybe play it straight like in ID4 and just be a badass. You had Goldblum. What was his direction? Just be boring and monotone? You had a competent young cast. David Arnold was available to score. What did we get? Boring. Boring. Boring. Very little action and destruction. No real drama. No memorable lines. The guy who had a gun in space in Armageddon standing in a blue room looking at a screen. No fun. Wait for the video? More like wait for the YouTube supercut of all the Brent Spiner scenes.

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I'm convinced sequels which come almost a generation later exist purely to be added to the steadily growing 'movies which piss off the fans and give them something else to rant about online forever' database. 

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One day in the future the internet will be nothing but moaning fanboys on message boards. Net Neutrality will be a thing of the past so as to facilitate their massive bandwidth requirements. There will be premium moaning boards, people will pay a subscription to complain on the very best sites. You'll be able to get exclusive moaning benefits access as part of your cell package. IMDB will stand for Internet Moaning Database. 

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  • 1 month later...

The italian cinema website BadTaste.it interviewed Harlad Kloser about the movie and he has revealed the reason why David Arnold has not composed the soundtrack of the film.

(I quickly translated the Italian interview so forgive me if there are some errors)

 

Quote

Mr. Kloser you know very well that the musical score of the first “Independence Day” composed by David Arnold is still very remembered by fans. With what kind of spirit and strategy you have faced the difficult task of replacing him for the “Independence Day: Resurgence” soundtrack? 

I have to make a fundamental premise at the beginning of the response: David Arnold's work was perfect. Indeed ... a masterpiece. Since I am also the producer of the film, the first one to oppose with all their might against Roland Emmerich's decision about David replacement in the score in my favor ... it was me! Emmerich replied that for the sequel he wanted something very different and then we began to develop a more synthetic sound for all the new scenes with the young protagonist never seen in the first chapter of 1996. Then we decided instead that every time an old character from the first film enter in the scene... here start a mix in the soundtrack with tunes conceived by David Arnold twenty years ago. When we listened to the whole score, with this mix of old and new, I understood why Roland had asked me to replace Arnold in this key role. The final score works for me very well.

 

Here is the curious story of how Emmerich and Kloser started working together.

 

Quote

Mr. Kloser is very difficult to meet in the history of cinema a music author that deals with prosaic things like manage a budget of 165 million dollars. In addition you will also be the writer of the future sci fi movie of Roland Emmerich “Moonfall”. How you managed over the years to interpret these roles so difficult and seemingly contradictory?

Good question. It's a long story. I will try to be brief. I started as a composer. I’m basically a pure musician. I met Roland Emmerich in 1996 while he was working on “Independence Day” and I was working on the music for tiny television productions. We became good friends. One day he asked me to propose a score for “The Patriot” (2000). I handed it to him and spent a long time without receiving any response from him. I thought that he did not like it. Eventually I discovered that I was beaten by John Williams, one of the greatest authors of soundtracks in the history of cinema. But Emmerich had loved my job and in his head had evidently begun to esteem me more and more. So, at the second attempt, I made it and I came to compose his catastrophic “The Day After Tomorrow” (2004). In that case an event occurred that would have been catastrophic for me but instead gave a new direction to my life. While doing the music for the movie, Emmerich invited me to a private screening for a few close friends. After watching the film I complained as the movie came out, proposing cuts, additional scenes or even changes in the editing. Emmerich looked at me for a long moment and said: "Or I'll fire you for your arrogance or I’ll assume you as a producer." I was convinced he would have opted for the first option and rather to my surprise ... Roland opted for the latter. So here is a small Austrian composer like me becomes also a producer of blockbuster film. Since that film in 2004 we are a steady couple with Emmerich. I can tell you that being a producer ... I have the advantage of never having to risk being dismissed as a music composer! At least I hope.

 

original article

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Judging by the response to the film and what I've seen from the trailers (I haven't seen the film), Arnold is lucky to have not been asked. His original masterpiece remains intact and untainted with a sequel that would have likely disappointed with such a film to work with. 

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6 hours ago, leeallen01 said:

Judging by the response to the film and what I've seen from the trailers (I haven't seen the film), Arnold is lucky to have not been asked. His original masterpiece remains intact and untainted with a sequel that would have likely disappointed with such a film to work with. 

 

I dunno, Williams came out unscathed from the prequel trilogy... :P

 

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Not really. Wasted six years of his life, years he'll never get back. He got old. He'll arrive at the pearly gates and be reminded of those six years he could have prioritized much more differently. 

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"Since I am also the producer of the film, the first one to oppose with all their might against Roland Emmerich's decision about David replacement in the score in my favor ... it was me!"

 

Wait, what's he saying here? Kloser wanted Arnold back?

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On 28-8-2016 at 0:11 AM, leeallen01 said:

Judging by the response to the film and what I've seen from the trailers (I haven't seen the film), Arnold is lucky to have not been asked. His original masterpiece remains intact and untainted with a sequel that would have likely disappointed with such a film to work with. 

 

Or we could have had one of those amazing better-than-the-film scores. Like CutThroat IslandSky Captain and the World of TomorrowKrull or most of Jerry Goldsmith's work.

Since most crap films these days feature crap scores as well, it's become something of a rarity.

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22 hours ago, Mr. Breathmask said:

 

Or we could have had one of those amazing better-than-the-film scores. Like CutThroat IslandSky Captain and the World of TomorrowKrull or most of Jerry Goldsmith's work.

Since most crap films these days feature crap scores as well, it's become something of a rarity.

 

True. 

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