As I watched In­de­pen­dence Day 2, I disliked it more and more, to the point where I was seething with anger at the stupidity of the plot and the characters.

The original 1996 In­de­pen­dence Day was at least a watchable B-movie. The sequel is leaden and plodding and makes no sense. The characters are per­func­to­ry and un­in­ter­est­ing, while the comic reliefs are teeth-grindingly irritating. You might assume that the young pilot who is the son of Will Smith’s character would be the lead in this film, but he’s sidelined here by Liam Hemsworth as the Top Gun jock.

My anger is primarily directed at the repeated insults the plot offered to my in­tel­li­gence. Friendly alien ma­te­ri­al­izes over the moon and gets shot down im­me­di­ate­ly; doesn’t think to call ahead or to send in an emissary. Captain Hiller flees from the moon to the Earth and goes off alone to rescue his mother—an in­ex­cus­able dere­lic­tion of duty when the Earth has just been attacked. Old man Julius’s boat somehow floats 2,000 miles on a tidal wave from the Atlantic to Nevada—yet he’s unscathed. Pilots are sent in to bomb the mothership and are told that HQ will wait until they’re clear before setting off the fusion bombs—it’s a suicide mission; the bombs would be triggered as soon as they reach the target. People waste time making speeches when seconds count. The entire world is under attack, yet we spent more time on the moon than we do anywhere else outside the US, apart from an early scene in Africa.

On and on and on, the characters act stupidly and un­be­liev­ably in this threadbare excuse for a plot. Roland Emmerich, I want my money back!