THE COLDEST GAME : Monday 30th March 2020.

In these very trying and testing times for us all that has seen many cinema's, Odeon's, and movie theatres around the world close their doors for the foreseeable future because of the escalating threat of the COVID-19 Coronavirus taking an ever increasing hold on the world at large, many film and television productions halted in their tracks indefinitely, and new film releases pushed back to some future date when some sense of movie going normalcy is expected to resume, I have, needless to say, had to adapt to this new world order. And so with my usual Reviews of the latest cinematic releases being curtailed, instead I will post my Review of the latest release movies showing on Netflix until such time as the regular outing to my local multiplex or independent theatre can be reinstated.

In the last few weeks then, a number of new feature films have landed at Netflix - of which I review as below 'The Coldest Game' which I saw from the comfort of my own sofa on Monday 30th March.

'THE COLDEST GAME' is an English language Polish spy drama Directed and Co-Written for the screen by Lukasz Kosmicki. The film saw its World Premier screening at the 44th Gdynia Film Festival in Poland in September last year, was released in cinemas in its native country in November and streamed on Netflix from earlier in March, having garnered generally positive Press, and collecting three award wins and twelve other nominations along the way.

Here Joshua Mansky (Bill Pullman) is a brilliant middle-aged mathematician, a former world champion chess player and an alcoholic, who has stooped to hustling card games at his local bar which he invariable wins by counting cards and applying the law of averages. One night while exiting the bar with his winnings he is physically manhandled into the back of car, drugged and blindfolded. He comes around locked in a glass soundproof room within a room, somewhat dazed and confused. His captors reveal themselves to be American secret service agents - Agents Stone and White (Lotte Verbeek and James Bloor respectively) and their superior officer Donald Novak (Corey Johnson), and that he is now enclosed inside the American Embassy in Warsaw, Poland.

Mansky is very reluctantly pulled into the world of international espionage and conflict between the world's superpowers - the USA and the USSR when, at the height of the Cold War in 1962, he is forced to compete in a chess tournament against Soviet champion Alexander Gavrylov (Yevgeny Sidikhin) in the Polish capital of Warsaw, hence his presence there. He has 24 hours to front up to Round One of five, and as per tournament rules, Mansky is the only eligible substitute for the prior American contender, who was found dead by Soviet poisoning.

Mansky's US handlers reveal that his chess match is really a game within a game, and that it is staged within the race between US and Soviet intelligence services to find and eliminate high level spies for the other side within their ranks at the upcoming chess match that is watched by high ranking military, political and other government personnel. This espionage is itself set within the more far reaching context of the tactical naval and strategic nuclear movements of a rapidly crumbling Cuban Missile Crisis, with humanity itself noticeably escalating toward an imminent thermonuclear war. Among the tournament attendees is a Soviet officer double agent searching in vain for an opportunity to provide crucial information to the Americans regarding Soviet capabilities and intentions in Cuba.

Mansky's erratic behavior and alcoholism is revealed to be partly due to his brilliance, with alcohol having the effect of slowing his brain function enough to operate at a more normal level. Either drunk or sober which in turn makes him confident or paranoid, Mansky dramatically wins some chess matches, yet loses others for half a point awarded to each player. He distrusts his US handlers, yet forms a close bond with a fellow alcoholic and Director of the Palace of Culture and Science Alfred Slega (Robert Wieckiewicz), who recounts his own personal experiences of Soviet occupation over communist Poland and considers the Warsaw Pact as simply a continuation of the Nazi influence.

Mansky steals hard liquor whenever possible, sneaks in and out through the Warsaw sewers, and is witness to various sudden violent deaths of American and Soviet tournament observers, including Agents Stone and White, and ultimately his new friend the Director at the hands of Soviet General Krutov (Aleksey Serebryakov) all the while attempting to balance his conscience with the demands of the chess games which he is duty bound to play.

Ultimately Mansky misses out on the final deciding game due to a distraction that sees Krutov pointing a gun in his face and threatening to kill him were it not for the intervention of Novak. His absence sees Gavrylov awarded the championship by default yet Mansky's efforts help ensure the most crucial tournament victory, namely that of the survival of the human race through 1962 and beyond. Sometime following, secret discussions begin between the US and the USSR, which results in mutual softening measures, nuclear arms control agreements and eventually US assistance with nuclear disarmament in former communist countries in the Eastern Bloc after the Revolutions of the late '80's and early '90's that resulted in the end of communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond. Before the end credits role, the epilogue brings us up to date with the US and Russia's new stance on nuclear arms . . . . . which we should all be more fearful of!

'The Coldest Game' for its 96 minute run time moves along a good pace, but is somewhat disjointed by the convoluted plot threads that pay less attention to the ubiquitous games of chess, and more to Mansky's alcohol habit and the machinations of either side trying to gain the upper hand. Pullman was drafted in at the last minute when William Hurt had to pull out of playing the lead character due to an off-set injury, so I guess that Pullman could be forgiven for his partial lack of preparedness with his character, although always watchable, but here lacks any real depth. Except that is for the scenes with his new mate on the ground Slega, with whom he shares an affinity and a connectedness which helps elevate both performances beyond the dull. Here Kosmicki seems to be channeling Hitchcock with his everyman thrust from familiar surroundings into some foreign place to fight a faceless enemy and win the day, all wrapped up in dimly lit streets, hotel rooms with secret passageways, questionably friends and deadly foes and our hero fighting his own inner demons. But, Kosmicki doesn't quite pull it off, instead giving us a superficial glance at a chess tournament with the cursory backdrop of a global nuclear crisis and largely one dimensional characters.

'The Coldest Game' warrants two claps of the Odeon Online clapboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

DARK WATERS : Tuesday 10th March 2020

'DARK WATERS' is a M Rated American legal thriller film which I saw earlier this week, and is Directed by Todd Haynes whose previous Directorial outings take in 'Velvet Goldmine', 'Far from Heaven', 'I'm Not There', 'Carol' and 'Wonderstruck' most recently. It is based on the 2016 article 'The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare' by Nathaniel Rich, published in The New York Times Magazine. Robert Bilott, the principal character in the film portrayed by Mark Ruffalo (who also Co-Produces here), also wrote a memoir in 2019 titled 'Exposure : poisoned water, corporate greed and one lawyers twenty year battle against DuPont'. The film had a wide US release in early December, has garnered generally positive Reviews and has so far grossed US$17M.

Inspired by a shocking true story, corporate environmental defence lawyer Robert Bilott (Mark Ruffalo) has just made partner at his prestigious Cincinnati legal practice in no small part due to his work defending big chemical companies. However, one day while in a Board Meeting, he is interrupted by Wilbur Tennant (Bill Camp), who presents him with a box of video tapes and urges him to watch the evidence of the slow painful death of his cows and the ruination of his fields on his Parkersburg, West Virginia farm due, he firmly believes, to toxic run off from landfill by the DuPont chemical plant nearby over the course of the last twenty or thirty years. Tennant knows Bilott's grandmother, hence the connection.

Bilott pays a visit to the Tennants' farm, where he learns that 190 cattle have died with unusual medical conditions such as tumours, bloated organs and blackened teeth. Bilott consults with DuPont attorney Phil Donnelly (Victor Garber) who advises him that he has no knowledge of this case but will help out in any way he can. Bilott files a small law suit so he can access data through legal discovery of the chemicals being dumped on the site. When he finds nothing useful in the Environmental Protection Agency report, he realises the chemicals may not even be regulated by the EPA.

At the 1999 Ohio State chemical industry event dinner, Bilott confronts Phil leading to an embarrassingly angry exchange that is overheard by everyone in attendance. Soon afterwards DuPont releases hundreds of boxes of historical records and files to Bilott's office, hoping to bury the evidence, and completely overwhelm the lawyer. Sifting painstakingly through the files Bilott finds numerous references to 'PFOA', a chemical that is not referenced in any medical textbook. In consultation with an expert chemical engineer he learns that PFOA is perfluorooctanoic acid, used to manufacture Teflon, and used in American homes for thirty years or so now on nonstick fry pans, carpet underlay, rain coats and all manner of other common household products. It's even in the drinking water. Bilott's research reveals that DuPont generate $1B a year in profit from Teflon coated products alone, so why would they risk that sort of annual pay day for the cost to human health and well-being??

In the middle of the night, Bilott's pregnant wife Sarah (Anne Hathaway) finds him tearing the carpet off the floors and rifling through their kitchen pots and pans. Sarah is at her wits end with her husband's all consuming work on this case and calls him crazy. After calming Sarah down, he urges her to sit at the kitchen table and hear him out, while he recounts in detail what he has uncovered about DuPont. DuPont has been running tests on the effect of PFOA for decades, finding that it causes various forms of cancer and birth defects, but did not make the findings public. They dumped thousands of gallons of toxic sludge upriver from Tennant's farm and buried hundreds of oil sized drums of the stuff into landfill. PFOA and other such similar compounds are forever chemicals that do not leave the blood stream and gradually accumulate.

As the years pass, Tennant is shunned by the local community for suing their biggest employer, they are spied upon by helicopter, and he and his wife come to learn that they both have cancer - hardly surprisingly! Bilott encourages him to accept DuPont's settlement, but Tennant refuses, wanting justice and prison sentences. Bilott sends the DuPont evidence to the EPA and Department of Justice, among others. The EPA fines DuPont $16.5 million. However, Bilott is not satisfied. He realises that the residents of Parkersburg will suffer the effects of PFOA for the rest of their lives. He seeks medical monitoring for all residents of Parkersburg in one large class-action lawsuit, for which he engages the services of expert class-action lawyer Harry Deitzler (Bill Pullman). DuPont meanwhile sends a letter to every resident of Parkersburg notifying them of the presence of PFOA, thus starting the statute of limitations and giving any further action only a month to commence.

As PFOA is not regulated, Bilott's team argues that DuPont is liable, as the amount present in the water is greater than one part per billion deemed safe by the company's own internal documented protocols. Later in a court hearing, Bilott and Deitzler are blindsided by DuPont who now claim that their much later study found that 150 parts per billion is safe. The locals protest and the story becomes national news and makes international headlines. DuPont agrees to settle for $70 million. As DuPont is only required to carry out medical monitoring if scientists are able to prove that PFOA causes the ailments, they are prepared to hedge their bets and so an independent scientific review is set up. To get data for it, DuPont tells the locals they can get their settlement money after donating blood. Nearly 70,000 people donate to the study, each being paid $400 for their time and blood sample.

Seven years pass with no result from the study. Tennant dies, and following several pay cuts, his obsession with this case straining his marriage, and when Bilott's boss at the law firm Tom Terp (Tim Robbins) tells him he needs to take another pay cut, Bilott collapses, shaking violently down his right side. In the hospital the doctor reports to Sarah and Tom that he has suffered a TIA (Transient Ischemic Attack - often called a mini-stroke, and brought on by a temporary blockage of blood flow to the brain), caused by stress, anxiety and pressure. Sarah tells Tom to stop making her husband feel like a failure, since he is doing something for people who need help.

Eventually after seven or so years, one evening while back in his office, the phone rings. It is a representative of The Scientific Review Panel who apologises for it taking so many years to come back to him with their findings, but with almost 70,000 cases to analyse it was the biggest study of its kind ever. She tells him that their research has concluded that there is a probable link between PFOA and multiple cancers, other diseases and birth defects including kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, pre-eclampsia and ulcerative colitis. At a celebration dinner with his family, Bilott is informed that DuPont is reneging and backtracking on their entire agreement, because that's what big multi-national companies do whom governments are beholden to. And so, Bilott decides to take each defendant's case to DuPont, one at a time starting in 2015. He wins the first three multimillion-dollar settlements against DuPont, and DuPont settles the class action for $671 million on behalf of some 3,500 other similar cases.

Whilst the movie lingers along almost to the point of monotony, there is still much to like here. Mark Ruffalo is well cast as the mild mannered lawyer going up against the monolithic corporate giant that is more than happy to trade human life and long term suffering for its staggering profits over decades, and then throw just about every road block in the path to discredit that lawyer and the mounting number of sufferers. This is a deftly made film that doesn't seem to steer too far from the truth for dramatic effect, instead trading excitement for efficiency and effectiveness in the storytelling. And it's a story that needs to be told if for no other reason than to highlight corporate America's wrong doing towards it's less well off and often downtrodden citizens laid bare for all the world to see - finally! As for the remaining cast, Anne Hathaway is wasted as the stay at home mum and housewife who barley contributes anything to the storyline, neither really does Bill Pullman as the lawyer headlining the class action, Tim Robbins has his moment in the sun when he delivers a rousing speech to his gathered Board members as to exactly why his company should go after DuPont, and Bill Camp slurs his dialogue so much that it's difficult at times to decipher what he's saying! Despite these flaws, this is still compelling viewing and a powerful message that is hammered home in the final frames as PFOA statistics are etched across the screen - forever chemicals being present in 99% of all humans! Scary stuff, and well worth the price of your movie ticket.

'Dark Waters' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE EQUALIZER 2 : Tuesday 24th July 2018.

'THE EQUALIZER 2' (aka 'EQ2') which I saw at my local multiplex earlier this week, is the follow up to the 2014 Antoine Fuqua Directed first big screen adaptation of the popular '80's TV series 'The Equalizer' with Denzel Washington portraying the one man vigilante army out of retirement, Robert McCall (played by Edward Woodward in the television series of the same name). That film cost US$73M to make and grossed US$193M at the global Box Office, and even before its release this sequel had already been announced. This film marks the fourth big screen collaboration between Fuqua and Washington with the first being 2001's 'Training Day', the second being the aforementioned film in this series, the third 'The Magnificent Seven' remake from 2016 and now 'EQ2'. This film cost US$62M and so far raked in US$51M following its release in the US last week too. Having so far garnered generally mixed or average Reviews, Critics have praised Washington's performance and the gritty and well choreographed action scenes, but have largely dismissed the storyline and plot development.

The film opens up with Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) masquerading as an American Turkish cleric aboard a train about an hour and a half outside Istanbul. As the train traverses the mountainous countryside McCall follows a man through to the dining car, having left his wife and child sleeping in their seat. Ordering a pot of hot water from the attendant the man sparks up a conversation with McCall asking him if he is American and how he comes to be on the train. McCall responds with a statement that he is searching for a man, a violent angry man, who has abducted his young daughter from the United States and has against her will, and that of her mother, taken her back to Turkey. Would he know of anyone who would do such a thing? Of course, this is a hypothetical question because that man, is the very same man that McCall is talking to. The man returns to his seat and orders his three goons to dispense with McCall, but naturally, it is the other way around, and within thirty seconds the three goons are dead, and McCall offers the man a choice.

Within a couple of days, McCall has returned the young girl to her elated mother back in Massachusetts, where McCall is living in an apartment complex and working as a 'Lyft' driver picking up both random and regular passengers and transporting them to and fro. When he's not driving for a living, McCall comes to the rescue of those less fortunate or in need of some special skills. Only his old friend Susan Plummer (Melissa Leo) who works for the Defence Intelligence Agency, is aware of McCall's extra curricular exploits and helps him out with intelligence gathering when she can. One day, Susan is called upon to investigate an apparent murder suicide of one of her undercover operatives in Brussels, Belgium. She is accompanied by Dave York (Pedro Pascal), a former college of McCall's, to review the scene of the crime, collect what evidence they can, and return quickly. After their investigations have concluded, they return to their hotel before their departure early the next morning. Plummer is followed into her room by two young backpacker goons who attack her. She puts up a good fight, but is ultimately killed by the assailants.

Meanwhile back home, and McCall befriends a young lad who is a gifted painter and sketcher, but has fallen in with the wrong crowd. The kid, Miles Whittaker (Ashton Sanders) is also living in the same apartment block as McCall, and one day returns home from school to find the vegetable garden lovingly tended to by another resident, Fatima (Sakina Jaffrey) has been vandalised and a garden mural overpainted with graffiti. McCall takes it upon himself to look out for Miles and keep him on the straight and narrow, offering him $250 to make good the mural and the vegetable garden.

Hearing about the death of Susan Plummer from her husband Brian (Bill Pullman), McCall reaches out to Dave York to join forces and go after whoever did this. However, York attended McCall's funeral seven years ago as did the rest of his group, and since then have all gone their separate ways while McCall changed his identity and went underground. York agrees to do whatever it takes out of their mutual respect and friendship for Susan.

Later on, McCall is driving one of his regular Lyft shifts and collects a dodgy looking passenger claiming to be en route to his six year old daughters birthday. While driving, his fare attempts to kill McCall but thanks to some evasive driving skills and his adept self defence capabilities, McCall overpowers the assailant, who has now made it into the passenger seat, shooting him through the head at very close range with his own gun. McCall dumps the body and torches the car but not before retrieving the dead mans mobile phone.

The next day, McCall drops in on the York family home under the pretext that he needs some assistance in cracking the military grade encrypted code within the assailants retrieved phone. However, McCall already suspects that York is caught up with the dead assailants plans by linking him to the retrieved mobile phone. McCall confronts York with what he believes to be the truth and that in fact it was York who finished off Plummer in Brussels having pieced together the video surveillance of the events leading up to her attack, and the fatal wound inflicted on her body, which could only have been administered by a professionally trained assassin. York comes clean and states that following McCall's staged death, all the others members of his team were disbanded and forced to take up paid contract work as assassins for hire. Plummer became a target because eventually she would have suspected that the attack in Brussels came from within her own ranks of former operatives which would invariably have led back to York, so she became a necessary loose end that needed to be tied up. And now with McCall hot on the trail he too has become a loose end.

Outside the York home, McCall is confronted by his former Team members - Resnik (Jonathan Scarfe), Ari (Kazy Tauginas) and Kovac (Garrett Golden) with York. Those team members say that they'll be coming after McCall, but McCall counters with the fact that he'll be coming after them and his one regret is that he'll only get to kill them each once! Later the next day, with the rains pouring down and a hurricane starting to whip up, York and Kovac break into McCall's apartment where Miles is redecorating the kitchen. Miles hears them approaching and hides behind a bookcase concealing a secret room while on the phone to McCall alerting him. McCall calls York while watching him remotely from the CCTV cameras set up in his home. He invites York to come get him - as he knows where he'll be. York and Kovac abandon their search having deduced where McCall is headed to, but not before capturing the now emerged Miles from his hiding hole.

As a hurricane gale force winds take hold, McCall returns to his seaside hometown, which has been evacuated. Kovac, Ari, and Resnik follow in search of McCall on foot and heavily armed, as York locates himself at the top of the town's watchtower assuming the sniper's position. As the storm whips up a frenzy with torrential rains pouring down, big gusts of wind and huge waves crashing on the shoreline, so McCall takes out Kovac, Ari and Resnik one by one in well executed and deadly efficient close quarter combat, all the while looked on by an increasingly agitated York. Enraged that McCall has gained the upper hand York shoots at the boot lid of his car, which is revealed to be concealing a bound and gagged Miles.

Gale force winds knock York off his feet and he is momentarily stunned and distracted, so allowing McCall to gain access to the roof top of the watchtower.  The two fight it out, but York is no match for McCall, who stabs his assailant and kicks him off the watchtower blooded and beaten. He crashes on to the rocks below and his corpse is quickly washed away by an incoming wave. McCall rescues Miles from the boot of the car and escorts him back to his house where he treats a gun shot wound to his leg.

Back home in Boston, Miles has returned to school and in concentrating on his artistic talents. The garden and the mural are now returned to their former glory, thanks to Miles, and as for McCall, he has returned to his former beachside home and is seen looking out across a calm and still ocean.

'EQ2' is a fairly pedestrian film that lacks the punch and pace of the first instalment. This is almost a stand alone Robert McCall origin story that traces back his roots as a former CIA Agent, mercenary and assassin - how he had to fake his own death seven years previously; the loss of his loving wife and the emotional scars that he still carries around with him; the burden of his former life and the number of lives he took in the line of duty; the death of the one person in the world he could call a true and trusted friend and ally; and the life he now chooses to lead, all alone and seemingly devoid of any other family members or close friends. All of this is going on, interweaved with McCall's particular brand of justice dispensed with his very own special set of skills; and long lingering shots of McCall deep in thought with pursed lips contemplating his next move or what he's going to say. The film plods along for the most part with the occasional action sequence to jar you awake. Whilst worthy and watchable as always Washington's portrayal of McCall as a likeable character who imparts his worldly wise sage advice upon his cornered criminal types before beating the living crap out of them, or worse, is sadly not enough to keep you fully invested. You can easily wait for the Bluray, digital download or streaming service to watch this from the comfort of your own home and save yourself the $20+ cost of cinema entry. 'John Wick 2' or 'Taken 2' this film ain't, although cut largely from the same cloth.

This film scores a rating of two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

INDEPENDENCE DAY : RESURGENCE - Friday 24th June 2016.

'INDEPENDENCE DAY : RESURGENCE' which I saw on Friday evening is the sequel to 'Independence Day' which opened in July 1996 and went on to take out the highest grossing film of 1996 worldwide, grossing US$817M, and by September of that year ranked as the sixth highest grossing film of all time. Now 20 years later, it sits at the #55 spot. Made for US$75M back then and Directed by the 'Master of Disaster' himself Roland Emmerich and Co-Written by him too, that film propelled Will Smith into the stratosphere (literally) together with his other co-stars that included Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Randy Quaid, Robert Loggia, Judd Hirsch, Vivica Fox and Mary McDonnell. Along the way the movie picked up an Oscar for Best Visual Effects and 32 other award wins and another 33 nominations. And now twenty years later, in terms of real time, and movie time, the long awaited sequel has arrived. Made for US$165M and released worldwide just last week, Roland Emmerich is once again in the Director chair with a Co-Producer and a Co-Writer credit too, and, with a number of that original line up returning again with their cans of 'whoop-ass' to thwart them pesky alien Mo-Fo's out of the sky and into oblivion . . . maybe! The film has so far taken US$143M over its opening weekend worldwide.

This time Jeff Goldblum is back as is Bill Pullman, Brent Spiner, Judd Hirsch, Vivica Fox and Robert Loggia (who died after filming wrapped, and to whom the film is honoured), joined by Liam Hemsworth, William Fichtner and Charlotte Gainsbourg but alas no Will Smith. Smith's character in the first film, Steven Hiller, we learn was killed nine years ago when testing a new experimental fighter jet designed using alien technology. Now hailed a national hero, his memory lives on, and manifests itself in the film through his son Dylan Hiller (Jessie Usher) - also an acclaimed pilot and captain of the Earth Space Defence (ESD) which rose out of the events of the 1996 attack.


It seems that 20 years ago when the invading aliens were wiped out, they sent a distress signal to their other fleets in deep space before finally succumbing to the might of Uncle Sam, and secreting themselves away elsewhere around our fragile green planet. Over those intervening years, The United Nations has rebuilt itself and created the ESD programme based at Area 51 using recovered alien technology as an early warning system and as its defence against future alien hostilities. Earth now also has early warning bases on the Moon, on Mars and on Rhea - one of Saturn's moons.

With the advent of global celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of that 1996 alien attack the now President of the USA Elizabeth Lanford (Sela Ward), orders an attack and destroy directive on a vast spherical ship that appears through a worm hole over the Moon Base. However, David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) now Director of ESD is not convinced that this spherical ship is hostile, having boarded a fully intact downed alien ship laying dormant in Africa and come to the realisation that it sent an intergalactic distress signal back to its home world 20 years before. But, the President blows it into oblivion before any form of contact can be made choosing to shoot first, and ask questions later.

Almost simultaneously, the ESD report that its base on the Saturn Moon has gone . . . . without a trace, and before you can say 'Uncle Sam' a space ship measuring 3,000 kms in diameter emerges and wipes out the Moon Base killing all and destroying everything in its path on its journey toward Earth. Before doing so however, Levinson and ESD pilot Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth) in the latters space tug, retrieve a vital container from that downed spherical ship which they take back to ESD HQ at Area 51. Here ex-President Whitmore (Bill Pullman) and Dr. Brakish Okun (Brent Spiner) who has just woken from a twenty year coma, have been experiencing visions of alien logograms since their close encounters with the alien kind of twenty years ago and set about trying to interpret these and decipher their meaning - with some success.

In the meantime, the 3,000kms wide alien spacecraft enters Earths atmosphere with is own gravitational force and begins to devastate much of Asia with Singapore getting flattened. With its own gravity many buildings and structures are lifted high into the air, and as Levinson comments 'what's goes up, must come down' . . . and it does - on London, in spectacular fashion! When the alien super ship comes to rest it does so over the Atlantic Ocean and much of the USA with further widespread death and destruction, all delivered with Emmerich's trademark gravitas. It promptly begins drilling mid-ocean with the aim of sucking out the Earth's core to harvest the heat source to power its own vessels, but in so doing will throw out our planets magnetic fields, which in turn will destroy us. Levinson had seen earlier evidence of this in the African ship he boarded, but at the time did not understand the significance of that activity which mysteriously halted when the attacking aliens were thwarted twenty years earlier.

Back in Area 51, Dr. Okun cuts open the container retrieved by Levinson and Morrison and out rolls another spherical orb of artificial intelligence that is able to communicate directly, and advise that it is friendly and had come to warn Earth of the attack now happening and help evacuate humanity to a refuge planet. The sphere tells its own story of how it is the sole survivor from a world also wiped out by this aliens now attacking the Earth, and that their Queen is now coming to wipe it out too once and for all, knowing that the sphere is the last threat to their existence. And so Hiller is tasked with a counter attack on the Queen with the full and unrelenting force of ESD, but this attack doesn't go quite according to plan resulting in the bulk of the attack squadron being wiped out . . . except our heroes of course.

The Queen now rapidly advances to retrieve and destroy the sphere now locked inside an isolation chamber within Area 51, believed to be safe and secure. A decoy mission is quickly planned and rapidly executed to sidetrack the Queen out into the open and therefore exposed to attack using ground and what's left of the air forces. The Queen however, is not the Queen for nothing and when she's pissed you don't want to get in her way, as many find out to their ultimate cost. Whitmore, bows out with his final salute to Uncle Sam and flies the space tug loaded to the gunnels with nuclear warheads into the Queens space ship and destroys it, destroying himself in the process. The Queen escapes and quickly tramples on everything and everyone and breaks through to the isolation chamber and the sphere. But in the heat of the desert and with the force of her own gun ships piloted now by Hiller, Morrison and Whitmore's daughter (also a trained fighter pilot conveniently), the Queen is destroyed, and with it the Atlantic drilling is halted with minutes to spare before our core is punctured, and the mother ship begins its retreat.

Strap yourself in for death and destruction writ large as only Roland Emmerich knows how to deliver, but beware, this does not equate to a great movie by any means. Yes, it's big on spectacle and this is handled well, but really, there is nothing new here that we have not seen before in other large scale disaster epics, alien or otherwise, over the last two decades. As for the story - it's a bit muddled, hurried and convenient, and you need to suspend belief as to the geography and science behind some of what we are being led to believe here . . . even with Hollywood's poetic license! This film lacks the emotional gravitas delivered so well by Will Smith twenty years ago and the grounding of the real world as it was back then, opting for a parallel world of 2016 with over zealous fantasy and seriousness. It is also served up with a good dose of cheese too throughout, and particularly in the closing scenes where Uncle Sam whips ass with the help of a token African War Lord and a Chinese female fighter pilot, an attempt at another rousing speech by ex-President Whitmore as they go once more into the breach, and an outed Scientist (Dr. Okun) who proclaims that with the help of what the sphere can teach us we'll take the fight to the aliens uniting the galaxies across the cosmos, in what will be 'Independence Day 3'. See it at your local Odeon for the big screen experience, but you can easily wait for the big screen experience in your own home too.

 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-