After Roland Emmerich’s long-gestating sequel blew up
cinema screens in the summer, does this novelisation of the mediocre
blockbuster go any way towards improving it?

The book starts off well, treating the events of 1996 not
as an integral story that needed to be known in advance, but as backstory to
the plot of this one, thus allowing it to exist as a standalone tale. The first
part of the story gets a bit of expansion as minor characters are created from
whose viewpoint the aliens’ advancement through the solar system is seen,
giving a much-needed human perspective to the countless anonymous lives sacrificed
in the film for the sake of a few minutes of CGI devastation.

However, any potential for narrative enhancement falls
by the wayside once the action kicks off. The initially wide scope of the story
increasingly narrows until only the core group of characters have any relevance
to events, but at the same time the writing doesn’t maintain the same sense of
spectacle, excitement or shock that is really the purpose of the film’s entire existence.

One of the advantages of novelisations is the written
medium providing far greater room for character introspection, giving the
opportunity to further develop them that the pace of a movie fundamentally
lacks. However, in this case not much insight is given to the characters’
thoughts and motivations that weren’t already apparent from the dialogue. Also,
while it was interesting to be given a little backstory for Jake and Charlie
explaining why they’re such close friends, would it really have been that
difficult to take some of the characters who got short shrift in the film –
such as pilot Rain Lao or warlord Dikembe Umbutu – and actually flesh them out
a bit? Likewise, the most important developmental aspect of the film, the
psychic link the aliens can forge with humans and the PTSD-like mental scarring
that remains after it has been severed, is afforded no further consideration.

Overall, the book is little more than a novel retread of
a not especially distinctive sci-fi action sequel, which given the potential it
had to distinguish itself, is a missed opportunity.

INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE / AUTHOR: ALEX IRVINE / PUBLISHER: TITAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW