1996’s “Independence Day” was the last of its kind: a largely practically built blockbuster that enjoyed the element of surprise, buttering up audiences with a year’s worth of enigmatic marketing before delivering big thrills with a loopy, lovingly designed alien attack picture, giving the disaster movie formula one last sweaty workout before CGI arrived and smoothed out all the mayhem. It was a mammoth hit and one of the best films of the year, delivering huge action with sincerity and a tasteful amount of stupidity. “Independence Day” was also the last decent feature from director Roland Emmerich, who followed up his biggest hit with junk like “Godzilla,” “10,000 BC,” “White House Down,” and last year’s bomb, “Stonewall.” In need of career CPR, Emmerich reteams with former partner Dean Devlin (also someone who could use a professional boost) to mastermind “Independence Day: Resurgence,” which attempts to sequelize a tale that ended rather successfully the first time around. The creative well’s gone dry with these two, who visibly struggle to come up with a reason why this continuation should even exist, tarnishing the brand name with an unreasonably idiotic, irritatingly plasticized follow-up. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com