Set twenty years after the original alien attack where earth has been using technology recovered for salvaged equipment to build defences and update equipment to match the original alien weaponry in order to ensure there can be no re-occurrence of the original invasion however while earth has had twenty years to develop so have the aliens and when David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) who is now head of the Earth Space Defence based in Area 51, is shown a ship which has been newly discovered in Africa he realises that this ship sent a distress signal during the original invasion and believes that a second invasion is imminent and when the aliens do arrive the ships size is beyond imaginable and causes wide spread destruction with earth seemingly defenceless once again. It is then up to Levinson with a little help from another survivor from the original invasion Dr.Brakish Okun (Brent Spiner) and ace pilots Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth) and Captain Dylan Dubrow-Hiller (Jessie Usher) to plot an attack on the queen alien and destroy the fleet.

While the original was, and still is to some extent, a classic action movie full of witty one liners, massive explosions and the memorable speech from Bill Pullman, the sequel feels lacking. There is still plenty of action and a few humerous moments there is something lacking in the entertainment value. Perhaps it is down to the fact that I didn’t warm to the characters in the same way that I did with the original so I didn’t really care who survived or didn’t and I didn’t understand why every main character is seemingly linked to each other by past events most of which are just brushed upon. Also, the aliens have apparently become so advanced that even our future technology is archaic against it but yet they are, once again, still weak against a seemingly very basic attack plan. Thirdly, with the exception of Levinson and Okun, there was no need for any of the returning characters in terms of the story other than to ensure that the movie could keep enough links with the original to ensure it could be an actual sequel.

It is still worth a watch, has some good special effects and few decent action sequences but at time it felt a bit like a remake rather than a sequel as the movie follows almost the exact same format as the original and given the twenty years between the movies it would have been nice if any of the five writers had been able to come up with something a little different.

DJ Speaks Rating:  5 Out Of 10