In 1996, plucky and/or smartass Americans defeated the alien menace.

In 2016, we are going to get our asses kicked.

In this first look at Independence Day: Resurgence there are no quips, there is no hope. I actually went back and checked, there is not a SINGLE smile in this entire trailer.

In fact, it’s mostly the horrified reactions of the main cast of characters and since the sheer majority of them are brand-spanking new, their horror ends up meaning nothing to me. If this movie had managed to do the impossible and reunite the entire original cast including Will Smith, Vivica Fox, Adam Baldwin, etc. and then gave me a montage of their terrified faces, then this trailer would’ve made a bigger emotional impact on me than Baby Hemsworth & Friends.

The other half of the trailer is mostly a lot of shots of humans in battle, firing weapons or witnessing some type of huge destruction but to be quite honest, I was never sure of exactly what I was looking at.

AND THAT’S THE TRAILER’S (and possibly maybe the movie’s?) ENTIRE PROBLEM.

What worked in the previous movie was seeing the familiar be completely destroyed. The 1996 America that was destroyed in that movie was the 1996 America we lived in. The 2016 in this movie is an alternate timeline where we have developed alien defense technology in order to fortify our planetary security. It’s a cool concept but it is so different from what was appealing about the first movie that you wonder if this is actually going to work.

I will give the trailer a huge amount of props for integrating President Whitmore’s speech from the first movie but it ends up doing all of the heavy lifting. The speech is one of the most memorable pep talks in movie history and to see it contrasted with these grim and hopeless images was an interesting choice that doesn’t leave me excited, but definitely intrigued.

Also, at little over two minutes, it is the length of a trailer but because we don’t get to see any aliens, any destruction of famous landmarks or given any real introduction to who these new characters are, this does feel more like a teaser. However, it is enough to convince me to see if their version of 2016 will survive to see 2017.

Check out the video below to see my additional thoughts on the trailer. Thanks!