Starring Liam Hemsworth. Rated PG. Now playing

Twenty years after evil aliens blew up the White House and made Will Smith a movie star, Earth is at peace. The disaster united the world in harmony. With alien technology, humans have colonized the moon, harnessed gravity, and mastered nuclear fusion. Macho nerd David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) has been promoted to director of Earth defence forces, which have become so integrated that they include Hong Kong model Angelababy.

Not everything is great. Ex-president Whitmore (Bill Pullman) is weak and decrepit, Dr Okun (Brent Spiner) is still in a coma, and Captain Hiller (Will Smith) is dead, killed by salary negotiations. No! He was killed while training a new generation of heroes including studly Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth), a cocky fighter pilot itching to prove his worth. If only there was a new wave of even eviller aliens! You could have an hour of character exposition followed by an hour of things blowing up even bigger than before!

That could also provide you with two hours of picking apart the cliches and hoary nonsense of Independence Day: Resurgence, a movie that plays like a series of trailers for expensive disaster movies. Everyone in this movie does exactly what you think they are going to do, from the dork who finds his inner hero to the sexy psychologist who learns that her subjects are all writing the same symbols because it is a warning... from space! 

Alternatively, if you just want to put on 3D glasses and watch some formulaic but pleasant good-natured fun, you might have a decent time. There’s something refreshing about a movie that has essentially no complexity, and where you can have zero compunction against wishing villains to be exploded as often as possible. But it’s not messy. The only scary image is Brent Spiner’s buttcrack. And if millions died during this invasion, well, there had to a reason for another stirring monologue about hope, right?