The original Independence Day, in 1996, was – in retrospect – revolutionary. Roland Emmerich’s film redefined the scale that we could expect from a blockbuster, raising the stakes as he wiped out entire cities. Its influence has rippled through summer cinema ever since, with every film competing to wipe out major population centres. But that poses a challenge for Emmerich as he returns for this sequel. With everyone by now used to planetary-wide devastation, how to up the ante?

Emmerich gives it the old college try. The alien ship that threatens Earth this time is 3,000 miles wide, big enough to generate its own gravity and lift whole cities into its orbit, and it threatens to consume the very fabric of the planet. That means there’s more talk of our “molten core” than one would expect outside of a particularly purple romance novel. He resists the temptation to recreate every beat of the original too, finding a few new twists on his alien menace that switch up the peril.

Luckily, humanity has spent 20 years preparing for this, co-opting the crashed alien technology into new weapons. Unfortunately, they didn’t plan for a ship the size of the Atlantic, the fools. This singular vessel apparently destroys Asia so thoroughly in the first act that no-one refers to the devastation of the continent ever again. From a filmmaking point of view, however, the big problem is that most of humanity’s surviving population has been recruited to appear onscreen. Liam Hemsworth isn’t actually bad as a hot-tempered hotshot pilot, and Jessie Usher’s Dylan Hiller might have been a worthy heir to his stepfather, Will Smith’s Steve Hiller, with a bit more time to shine, but they’re swept away in a tidal-wave of underdeveloped supporting characters. Emmerich wooed back the original cast with few exceptions (Margaret Colin’s White House staffer isn’t mentioned) but many of them are given as little to do as the new kids.

Even Jeff Goldblum, who injects cool into every frame in which he appears as the head of Earth’s defence project, doesn’t get close to enough screen time. The film suffers hugely from the lack of the Will Smith charisma tornado, though Bill Pullman’s former President neatly combines his own previous role with the Randy Quaid role of ranting doomsayer. Among the newcomers, Maika Monroe’s Abigail Whitmore and Rain (Chinese actress Angelababy) are smokin’ hot pilots – and that’s about the extent of their character and almost all their lines. Interesting prospects, like Charlotte Gainsbourg’s xenopsychologist and Deobia Oparei’s alien-fighting warlord, are brushed aside in favour of two uninteresting geeky boys who never earn their screentime. With about half as many speaking roles, it would have been twice as good.

Aside from Goldblum (“They always go for the landmarks”) and a few moments from Brent Spiner’s mad scientist, it’s not nearly as funny as the original either. But there’s still something exhilarating in Resurgence despite the mess. When the action really begins, there are moments that remind you Emmerich did not earn the title of Master of Disaster because Anonymous was so awful. He builds tension before the attack, and then unleashes devastation on a far greater level than you imagined, better than almost all his imitators. And he has an eye for arresting visuals – an alien ship squatting across half the planet – that still sets him apart.

So while this is utter nonsense for much of its runtime, overstuffed with people you will struggle to care about, and while its finale shamelessly begs a sequel (like Steven Hiller, Emmerich apparently ain’t heard no fat lady), there’s still a (molten) core of wild entertainment beneath the hokum. As half the free world rips itself apart, there’s something magnificent in watching humanity team up against a common enemy. If only we could manage it without the alien menace.

Independence Day: Resurgence is in cinemas now