What’s The Better Summer Movie Sequel? Jason Bourne Or Independence Day: Resurgence

There are some mega-dope blockbuster flicks set to hit theaters this summer, but none are going head-to-head for box office glory like the next installment of Jason Bourne and Independence Day: Resurgence. Trying to figure out which one will be best is a tough debate, so we pinned two editors against one another in the spirit of Dewcision 2016 to state their cases.

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Jason Bourne

Alright, let’s just state some fact: If we’re excluding that crappy spin-off starring Jeremy Renner, the Bourne Series has an average Rotten Tomatoes score of 85%, while the original Independence Day has a Rotten Tomatoes score of only 61%.

The Bourne Series has garnered three Oscars, while Independence Day won Favorite Movie at Nickelodeon’s 1997 Kids’ Choice Award. Independence Day might have been a fun blockbuster film in the 90’s when audiences were willing to believe that a Mac laptop could take down a massive alien armada, but that over-the-top ridiculousness won’t fly in 2016. Point blank: Independence Day seems like a brainless blockbuster riding high on nostalgia and still coasting off all that heat from its Kids’ Choice award. In 1997.

On the flip-side, the Bourne Series’ that were released in the early-2000’s have only become more and more relevant over time. In a post-NSA America, the CIA’s ability to track and peruse Bourne is more realistic than ever.

Jason Bourne, who’s one of the biggest action heroes of the past decade, will once again travel around the world, kill assassins and jump from love interest to love interest. Bourne is an international badass that gives James Bond a run for his money. The new trailer features scenes with Bourne bare-knuckle boxing, jumping from roof to roof and uttering the badass lines, “I know who I am… I remember. I remember everything.” With these few lines, we know that Bourne is going to be on an action-packed, adrenaline-fueled manhunt for the individuals who destroyed his life.

Independence Day: Resurgence

Instead of following a morally corrupt assassin with dementia around places not called America, let’s talk about a film that epitomizes protecting the homeland, Independence Day: Resurgence.

The mindless lemmings will be quick to point to the sequel’s lackluster Rotten Tomatoes score. The haters will inevitably discredit the film in comparison to the first one. But just because it likely won’t net nearly a billion dollars and become a cultural phenomenon for decades to come like its predecessor, that doesn’t mean that a storyline centered around alien warfare—bolstered with a $165 million budget—won’t be dope AF.

Real talk, if a 100-foot tall alien queen chasing Jeff Goldblum across a Nevada desert while he drives a school bus full of abandoned children doesn’t sound like edge-of-your-seat entertainment, then check your pulse, because you might be dead. And for those who say that the movie is exploding with ridiculous, over-the-top-nonsense, my response is ‘Precisely. That’s the POINT.’

If you need more of a reason to go out and see a full blown space opera with stranded pilots navigating through an extraterrestrial ecosystem equipped with machine guns, military jet fighters and cold fusion bombs, the film also features certified bombshells Maika Monroe and Vivica A. Fox. Daddy likey.

Resurgence is primed to evoke a strong sense of cultural memory while providing two hours of completely realistic alien combat. You owe it to your teenage self to see the movie. That pimple-faced kid would be disappointed if, after 20 years, you give up on Jeff Goldblum walking around alien ships making snarky comments and drawing random conclusions to bring the extraterrestrial down once again.

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Matt’s love of writing was born during a sixth grade assembly when it was announced that his essay titled “Why Drugs Are Bad” had taken first prize in D.A.R.E.’s grade-wide contest. The anti-drug people gave him a $50 savings bond for his brave contribution to crime-fighting, and upon the bond’s maturity 10 years later, he used it to buy his very first bag of marijuana.