To cleanse the palate, the story of an alien invasion force seeking to take over and/or destroy the home of a scrappy band of true believers. Basically it’s a metaphor for the GOP primary. Except in this one, the good guys win (I assume).

This isn’t a sequel so much as it is a remake, right? All the old characters are back (except for A-lister Will Smith), and instead of the aliens invading, they’re re-invading. Second verse, same as the first. The only differences: The humans have some cool alien weapons now, Bill Pullman has a beard, and the new president is — go figure — a woman, played by Sela Ward doing her best Hillary Clinton voice. It would have been a gas to cast a Trump-ish figure instead, mugging for the camera about how “we’re going to do so much winning against these aliens, you’ll get tired of the winning, that I can tell you.” If you’re going to do a big cornball FX extravaganza where the plot is little more than window dressing for battle scenes, you might as well have maximum fun.