Disaster movie? More of a movie disaster if I'm honest.

The man who effectively invented the Hollywood disaster movie was a producer called Irwin Allen who had made his name on Sixties television with series like Land of the Giants and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. He struck gold on the big screen with The Poseidon Adventure, followed it up with The Towering Inferno, and launched a whole Seventies movie genre.

In some respects Roland Emmerich is a post-millennium Irwin Allen.  Independence Day in 1996 ushered in a raft of films including The Day After Tomorrow and 2012; all of which are eminently watchable He is the king of the modern-day disaster film and contemporary CGI has allowed him to raise the stakes: Allen had to be content with destroying ships or tower blocks where Emmerich takes out entire ecosystems.

The similarities do not end there because just as Irwin Allen had the spectacularly awful The Swarm, now Emmerich has the equally inept Independence Day: Resurgence.

This is a film which is emblematic of the new Hollywood; every frame screams risk aversion. From the brand recognition of the title to the careful wooing of the newly-lucrative Chinese market, to the pointlessly returning cast – even one you were convinced was dead – this is a calculated exercise in box-ticking.

Shoddy, chaotic effects, a plot which just rips off the first one, and a cast who look like they’ve been chosen by the size of their fee rather than their competence provide a film which says ‘will this do’ from start to finish.

The disappointing thing is that Independence Day is one of those rare movies which might actually have merited a sequel. It seems reasonable to assume that the aliens would not simply retreat to Planet Zog or wherever and not bother us again; there would I imagine be an enthusiasm on their part to bomb us flat. As indeed there is but not, it seems, for 20 years.

The whole timescale is one of many troubling things about this film. Why for instance would they wait 20 years? Also the progress we have made in those 20 years seems improbable. Bearing in mind the state we were in at the end of the first movie we are expected to believe that not only have we rebuilt cities and restored infrastructure, but pirated alien technology has given us cold fusion and enabled us to colonise the moon.

Incidentally, if we have deciphered the secrets of their technology why do we have such problems reading their language? The film is full of ‘if only we knew what they meant’ moments, most of them from Charlotte Gainsbourg delivered with all the passion of a hostage video.

Independence Day: Resurgence is slipshod from start to finish. Will Smith has made some dodgy career decisions lately but ducking this is one of his smarter moves. Ex-president Bill Pullman has gone gaga for some unspecified reason – ‘if only we knew what his dreams meant’ – and Jeff Goldblum is still doing his coolest kid in the class act with Judd Hirsch kvetching away in the background as his dad. It’s all pretty tedious stuff and the testosterone posturing of Liam Hemsworth and Jessie T. Usher doesn’t help.

In the best traditions of creative bankruptcy, the ending sets up a third movie in which we pursue the aliens to the stars, to which my only response has to be ‘let’s not, but say we did’.

Billions...brash, bold, and brilliant

Paul Giamatti and Damien Lewis

One of the depressing things about modern movies is a failure to engage with ideas. I’ve written too often on here about the fundamental emptiness of the modern blockbuster so it is nice to take time to acknowledge a work that aspires to be about something.

I know it is fashionable to refer to this as the third Golden Age of television and trot out the usual names such as The Wire, Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, and so on. But to that canon I would humbly like to make a case for admitting Billions.

It is the latest product of the exclusive deal between Sky Atlantic and Showtime and if you are fortunate enough you will have been able to binge watch via Sky Box Sets. However if you are watching weekly I will make this spoiler-free.

Billions revolves around two of the touchstones of 21^st century American society; 9/11 and the financial crash of 2008/9. The story plays out between two protagonists; hedge fund boss Bobby ‘Axe’ Axelrod (Damien Lewis) and US Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti).

The banker is the self-made scrappy multi-billionaire who has dragged himself up from hardscrabble origins; the lawyer is the child of privilege who has lived as one of New York’s elite. In a brave move the show makes Axelrod the sympathetic one; a devoted family man. The notional good guy, Rhoades, is the one who cheats and bends rules and has a secret sex life that could ruin him.

The show takes up Gordon Gekko’s famous motto about greed being good. Axe may have committed the cardinal sin of making money out of 9/11 but he is helping the families of his former colleagues and first responders. Is this such a bad guy? This might be the first TV show with a kind word for bankers.

The clashes between these two men are almost Shakespearean. Lewis is unblinking but mercurial, Giamatti is a volcano of suppressed fury and sexual repression. They are physical and moral opposites. It’s like Othello with two actors alternating the roles of The Moor and Iago.

And in the middle is Desdemona, in this case Rhoades wife Wendy (Alison Tiff) who also happens to be Axelrod’s closest confidante. She is the catalyst for the tension between the two and all of the show’s memorable scenes either involve her or are about her.

Billions is a feast of wonderful writing. The plot is tense and suspenseful but leavened throughout by marvellous character moments which are gifts to a rich cast and keep the audience off guard throughout. Hand in hand is the most impressive roster of directors I can think of in any series with shows directed by Neil Burger, James Foley, John Dahl, Ryan Fleck, Karyn Kusama, and Neil LaBute among others. These are people who have been behind some of the most memorable American indie movies of the past twenty years. They have put together a body of work which documents a 21^st century view of the American male and Billions adds another layer to that in what it says about modern masculinity.

The ending of this first season is a combination of Shakespearean grandeur and Coppola-like levels of paranoia. It’s a perfect way for a season to end and while it is immensely satisfying it will also leave you eager to meet these characters again.