At least the first one had a coherent plot and character development.
This sequel never focuses on a single character arc for more than 30 seconds. They add in a kabillion cardboard-cutout, focus-group-designed characters – the “bad boy” dudebro who isn’t actually bad, the lovably awkward nerd, the nerdy comic relief nerd, the Bad-Ass Black Guy, the surprise gay love interest for Brent Spiner who of course dies, and the “pretty” but uninteresting love interest for the dudebro who is former president’s daughter and the current president’s speech writer but also a fighter pilot(?) because you need at least one girl in the cast.
And we went through the whole film pointing out scenes and sub-plots stolen from other movies. Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, Armageddon, all sorts of shit.
It was like someone took the last 30 years of sci-fi films, threw them into a blender, filtered them through a “how to simultaneously appeal to the masses and alienate science fiction fans” filter, and hit “record”.