'Independence Day-saster' on SyFy: Maybe you need a big-screen budget

Turns out, Merriman ("Pretty Little Liars") is the POTUS' bro, and a pretty darned tough dude himself. As world capitals are blithely demolished and a sketchy vice president goes all power-grab back East, POTUS Bro wanders the land collecting alien fighters, cybernerds and various family members -- here come da prez (Tom Everett Scott, "Southland," "ER"), parachuting in! -- to do blast-y battle with, uh, whatever those attackers are.

But that's fine because the meat of the movie is through. These Syfy original flicks (shifting this summer to Thursday from their longtime Saturday slot) tend to contain only 50 minutes of plot, despite their 90-minute run time (not counting commercials in the two-hour slot). While the setups can be fun, they're the point, really, so concluding half-hours get tedious and repetitive.

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Too bad, since they're dominated by cable-budget special effects, which are schlock, at best. It's especially unfortunate here because "Independence Day-saster" in the early going ain't half bad.