Twentieth Century Fox did not screen Independence Day: Resurgence for critics, probably because the film is so good it would annihilate critics’ ranking systems. For how does one give a film “five stars” when it deserves all the stars in the universe? How does one offer “two thumbs up” when a more accurate assessment would be to have each person on Earth join together to raise all of our thumbs to the heavens? And how does one rate “10 out of 10” when one knows ∞ is the only numerical concept that could come close to representing Independence Day: Resurgence?
Or perhaps Fox didn’t screen it for critics because they realize a film of this magnitude—nay, an event of this magnitude—doesn’t need critics. Let us not forget that Independence Day: Resurgence is the first mainstream motion picture starring our beloved Jeff Goldblum since the impossibly ancient era of 1997. It has been a long wait. We hunger. As Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff asked earlier this week on PBS NewsHour: “Could anticipation for seeing Jeff Goldblum in Independence Day: Resurgence possibly be any higher?”
