‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Critics Round-up: What’s The Feedback So Far? [Spoiler-Free]

Facebook/Star Wars The Force Awakens
Facebook/Star Wars The Force Awakens

Fans will be lining up for the highly anticipated opening of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” in theaters on Dec. 18, but critics have had the chance to watch the film ahead of its regular movie run. So far, the general sentiment is that the movie is quite good. Here’s a round-up of what critics have to say about the latest “Star Wars:”

Brian Truitt from USA TODAY wrote, “That old Star Wars magic is back. Set aside worries about the second coming of The Phantom Menace. With a cast of entertaining new characters, heartfelt scenes, huge planetary battles and no qualms about being very funny or very dark at times, director J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens (**** out of four) returns the iconic sci-fi franchise to a glorious place that hasn’t been seen since Ewoks danced off into victory in Return of the Jedi 32 years ago.”

Todd McCarthy from The Hollywood Reporter  wrote, “The Force is back. Big time. As the best Star Wars anything — film, TV show, video game, spinoff, what-have-you — in at least 32 years,Star Wars: The Force Awakens pumps new energy and life into a hallowed franchise in a way that both resurrects old pleasures and points in promising new directions.”

Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian  wrote, “From the first few minutes, or even the first few frames, JJ Abrams’s exciting, spectacular and seductively innocent Star Wars: The Force Awakens shows itself a movie in the spirit of the original trilogy, which ended with Return of the Jedi in 1983. (This one takes up the story 30 years later.) … The Force Awakens re-awoke my love of the first movie and turned my inner fanboy into my outer fanboy. There are very few films which leave me facially exhausted after grinning for 135 minutes, but this is one. And when Han Solo and Chewie come on, I had a feeling in the cinema I haven’t had since I was 16: not knowing whether to burst into tears or into applause.”

Chris Nashawaty from Entertainment Weekly  wrote, “J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens delivers exactly what you want it to: rollicking adventure wrapped in epic mythology, a perfect amount of fan service that fires your geekiest synapses, and a just-right cliffhanger ending that paves the way for future installments. In a way, Abrams has accomplished exactly what he did with 2009’s Star Trek. He took a worshiped pop-culture franchise with a rabid legion of disciples, treated it with respect, and made it matter again. … When The Force Awakens ends, it feels bittersweet simply because you so badly want to get to the next chapter. So, yes, the wait is over. But now a new waiting game begins.”

Joe Morgenstern from The Wall Street Journal wrote,  “Disney, the new proprietor, and J.J. Abrams, the director, haven’t diluted the appeal of this space opera for the ages. Far from it, ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ flatters old and new audiences alike, and straddles generations with aplomb. ‘You’re Han Solo?’ asks the startled young heroine, Rey, after the gallant old guy has come aboard a battered old spaceship—the Millennium Falcon, of course—that she, a scavenger by trade but also a pilot, has chanced to purloin. (Rey is played, dazzlingly, by Daisy Ridley.) ‘I used to be,’ Han replies with a small, sardonic grin owned solely by Harrison Ford. Rarely have age and shining youth been juxtaposed more affectingly, but that’s only one of many moments of grace in a movie that mines its resonant mythology while moving its story ever forward.”