Critics were allowed to share Twitter reactions from Monday's premiere of Star Wars: The First Awakens but full-blown reviews were embargoed until this morning. Below, here's a few in-depth reviews from well known critics around the net.
“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.”
---Entertainment Weekly
"Despite the prerelease hype, it won’t save the world, not even Hollywood, but it seamlessly balances cozy favorites – Harrison Ford, ladies and gentlemen – and new kinetic wows along with some of the niceties that went missing as the series grew into a phenomenon, most crucially a scale and a sensibility that is rooted in the human.”
---The New York Times
"Abrams has done stellar work by casting actors who will be unknown to most filmgoers but who shoulder their responsibilities with skill and confidence. Daisy Ridley resembles the plucky younger sister of Emma Watson and Keira Knightley as Rey, a scrappy, steampunk-ish scavenger who befriends a wandering soldier named Finn (John Boyega). Oscar Isaac brings just the right amount of cocksure street smarts to his role as Poe Dameron, and Adam Driver is similarly right-on as a shadowy, somewhat simian figure named Kylo Ren."
--The Washington Post
"The Force Awakens leans heavily into shades of Star Wars past and isn’t shy about that in the least. There are visually spectacular dogfights between X-wings and TIE Fighters set to John Williams’ sparkling score; another overarching bad guy who uses holograms, Supreme Leader Snoke (played via motion capture by Andy Serkis), a nasty figure along the lines of the late Emperor; and Starkiller Base, which makes the Death Star look like a Fisher-Price My First Space Battle Station.”
--- USA Today
"Risking heresy, it’s worth noting that Abrams actually did smarter, more inventive work on his 2009 reboot of Star Trek, no doubt in part because he was working with a less heavily guarded enterprise. Star Wars, at once a cultural juggernaut and a sacrosanct institution, resists any attempt to reimagine its landscape too aggressively or imaginatively; that may be to the detriment of this diverting first effort, but Abrams has more than stoked our anticipation for what his successors may have up their sleeves.”
---Variety
“It’s a very good movie, I’d say, and should entertain audiences both deeply and casually invested in the ongoing saga of the Skywalker family. Made with a profound sense of passion and respect by an entire generation of filmmakers and performers who were influenced by the original films, this is a deeply affectionate film, and that affection, that honestly felt love, is what is going to make all the difference for viewers.”
---HitFix
“The Force Awakens is the Star Wars movie for remix and remake culture. It’s not a remake or a reboot, but it’s a movie that tells a story not entirely dissimilar from the original Star Wars, except that many of the familiar beats and moments have a spin put on them.”
---Birth.Movies.Death
"What’s most important here is the tone. The Force Awakens absolutely nails the tone. This feels like the first Star Wars movie since 1983.”
---Uproxxx