The reviews are in, and so far everyone thinks The Force Awakens is pretty good. In case you are trying to avoid any spoilers at all, here is a spoiler-free roundup of blurbs. However, if you go read an entire critique, you won’t learn so much that it ruins the movie for you.
There’s a very good chance that most diehard Star Wars fans are going to love The Force Awakens. They’re going to love it because it’s been made to their exact specifications, relayed through years of constructive criticism and very vocal bellyaching.
…The Force Awakens is almost a Han Solo movie unto itself.
But, not quite, because Daisy Ridley as a lonely desert scavenger named Rey; John Boyega as a former First Order Stormtrooper, now wanted deserter, Finn; and Oscar Issac as Resistance pilot Poe (I would have liked to have seen a little more Poe) are all so fantastic and they bring to The Force Awakens what the prequels were so desperately missing: a sense of humor. There are actual laughs to be had in The Force Awakens! The original Star Wars had laughs. It’s this, more than anything, that makes The Force Awakens feel like a direct sequel to the original trilogy.
In summation, it would seem that for the most part, J.J Abrams has done a good job at capturing the original Star Wars magic; in particular, the characterization.
The good news is that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a terrific and at times purely wonderful movie. It has its faults for sure – every Star Wars movie has at least some – and while I wouldn’t call it a truly great motion picture, it is a worthy follow-up to the original trilogy. It captures so much of those movies’ warmth, sense of fun, and entertaining tone that it leaves the prequels quickly behind as a bad, distant memory. It has a sweep and grandeur all its own, and while it may just miss the mythic power of the series at its very best – i.e. A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and most of the third act of Return of the Jedi – it sets up the sequels to do that.
Packed with action and populated by both familiar faces and fresh blood, The Force Awakens successfully recalls the series' former glory while injecting it with renewed energy.
The big news about “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is — spoiler alert — that it’s good!
At the top is the latest comic from Lunarbaboon.
BB-8 was too cute by half, IMO, and does distract a bit. BB-8 is what Jar Jar should have been, eye candy for the kids. Not that Jar Jar failed, my sons love that Rastafarian alien, it's that he is too annoying for the older viewers.
I watched Ep7 on 2D because the IMAX 3Ds were sold out. I may watch it on 3D next weekend when all the fanboys have had their fill.