Is the new Star Wars film a Force to be reckoned with?
The biggest movie of the year, possibly even the decade, is so close now you can practically feel the excitement in the air. Before The Force Awakens is let loose upon the multiplexes, however, the critics have had a chance to weigh in with their thoughts on Star Wars' return to our screens.
As expected, the film has already been awarded a handful of perfect scores, with Total Film, USA Today, The Guardian and The Telegraph all giving J.J. Abrams' film top marks. Between them, they praised the film for its masterful storytelling, resonant mythology and boundless energy. Total Film did say the film wasn't perfect -despite, bizarrely, awarding it a perfect score- but claimed that for every minor niggle there are ten things the films gets completely right.
Surprisingly, Empire didn't give the film their highest score, opting to give the film four stars out of five. Despite this, they still heaped praise upon the picture, making it clear the latest entry in the Star Wars saga is a big step-up from the dry, joyless prequels. In terms of performances, they said that Daisy Ridley's Rey feels a little short-changed, but had nothing but good things to say about fellow lead John Boyega, and Kylo Ren, the mysterious villain of the piece played by Adam Driver.
Elsewhere the reviews are generally favourable, but one or two of them do take Abrams' vision of Star Wars to task for being too slavish to the original films. Variety knocked the film for its over reliance on fanservice, while The New York Post called it a shameless replay of the franchises greatest hits. A lot of these reviews seem to agree that the film is at its best when looking to the future instead of leaning on the past. Could we be looking at a film similar in structure to Abram's own Star Trek reboot here? One that pays homage to its roots, quietly tying up those loose ends while setting the stage for a whole new mythology?
In terms of negative reviews, there are very few so far. The LA Times called the picture 'erratic' and 'haphazard', but still found it to be an improvement on the prequels. The most scathing review comes courtesy of Roger Moore over at Movie Nation who found the movie too predictable and derivative for its own good.
So, there we have it, The Force Awakens is certainly a winner with the critics, even if their glowing recommendations do come with a few caveats. It'll be interesting to see how fans across the 'net react across the next few days, but for the moment it certainly looks like J.J. and his crew have succeeded in their mission to get the Star Wars franchise back on track.
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