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Our (SPOILER FREE) Star Wars: The Force Awakens Look at the Reviews

So, as you know by now Star Wars: The Force Awakens was screened for a huge crowd of A-listers and entertainment journalists in Los Angeles on Monday night. Reviews were embargoed until today, folks, so if you want to achieve a childhood-level like lack of awareness about what the film's about or what those paid to critique films have to say, you may want to tread lightly on the Internet until you've seen it. For those of you who want a general sense of what people are saying without reading the reviews and thus, the spoilers, we’ve provided a spoiler free line or two from a bunch of the reviews for you. We’re also providing links to the actual reviews that will contain spoilers.

Also, apologies for burying the lead—people seem to really like, and some even love, this film.

Here is Peter Sciretta of Slashfilm’s completely spoiler free review. The gist: Star Wars is back.

The USA Today gives you the celebrity tweets from the Monday premiere, which are also spoiler free, and also delightfully free of nuance considering they're 140 characters worth of gushing.

The New York Times Manhola Dargis’s review includes the headline “delivers the thrills, with a touch of humanity.” 

The The Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy’s sums up his review by calling the film “an all-conquering force.” 

Variety’s Justin Chang writes that “J.J. Abrams’ hugely anticipated blockbuster brings welcome jolts of energy, warmth and excitement back to the biggest franchise in movie history.”

The Washington Post’s Ann Hornaday’s writes that the film “has succeeded where it counts most, in creating a cast of characters that viewers can spend the next several years rooting for, especially the spirited, resourceful heroine at its center.” 

Entertainment Weekly’s Chris Nashawaty writes that the film is a “rollicking adventure wrapped in epic mythology.”

LA Weekly’s Amy Nicholson wants you to “relax, The Force Awakens is the third good Star Wars movie.”

Okay fine, here's a lukewarm review we found from a top criticSalon's Andrew O'Hehir.

Of course if you really want to binge on reviews, you can spend all day reading Rottentomatoes, where the film is currently enjoying a 97% fresh rating.

In sum—it looks like J.J. Abrams pulled it off, which really isn’t that surprising but it is impressive, considering the weight of the world is more or less the exact same weight of Star Wars fans' expectations. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bryan Abrams

Bryan Abrams is the Editor-in-chief of The Credits. He's run the site since its launch in 2012. He lives in New York.

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