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Star War: The Force Awakens Review Thread

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J

Jigorath

Banned
Rotten Tomatoes

Metacritic


Alonso Duralde, The Wrap

Abrams has adopted the relatively cautious strategy of essentially remaking the original "Star Wars," which allows him to delight fans by bringing back the original players while laying down the groundwork of the new ones.
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Drew McWeeny, Hitfix

It must have seemed like a nearly-impossible task when JJ Abrams and his collaborators set out to bring "Star Wars" back to life, but they've more than done it. They've made something honest and beautiful and, above all, fun, and I find myself energized by the movie and by the promise it represents.
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Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

[Star Wars: The Force Awakens] is good. Not great. But far better than "not bad." Solidly, confidently good.
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Justin Chang, Variety

J. J. Abrams' hugely anticipated blockbuster brings welcome jolts of energy, warmth and excitement back to the biggest franchise in movie history.
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Amy Nicholson, LA Weekly

The Force Awakens steers the franchise back to its popcorn origins. It's not a Bible; it's a bantamweight blast. And that's just as it should be: a good movie, nothing more.
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Tom Long, Detroit News

Yes, it helps that the core group of original actors has returned, but it's more the energy, humor and simplicity of direction that has been recaptured. It's the overall vibe.
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Bryan Bishop, The Verge

A remarkable achievement that actually feels like Star Wars again, more so than any film since 1983.
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Cassandra Nicholson, The Reel Critic

Going in, many may feel the brand fatigue that comes with millions of dollars’ worth of advertisements and product placement leading up to the film’s release. Rest assured, however, that once the lights dim in the theatre, all that marketing stagecraft will fall away to reveal a truly engaging flick.
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Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

JJ Abrams banishes memories of George Lucas’s prequels with this outrageously exciting and romantic return to a world you hadn’t realised you’d missed so much
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Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter

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.
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Andrew O'Hehir, Salon

[Abrams ] has made an adoring copy of Star Wars, seeking to correct its perceived flaws, without understanding that nothing about that movie's context or meaning or enormous cultural impact can be duplicated.
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Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out

The rollicking, space-opera spirit of George Lucas's original trilogy (you can safely forget the second trio of cynical, tricked-up prequels) emanates from every frame of J.J. Abrams euphoric sequel.
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Terri Schwartz, IGN

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the movie it was promised to be, with great new characters, a respect for the original trilogy and a strong understanding of what makes this franchise click with fans. The new additions to the Star Wars universe work best, though there is some over-reliance on tying things to and making nods to the classic Star Wars films. Overall, this is a great way to reboot the franchise and open the world up for a new generation of fans.
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Matt Goldberg, Collider

There’s also the matter of “legacy” and while that’s all well and good (and something to be discussed in an article that’s willing to reveal certain spoilers), The Force Awakens works best when it embraces its future rather than leans on its past. It’s great to see Ford having a ball as Han Solo, but I adored every minute Rey and Finn have together, I’m going to be upset if Episode VIII doesn’t feature significantly more Poe Dameron, and I desperately want a 1:1 BB-8 to keep around my home. The Force Awakens is more of a bridge than a completely new era, but it successfully lets audience live again in a galaxy far, far away. If the next two installments can build on this movie’s foundation, we’ll never want to leave again.
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tumblr_li9klojKCQ1qd9fzl.gif


oZR7oRp.gif
 
T

Tabris

Member
Oh shit time to go media blackout. No more twitter for 1 day and 19 hours.

I will also need to avoid NeoGAF Star Wars threads as it may take mods a bit of time to delete posts.
 
Z

ZeroX03

Banned
Going in, many may feel the brand fatigue that comes with millions of dollars’ worth of advertisements and product placement leading up to the film’s release.
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As someone who's completely avoided any marketing, and never seen any trailers and knows next to nothing about the film: good to avoid the fatigue.
 
O

Oddduck

Member
The Orange County Register (some spoilers in the review)

Now, minus the Ewoks, the gang’s back. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” opens to the American public Thursday evening.

And it is good.

Not great. But far better than “not bad.” Solidly, confidently good.
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It’s easily the third-best in the franchise to date, behind the original, renamed “A New Hope” (’77), and “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980). Abrams’s temperament and tastes are sincere and amusing in roughly equal doses, and that’s about right for “Star Wars.”
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E

ezekial45

Banned
Birth. Movies. Death review by Devin Faraci

For most of its running time The Force Awakens is content to riff on and remix elements and story and emotional beats from the Original Trilogy - right up until the final saber duel in the snow. It’s there, after about 100 minutes, that The Force Awakens finally comes into its own, that it finally spreads its own original wings, and then the film barrels towards a final shot that is visually small but emotionally enormous. The film traffics in nostalgia until the ending, when it begins blazing its own path, one that I’m excited to follow to Episode VIII.
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W

WonkyPanda

Member
http://m.ign.com/articles/2015/12/16/star-wars-the-force-awakens-review

IGN review is up.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the movie it was promised to be, with great new characters, a respect for the original trilogy and a strong understanding of what makes this franchise click with fans. The new additions to the Star Wars universe work best, though there is some over-reliance on tying things to and making nods to the classic Star Wars films. Overall, this is a great way to reboot the franchise and open the world up for a new generation of fans.
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8.8
 
M

Meowster

Member
Leaving the low bar of the prequels aside, Rey could easily go down as an all-time great new hero. She’s just someone you want to root for, and it’s impossible not to love seeing her hold her own. Furthermore, she’s not made in the generic Tough Chick™ mold, which usually just means “Heavily sexualized woman who punches and shoots people”. She can be vulnerable, funny, annoyed, or any of the veritable range of emotions we’d expect from any well-written character. However, she is undoubtedly the main hero of the tale on par with Luke in A New Hope except without all the whining. Abrams and his casting directors found a diamond in the rough with Ridley, and I’m very curious to see how she’ll do outside of the Star Wars franchise.
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Yes, get this acclaim from Collider, Daisy. B rating

http://collider.com/star-wars-7-the-force-awakens-review/
 
R

ryan299

Member
Faraci says the story has problems the characters are awesome, the dog fights are uninspired and the saber fights are fantastic.

Watch out though as his third to last paragraph has a major SPOILER
 
M

Meowster

Member
It is always fun to watch MetaCritic go crazy when something new comes out. Reviews deleted, scores added, scores removed, all scores removed/added.
 
M

manhack

Member
I am tempted to avoid every piece of technology until I'm able to watch the movie, but there are a bunch of games I want to play. Set up blacklist keywords in twitch just in case. Not sure how bad spoilers can be for this movie, but want to be fresh as possible going in.
 
B

BenHargrove

Member
From what I've skimmed over, it seems that the movie is somewhere between great and good. Which I'm totally, totally fine with.

Didn't expect 100% with 30+ reviews though. Damn son.
 
Jin

Jin

Member
liquidtmd said:
An aside: No disrespect to this guy at all as i dont know him but this YouTube thumb still frame of him pulling a silly face - my God, thats every single frame ever to these kinda video reviews I see linked on social media sites.

Ever. Single. One.

Is there a school they go to that demands video reviewers have to frame themselves like this?
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It's the duck face for Youtube.
 
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