It's both nostalgic and fresh, a tender homage to, especially, the initial Star Wars ("Episode IV: A New Hope"), as well as a bridge to help those of us stuck in the splendor of Hoth edge into the future.

Full Review | Aug 7, 2018

Star Wars: The Force Awakens gives new life to a franchise of hope, resilience, courage and family that's been missing from theatres for far too long.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 16, 2016

Star Wars: The Force Awakens honors the series and takes it in exciting new directions. Both The Millennium Falcon and millennials, it would seem, are in good hands.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 10, 2016

'The Force Awakens' does what the original films did well - and is also its own, thrilling thing.

Full Review | Apr 27, 2016

Despite the copious servings of tragic threats and good feelings, the production sinks under the weight of its emotional calculation.

Full Review | Jan 4, 2016

It all comes together nicely as the actors breathe vulnerability, fallibility and personality into their roles, with Daisy Ridley being quite the commanding presence. My favourite, hands down, is the cute and rotund droid BB-8.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2016

The new movie, as an act of pure storytelling, streams by with fluency and zip.

Full Review | Dec 21, 2015

That's what's so impressive about the tricky balancing act Abrams has pulled off with The Force Awakens: He's made a movie that's simultaneously gripping and a huge release. We are in good hands, at last.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 20, 2015

I found myself listening to a chorus of spontaneous gasps, cheers, laughs, whoops and even occasional cries of anguish. What's really surprising is that many of them were coming from me.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 20, 2015

With The Force Awakens, Abrams has begun one of the most important reclamation projects of our time: the complete erasure from cultural memory of The Phantom Menace and its sequels.

Full Review | Dec 19, 2015

A film that fans of the old movies will relish but one that looks bound to capture the imagination of a new audience, too.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 17, 2015

There are no glaring missteps in The Force Awakens, and on such a stage this kind of performance might even pass for greatness -- for a little while.

Full Review | Dec 17, 2015

I bet you'll have fun - I did, mostly. But it's the fun of seeing something fairly successfully redone, with the promise of more of the same to come.

Full Review | Dec 17, 2015

It's everything the kid in us goes to the movies for -- marvelous adventure that leaves us surprised, scared and euphoric.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 17, 2015

But the movie can't sustain its playfulness-or its tension, either. Abrams is too busy trying to roll the original Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back into one two-hour-and-15-minute movie.

Full Review | Dec 17, 2015

There is, of course, CGI in The Force Awakens, but it's comparatively minimal. The film looks handmade, and this allows for a greater range of human emotion, too. When tragedy strikes, you feel it.

Full Review | Dec 17, 2015

The story is compelling. The acting is great. The technical aspects are solid. But it's hard to escape the idea that the film is a remix of something else, an attempt to rework story elements that felt more original elsewhere.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 17, 2015

As with other installments, this is less a movie than an exercise in massaging a juvenile-minded audience that wants the experience to be new and familiar at the same time.

Full Review | Dec 17, 2015

As a nostalgia trip that knows exactly what die-hard Star Wars fans want and then layers in some memorable new characters, The Force Awakens is exactly what it needs to be: an old-school Saturday afternoon sci-fi matinee writ big.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 17, 2015

Like their Star Wars forebears, Boyega's Finn and Ridley's Rey are brave, funny, and admirable but also imperfect, uncertain, and sometimes afraid. That is to say, they're genuine, multisided characters with believable motivations.

Full Review | Dec 17, 2015