This is how The Force Awakens should've been made

Rating: 8/10 (5 April 2017)

Surprisingly solid and lively blockbuster filled with everything I expected from the Star Wars sequel The Force Awakens - a bit of adventure, a bit of laughs, a bit of tears, a bit of tension and tons of action. The picture is very pleasing to the eye - new interesting ships, new beautiful planets and new interesting creatures. The story itself is pretty straightforward as all we see is actually the Episode 4 opening crawl made into a movie, so nothing new in general but the way it goes on screen tells us: they've made an effort. And when somebody makes an effort it always shows. Even the secondary characters have their own small story. Even the smallest backstreet in some alien town is populated with life. Battle scenes are epic. I mean, epic. Probably, the most beautiful space battle in all 8 movies (so far) and the most engaging ground battle ever. It's literally a war movie in space. So, it's Star Wars!
There are hundreds of carefully placed cross-references to other SW movies, books, animated series etc. which is undoubtedly entertaining for SW lovers but you can try to watch this as a standalone movie (though you probably won't understand a half of what's going on on the screen).
CGI Tarkin and Leia are... er... promising. There's definitely more 'magic' than 'light' in ILM nowadays but we are still 'almost there' I think. Anyway, digital characters are surprisingly convincing, not overdone and really fit in the picture. Frankly, I expected worse.
The only drawback is, sadly, the music - inexpressive and somewhat bland, it shines only when some classic SW themes come through. Yes I know Michael Giacchino had one month only to make the whole score but who cares, it's not mentioned in the credits.
The bottom line: go watch it, it's the best Star Wars made without Lucas (so far)