For me, by far the best Star Wars' since "The Empire Strikes Back"

Rating: 8/10 (3 June 2016)

Excellent, and a lot of fun, even if it occasionally crosses that thin line between reboot and re-hash. But if a Star Wars movie is going to be in many ways a re-do of an earlier episode, than thankfully, it's a re-visiting of the very first and still best episode 'A New Hope', And thankfully J.J. Abrams is directing, since he seems to be able to channel the beloved film- makers of his youth (Spielberg in "Super 8", Lucas here) and actually make this feel more like loving homage than creepy imitation most of the time.
Abrams also does a good job at keeping three meta levels going at one – the revisiting of the playful high energy fun that started the whole series off, keeping alive too the echo to those even earlier serials of the 1930s and 40s that inspired the very first film, and still creating a modern 2016 film while trading on our nostalgia for both the first "Star Wars" and how much younger we and the world seemed when we all first encountered it. All three levels dace together neatly under Abrams hand.
The new main characters are well drawn and well acted. Diversity and sexual equality has finally come to the galaxy, and it's none too soon, with a spiky, feisty female lead, and a black leading young man to fight with and woo her. But what makes these characters much better than average for this kind of film (and even for the Star Wars series) is they have a little complexity – the heroes have moments of cowardice and other less than admirable sides, and the new villain has moments of humor and humanity. Casting actors for ability to seem human helps too. Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Adam Driver all manage to get in some real moments amidst the explosions and chases. (Admittedly Driver looks nothing like his on screen parents, but who really cares) And Andy Serkis creates a nicely chilling evil demi- God as the baddest of the baddies.
I also appreciate that Abrams has updated the effects – but only a little. It still looks, feels and sounds like a sibling to the original, not an effort to erase our memories of, say, what that jump to light speed is like. And speaking of memories, it's hard not to get a bit lump in the throat-ish when you first see Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, all showing the years in a way that very, very few sequels have ever been able to do so honestly. Ford especially seems to be having a blast, and brings us along with him.
Perhaps not quite a great film, but – for me – by far the best Star Wars' since "The Empire Strikes Back" oh so long ago.