On 14 December 2015, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens opened in Los Angeles. The film, co-written, co-produced, and directed, by J. J. Abrams, has come out via Lucasfilm's new corporate parents, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures; the first 6 installments all were originally put out by 20th Century-Fox. Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Max von Sydow all star in this film, which Disney backed with an extensive marketing campaign. The picture is expected to break box office records with projected profits exceeding $1 billion, and it looks like it will, thanks to enormously positive reception from film critics; critics and fans have been much more positive toward this installment than they were toward another of 2015's reboots, Universal's Jem and the Holograms. It's not without some of those same detractors, though, and on this, the overall opening night of the film in the US and Canada, those have been incorporated into this thread as a presentation of Equal Time (i.e. covering each side of the story).

Many critics gave the film average ratings, though some praised the film, while others trashed it. In the movie ads for the film, only the most positive criticisms are used. But on this [thread], I'll present all sides of opinion. As for whether or not you want to see the movie, you be the judge.

Rotten Tomatoes:
The movie has 97% on the website (which has NEVER been property of the Disney company). According to the website, "Packed with action and populated by both familiar faces and fresh blood, The Force Awakens successfully recalls the series' former glory while injecting it with renewed energy."

Metacritic:
The CBS-owned website awarded it an 83 rating, indicating UNIVERSAL ACCLAIM.

The Telegraph:
Robbie Collin awarded the film a ***** rating, and stated that the installment "sets out to shake Star Wars from its slumber, and reconnect the series with its much-pined-for past. That it achieves this both immediately and joyously is perhaps the single greatest relief of the movie-going year."

The Guardian:
Peter Bradshaw agrees. To him it's "both a narrative progression from the earlier three films and a shrewdly affectionate next-gen reboot ... ridiculous and melodramatic and sentimental of course, but exciting and brimming with energy and its own kind of generosity."

The Daily Mail:
"A triumph of escapism and the most exhilarating film yet in this mighty franchise" - Brian Viner

USA:
The Detroit News' Tom Long has written that despite the film's heavy similarity to the original 1977 Star Wars, it has left "the ungainly and unneeded clumsiness of the subsequent prequels far behind ... the energy, humor and simplicity of direction [has] been recaptured."

The Chicago Sun-Times' Richard Roeper has described it as "a beautiful, thrilling, joyous, surprising and heart-thumping adventure." He gives it ****.

Although the Associated Press has said that it is basically the same as SW: Episode IV, they ask, "isn't that what we all wanted anyway?"

The Washington Post has suggested that the picture contained "enough novelty to create yet another cohort of die-hard fans ... The Force Awakens strikes all the right chords, emotional and narrative, to feel both familiar and exhilaratingly new."

The Force Awakens is "a mashup masterpiece" that "may be completely derivative" but is "a delight nonetheless" says Christopher Orr of the Atlantic.

The Charlotte Observer's suggested that it "pulled off a delicate balancing act, paying clever homage to the past"

"(HIGHEST RATING) The best Star Wars sequel yet and one of the best films of 2015!" - Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

The American Film Institute has selected this in its 2015 AFI Awards.

NOT WITHOUT ITS DETRACTORS?
Salon's Andrew O'Hehir criticized Episode VII for being "the work of a talented mimic or ventriloquist who can just about cover for the fact that he has nothing much to say."

Time's Stephanie Zacharek alleged that "somewhere along the way, Abrams begins delivering everything we expect, as opposed to those nebulous wonders we didn't know we wanted."

While applauding the "top-tier production values and a strong sense of scale and scope", Forbes sees it as "an exercise in fan service [that] it is only due to the charisma and talent of our newbies and J. J. Abrams' undeniable skill as a visual storyteller that the Mad Libs narrative doesn't outright destroy the picture."