Star Wars: The Force Awakens gets rave reviews

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Image captionNewcomer Daisy Ridley was praised as "the real star of the show"

The first full reviews for the new Star Wars film The Force Awakens have hailed it as "a triumph" and "a classic".

UK newspapers were the first to publish reviews, with The Daily Telegraph and The Times each awarding it five stars.

The Times critic Kate Muir wrote: "Adults will be floored by tearful nostalgia because this is a classic."

The Daily Mail's Brian Viner described The Force Awakens as "a triumph of escapism and the most exhilarating film yet in this mighty franchise."

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Image captionThe film's battle scenes were described as "almost balletic"

Viner began his four-star review with the words: "Boy, has the force awoken," and raved about its "almost balletic airborne battle scenes, evocative of all the best Second World War films".

The "real star of the show", he declared, was British actress Daisy Ridley, whose performance as scavenger Rey should "send her career into orbit".

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Image captionHan Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca feature prominently in the new film

The Telegraph's Robbie Collin, who admitted to crying three times, said director JJ Abrams and his team had "taken a slightly tattered franchise and restored its sense of magic and myth".

Harrison Ford is "terrific", he says, giving pilot Han Solo "a sardonic, rough-chinned world-weariness that's perhaps not entirely acting".

The sequel - the seventh movie in the Star Wars franchise - is "a humongous piece of cinema", according to Kate Muir in The Times.

She went on to describe Abrams as "a better action director" than Star Wars creator George Lucas, concluding that the film was "exactly what we were hoping for".

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Image captionThe film is being released around the world over the next few days

In The Daily Mirror, John Hiscock wrote: "All I can say is The Force Awakens evokes magical memories of 1977's Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, with plenty of humour, action, drama and heart."

And The Independent's Geoffrey Macnab awarded four stars, saying "the reboot turns out to be a thoroughly invigorating affair".

He added: "The Force Awakens could easily have turned into an anti-climax. Instead, it is very close to a triumph - a film that fans of the old movies will relish but one that looks bound to capture the imagination of a new audience too."

The film will receive its UK premiere later on Wednesday and will begin its release roll-out, opening in cinemas in France, South Africa and several other countries. It had its world premiere in Los Angeles on Monday evening.

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Lizo Mzimba - BBC News entertainment correspondent

There's much in The Force Awakens to please fans of the original Star Wars trilogy, and not just the return of Han, Luke and Leia.

The look and tone of the film is extremely reminiscent of A New Hope, from the production design to the familiar story of a youngster from a desert planet dreaming of a better life.

And that's at the heart of what makes this film feel less like the prequels and more like the films from the 1970s and '80s.

The story is rooted in strong characters and real conflict, making them relatable - even if they're not always likeable.

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