Is The Force Awakens critic proof?

Next to The Last Jedi, yes, The Force Awakens is a damn good movie and critic proof.

 

The James Bond films were like that for a long time. Even if you didn't really care about them much, they were so much part of the cultural zeitgeist (I love saying words like "zeitgeist"), you pretty much had to see them just to stay hip and current. Star Wars is very much like that now. For a 40-year-old franchise, I think it's pretty much bullet-proof in terms of making money.

It is interesting to see the amazing fan backlash against the film, and I think a lot of that comes from <slight spoiler> Luke Skywalker not exactly being the hero the fans thought he would be. If nothing else, the new film goes into a lot of unexpected directions, and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. I could give a "George Lucas"-style answer and say, "well, it's a very well-made film, but it's not the kind of movie I would've made."