Star Wars and Cats: First reactions pour after US premiere

Anticipated movies Cats and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker have received their world premieres and early reactions have been delivered.

The final film in the epic Star Wars trilogy had its debut screening in Hollywood, while the Cats premiere took place in New York, according to BBC News.

One Twitter user described Cats, which stars Idris Elba and Rebel Wilson, as "bewildering... and magical".

Star Wars fans hailed The Rise of Skywalker as "a terrific finale".

Plot details for Star Wars have been kept tightly under wraps but director JJ Abrams has said the trio's characters - Rey, Finn and Poe - will be reunited on-screen, after dividing in 2017's The Last Jedi.

Heading the line-up at the Star Wars premiere were the film's young stars Daisy Ridley, who plays Rey, John Boyega, who is Finn, and Oscar Isaac, who plays Poe.

Star Wars veterans Mark Hamill, who plays Luke Skywalker, and Harrison Ford, who plays Han Solo, were also there to bid farewell to the movies that launched their careers in a venue made up as a futuristic hangar filled with life-size X-wing starfighters.

Anthony Daniels, who has played C-3PO in each of the main Star Wars movies, said the event felt "quite bewildering".

"In fact, it's such a big experience that I'm not sure I can quite cope with it. But I do feel proud to be here and proud to be part of it."

The Rise of Skywalker officially concludes the so-called "Skywalker saga" of films begun by George Lucas in 1977.

The film is set one year after its predecessor and, at 141 minutes, will be slightly shorter.