I am not one of those who subscribes to the mythology of the “Star Wars” saga. The film looks handmade, and this allows for a greater range of human emotion, too. There is, of course, CGI in “The Force Awakens,” but it’s comparatively minimal. One of the many problems with the prequels was their obsessive overreliance on CGI effects. I’ll leave it up to you to wonder if Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker is in the mix.Ĭitrus crisis: As an iconic Florida crop fades, another tree risesĪbrams understands that “The Force Awakens” had to be both a tribute to the original films and a reboot. There’s also Harrison Ford as Han Solo, manfully holding down his role after all these years, and Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia (except now she’s a general).
Many of the old toys show up as well, and it’s like a reunion of old friends, including Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO. BB-8, a marvelous droid made up of revolving spheres and half-spheres, who is carrying information vital to the resistance, is a welcome addition to the Star Wars toy store. Finn (John Boyega), a renegade stormtrooper of the nefarious First Order (a military wing inspired by the Empire), teams up with Poe and crash-lands on Rey’s planet. There’s also Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), a captured rebel pilot who is being tortured aboard a Star Destroyer by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), a Darth Vader-ish bad guy. But let it be said that the action occurs 30 years after the end of “Return of the Jedi.” There’s a young woman, Rey (Daisy Ridley), who scavenges on a desert planet and is as feisty and formidable as a cross between Annie Oakley and Lara Croft.
Reviewing this movie entails such a potential minefield of spoiler alerts that, for self-preservation, I think I will dispense here with most of the niceties of plot description. With sequels and spinoffs stretching ahead as far as the eye can see, Disney will undoubtedly make it all back many times over. Ironically, George Lucas was not creatively involved in the new film, which was directed by J.J.Abrams and co-scripted by “Star Wars” veteran Lawrence Kasdan and is being distributed by Disney, to whom Lucas sold the franchise in 2012 for billions.
The good news is that “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is easily the best movie in the franchise since “The Empire Strikes Back.” Unlike the dismal prequel trilogy that preceded it, or the too-slick “Return of the Jedi,” “The Force Awakens” has much of the spirit and inventiveness of the original two installments, “A New Hope” and “Empire,” its sequel. So it’s finally here, as if you didn’t know.
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