Review: ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is a fascinating product. In this cultural climate, where the whims of fanboys wag the Hollywood dog, any movie with “Star Wars” in the title will rake in, at minimum, a billion dollars. Trailers teasing characters from the original series added more to the bottom line – Han Solo, or the dude inside the Chewbacca suit - that’s worth another $200 million.

So, given its box office success was assured, how good a film would director J.J. Abrams make? How much would be art and how much would be advertising? In theaters packed with early-arriving fans, there is a seamless movement from pre-screening “Star Wars” ads to the movie itself. That the leads of “The Force Awakens” are a young woman and a black man might be a sign of progress, or perhaps just a canny tactic to expand the reach of the franchise.

The derring-do of X-Wing ace Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) brings together the fresh faces that carry the film: Rey (Daisy Ridley), a strident scavenger, and Finn (John Boyega), an enlightened Storm Trooper. The resourceful and rebellious pair romp through the dusty banlieues of Jakku attempting to rescue BB8, a sort of trackball R2D2 that holds a crucial clue for Resistance leaders.

These tough nails must evade the hammer of the First Order (think Third Reich), an authoritarian outfit taking cues in evil and outfits from the fallen Empire. As in Episodes IV-VI, the Storm Troopers can’t shoot straight and the Dark Side interior decorators can’t design a warm lighting scheme for the endless corridors of Starkiller Base.

Our Darth Vader-in-training is Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), always stalking about in glimmering intergalactic jackboots. He takes orders from Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis), an Abraham Lincoln Memorial-sized dispenser of dark portents. Abrams brought in “The Empire Strikes Back” screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan to ensure the dialogue is flat and earnest enough to honor George Lucas. As Snoke intones, “There’s been an Awakening.” Yep.

To tell more of the plot might constitute that worst of contemporary transgressions: a spoiler. It would ruin months of speculation as to whether an actor who hasn’t had a meaningful film role in 30 years could be cajoled to cash a seven-figure check and appear in “The Force Awakens.” So, suffice to say, many faces and machines from the original series are dusted off and inserted throughout the film, arriving always at a moment of pause like an applause line in a stump speech.

What’s the best metaphor for “Star Wars”? Is it a gathering at the agora for the myths of our time or is it children playing with their action figures until dusk, careful to dangle enough narrative threads for tomorrow’s round in the sandbox?

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“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is showing at the Sonoma 9 Cinemas. Rated PG-13. Running time 2:16. Visit www.cinemawest.com.