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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