STAR WARS : THE LAST JEDI - Tuesday 19th December 2017.

'STAR WARS : THE LAST JEDI' which I saw this week has finally arrived, from a galaxy far far away after all the hype, the huge expectations and the eager anticipation comes forth the eighth instalment in the epic space opera franchise that had its beginnings forty years ago back in 1977, and shows no signs of letting up. This second film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy is Written and Directed by Rian Johnson whose other film credits are 'Brick' in 2005, 'The Brothers Bloom' in 2008, 'Looper' in 2012 and now this movie behemoth. Following hot on the heels of the J.J. Abrams seventh instalment 'Star Wars : The Force Awakens' which returned US$2.07B at the global Box Office and now stands as the third highest grossing film of all time, here many of those characters from 'The Force Awakens' return to reprise their roles including Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Carrie Fisher as Leia Organa, Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, Daisy Ridley as Rey, John Boyega as Finn, Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron, Andy Serkis as Supreme Leader Snoke, Lupita Nyong'o as Maz Kanata, Domhnall Gleeson as General Hux, Anthony Daniels as C3PO, Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma with Benicio del Toro, Laura Dern and in cameo roles appearing as Storm Troopers or lending their voices are Simon Pegg, Gareth Edwards, Gary Barlow, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Prince Harry, Prince William and Justin Theroux amongst others. On a production budget of US$200M the film grossed US$450M in its opening weekend - the fifth highest opening weekend take of all time, and at the time of writing had taken US$634M and received widespread Critical acclaim.

This film then follows on directly from where 'The Force Awakens' left off. The opening scene after the introductory scrawl is an epic space battle involving Poe Dameron (Oscar Issac) in a Resistance counterattack against the First Order and General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) gives the order to evacuate their base. The remaining Resistance vessels jump forward into hyperspace to escape the oncoming First Order, but surprisingly, they are able to follow using a tracking device.

Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) leads a fleet to destroy the Resistance support fighters but hesitates upon approach to the lead ship sensing that his mother (Leia Organa) is on board. Instead TIE fighters fire on the bridge of the lead Resistance ship taking out several leaders and injuring General Organa. Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern) is next in command and so she assumes responsibility in Organa's absence. Seemingly without any kind of plan, Poe quickly become agitated by Holdo's inertia, and with Finn (John Boyega), Poe's droid BB-8, and maintenance worker Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) hatch a secret plan to locate, and disable the First Order's tracking device. But, time is running out, as the lead ship is running very low on fuel reserves and cannot sustain any more that one hyperspace jump.

Meanwhile, Rey (Daisy Ridley), with Chewbacca and R2-D2 arrive on the Millennium Falcon at the remote island on the oceanic planet Ahch-To with the aim of tracking down Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and convincing him to return to the Resistance and fight The First Order (where the last instalment left the world hanging!) Luke has been in hiding on the island for the past six years and has become disillusioned by the failings of the Jedi and wants to live out his days in peace. Even after hearing of Han Solo's death, Luke remains unconvinced to join the Resistance. However, one day while snooping around the Millennium Falcon Luke comes across his old tin can mate R2-D2 and as a result of that encounter he agrees to teach Rey in the ways of the Jedi and The Force.

However, meanwhile Rey and Kylo Ren have begun communicating with each other telepathically. Amongst other things Rey is of the belief that Kylo Ren can be redeemed from the Dark Side, as there is still some good in him trying to shine through. She then leaves Ahch-To aboard the Millennium Falcon to confront Kylo Ren face to face without Luke's assistance. Luke meanwhile has an audience with Yoda's force ghost while attempting to burn down the sacred Jedi temple and library tree that houses the ancient Jedi scripts, but halts before doing so. Yoda in turn ignites the tree telling Luke to learn a valuable lesson from his own failures.

Back on the Resistance lead ship, Holdo reveals plans to secretly abandon ship using smaller transport craft to ferry the remaining survivors to the safety of the nearby Rebel Alliance planet of Crait. Poe however, thinks that her plan is foolhardy and cowardly opting to run rather than face their enemy, and so initiates a mutiny and assumes command. Meanwhile Finn, Rose and BB-8 need to get to the casino on Canto Bite to locate a hacker who has been recommended to them by Maz Kanata (Lupita Nyong'o), as the only person in the known galaxy capable of infiltrating the First Order's ship and disabling the tracking device. Arriving, they are quickly chased down by authorities, and thrown in jail only to meet with DJ (Benicio Del Toro) an underworld codebreaker who claims to be the best in the business and can help them . . . for a price. After breaking out of the prison cell and running amok through the city leaving destruction and mayhem in their wake, they get off Canto Bite, and arrive at the First Order's mother ship which houses the tracking device.

DJ does his codebreaking stuff with relative ease and they gain access to the tracking device only for Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie) and a brigade of Stormtroopers to arrive and arrest them all. It turns out the DJ double-crossed and turned in Finn and Rose for his own personal gain of a handsome reward. Phasma orders the execution of Finn and Rose, but just in the nick of time BB-8 who has hitherto escaped capture comes to the rescue all guns blazing (literally) and saves the day. Phasma and Finn battle it out between themselves, with Phasma ultimately falling to a fiery grave, so allowing Finn, Rose and BB-8 to escape.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the ship, Rey has arrived and Kylo Ren brings her to Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis). Snoke is intent on snuffing out Rey's light and her growing command of The Force, and orders Kylo Ren to kill her as a test of his resolve and his loyalty to the Supreme Leader. Instead, using his own powers, Kylo Ren manipulates Rey's lightsabre which Snoke has in his possession, to slice Snoke in half at the waist. The two then do battle with Snoke's guards. With that job done, Kylo Ren invites Rey to turn to the Dark Side and rule over the galaxy with him, for he feels the connection between them is strong. When Rey refuses, the two go head to head both using the power of The Force to gain possession of Anakin Skywalker's lightsabre, the same one used to kill Snoke, which splits in two.

Back on the Resistance mother ship, Leia is awakened by a vision of Luke. She stuns Poe and sides with Holdo in allowing the escape plan to proceed. When all souls have evacuated the ship, Holdo remains as the ship still needs someone to steer her course and to trick Snoke's fleet into thinking that what's left of the crew remain on board, and therefore an easy target. But, DJ revealed the escape plan to the First Order, who bombard the fleeing escape pods resulting in heavy losses, with Poe looking on in disbelief. Holdo, however, does the noble thing and turning the Resistance mother ship around to face that of the First Order, engages hyperspeed and in so doing rips through Snoke's ship. Rey escapes the ensuing carnage, Kylo Ren declares himself the new Supreme Leader, and BB-8, Finn and Rose join the survivors en route to Crait.

When the Resistance arrive on Crait they make for a heavily fortified mountain retreat that used to be a stronghold for the Rebel Alliance. Buried in a mountainside they feel they are almost invincible until the First Order arrives with Kylo Ren and General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) at the bridge, and a giant enemy canon in tow to blast a hole into the mountain side protective doorway. Poe, Finn and Rose lead the Resistance into battle using aged speeders, but in reality these are easy pickings for the might of the First Order's superior fire power. In a last ditch attempt to take out the canon, Finn decides on a suicide mission to do so, since almost all other speeders have been downed. Rose however, intercepts Finn at the last minute so saving him, but almost sacrificing herself in the process. As a result the canon blasts a gaping hole in the mountainside fortress, so allowing the First Order to gain entry.

Luke appears to Leia, and then confronts Kylo Ren outside the mountain fortress. Kylo Ren orders all the firepower to be turned on Luke and continue blasting him to kingdom come until he gives the order to cease. When the dust and smoke has cleared Luke emerges unscathed, much to Kylo Ren's surprise and disgust. He then decides to confront Luke face to face, man to man and gaining the upper hand stabs Luke with his lightsabre, only to learn that he has been battling it out with Luke's hologram - his projection of The Force. At this point Luke tells Kylo Ren that he will not be the last Jedi, and as such he needs to get used to the idea and suck it up! Meanwhile, Rey assists the surviving Resistance fighters to escape from Crait aboard the Millennium Falcon. Back on Ahch-To Luke succumbs to the exhaustion of projecting himself to Kylo Ren, and passes away peacefully and willingly. Leia remarks that all is far from lost, and that the Rebellion still has the strength and the determination to succeed and rise up once more.

This is a satisfying entry into the universe that is Star Wars, if a little disjointed. The plot, the ensemble cast, the visual FX, the action set pieces, a dash of emotion and a hint of humour along the way are all in favour of the film, but the timeline seems out of kilter to me completely. While Rey and Luke bother themselves on Ahch-To with getting to know you back & forth banter that seems to go on for weeks, elsewhere in the galaxy time is of the essence as the Resistance mother ship has literally only several hours of fuel reserves left during which time the rest of the movie plays out in what seem like just a couple of days by comparison. For me this just didn't add up, even with the vagaries of hyper speed intergalactic travel. This is not up there with 'The Force Awakens' but is a worthy next instalment nonetheless that poses enough questions in anticipation of 'Star Wars : Episode IX' which is due for release in December 2019, takes the characters in a new and sometimes unexpected and welcome  direction, and is certainly worth the price of your ticket, and to see Carrie Fisher in her trademark role for the final time . . . and Mark Hamill too for that matter! 'Episode IX' will be Directed once again by J.J. Abrams following the hasty departure of Colin Trevorrow in September this year, and in the meantime we have 'Solo : A Star Wars Story' to look forward to, as Directed by Ron Howard and due in May 2018.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-