Fantastic finale a force to be reckoned with

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (12A, 142 mins)

At the age of nine, I became a willing disciple of George Lucas’s epic, sprawling and occasionally frustrating sci-fi saga.

That summer, I sat expectantly between my parents in the circle of our local Odeon, nervously awaiting Sunday service at the church of the moving image.

The title of the afternoon’s sermon: Return Of The Jedi. Thanks to VHS, I had obsessively studied Lucas’s old testament — A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.

For two hours, reality vanished and the pure, primal pleasure of crowd-pleasing cinema coursed through my veins.

The same electrical thrum of euphoric shared experience crackles during key scenes of the ninth and concluding chapter, The Rise Of Skywalker, which promises a fitting resolution to 42 years of fantastical beasties and breathless dog fights on board the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.

Director JJ Abrams provides generations of expectant Padawans and Sith apprentices with the nostalgia-saturated swansong they crave. Abrams delivers rousing action sequences and he engineers a fitting farewell to the late Carrie Fisher using unreleased footage.

Following the death of mentor Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Rey (Daisy Ridley) finds herself on a parallel journey of self-discovery to Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), who has assumed the position of Supreme Leader of the First Order.

Finn (John Boyega), Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), X-Wing pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) accompany Rey on her daredevil mission, while General Leia Organa (Fisher) presides over the entrenched Resistance.

Meanwhile, a shift in the Force propagates rumours about the return of Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid).

When Rey’s faith wavers, Leia repairs frayed nerves. “Never be afraid of who you are,” she tenderly instructs.

The Rise Of Skywalker shoehorns every conceivable reason for audiences to whoop, cheer and — yes — surrender to steady trickles of saltwater into 142 minutes.

Loose plot threads are tied neatly and heartstrings plucked as friendships and gently simmering romances threaten to become collateral damage of a bloodthirsty war against the First Order.

Some of the plotting is convoluted, but Abrams presides over a happy union of old and newwithobviousreverenceand affection.

It’s a final hurrah made by a fan for the fans.