STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII: THE LAST JEDI

12A

and First Order feels awkward when the punchline is genocide.

Cute critters called Porgs are employed to broadly comic effect like the Minions in Despicable Me, but are essentially a lucrative line in merchandising.

The Last Jedi doesn’t completely sever ties with the past – there are reverential bows to A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, and Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher confidently bear the film’s emotional weight to heart-tugging effect.

Performances vary wildly. One minute a character can be as wooden as the gnarled tree where Luke (Hamill) safeguards ancient Jedi texts, and moments later they milk tears of genuine emotion in gorgeous, glistening close-up. Johnson’s film is nothing if not frustratingly inconsistent.

The balance of power is delicately poised as Rey (Daisy Ridley) implores island recluse Luke to stand with his sister General Leia Organa (Fisher) in the war against Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis).

Leia attempts to rein in reckless X-wing fighter pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) as rebels are stalked by General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) and the might of the First Order.

Meanwhile, stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega) and rebel member Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) embark on a secret mission.

More is less in a caper of contrivances and coincidences that clocks in at 152 minutes – the longest instalment so far. Big questions that lingered at the end of Episode VII are answered, but others remain tantalisingly out of reach. DAMON SMITH