By Susan JAMES

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” is the ninth film to explore George Lucas’ galaxy far, far away. Sadly, it is also the swan song for Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia as the actress died last December. For those who just can’t get enough of Lucasian mythology, Jedi mysticism and explosive star battles, this new film will satisfy their craving. For those whose eyes glaze over at endless ranks of Stormtoopers, evil rulers with weirdly distorted faces, and earnest dialogue about good and evil, clocking in at 152 minutes, this is one very long movie.

To avoid ruining the multiple surprise twists and turns, the bare outline of the plot must suffice. Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) is now the Big Bad in the galaxy. Supported by a hoard of cackling minions like General Hux (an over-the-top Domhnall Gleeson), he is moving against the rag-tag Resistance under the command of General/Princess Leia. His head bad boy is the black sheep of the Solo family, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), who sees immersing himself in the Dark Side as a way of paying back the father he killed and the uncle he hates. Unfortunately, Ren has big shoes to fill and instead of the embodiment of Darth Vader evil, he still seems like a petulant teenager who isn’t allowed at the grown-up’s table.

Writer-director Rian Johnson and writer-creator George Lucas have woven the actions of Rey (Daisy Ridley), the would-be Jedi, Finn (John Boyega), the reformed Stormtrooper, and Poe (Oscar Isaac), the Han Solo wannabe, into a story that has its roots firmly anchored in “Star Wars” canon.  The problem is that instead of playing them off each other like Luke, Leia and Han as a squabbling, engaging unit, each is sent off on their own separate mission. It not only complicates the storyline but reduces the camaraderie that made the original three films soar.

Rey follows in the footsteps of the young Luke Skywalker who once begged Yoda to train him as a Jedi. Finn joins up with newcomer Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) to take out a power source of the Dark Side and Poe gets to blow up a lot of starships. As with the second film in the series, “The Empire Strikes Back,” Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker comes into his own in “The Last Jedi.” Bearded, worn, his eyes haunted by the destruction of his family, Hamill’s Skywalker, self-exiled on his sea-bound rock, is mythic in his anger, his regret and his contempt for the future. A Jedi warrior, trained by the best of the Jedi warriors, Skywalker is obsessed with nephew Kylo Ren whom he trained to become a noble fighter for the Light and who instead has become a craven practitioner of the Dark. Luke’s failure has poisoned him and it is up to Rey and her growing abilities with the Force to redeem him.

Ultimately “Star Wars,” like all great mythologies, is about the battle between Good and Evil, the relationship of parent and child, particularly fathers and sons, and the possibility of redemption. Luke enabled the redemption of his own father, Anakin, lost in the darkness of Darth Vader.  

The question this film asks is can Vader’s grandson, Ren, also be redeemed, and who or what will be the author of that redemption? For that we must wait for “Star Wars: Episode IX.”  

See you at the movies!

  susan james