Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi
Release Date: 14th December 2017 - Australia
Production Companies
Lucasfilm Ltd.
Distribution
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Australia
Genre: Sci-Fi
Rating: M
Runtime: 152 minutes
Budget: $200,000,000
Box Office Gross: $1,332,698,830 (Worldwide)
Plot Summary
After locating the Jedi-in-hiding, Luke Skywalker, on the planet Ahch-To, Rey must learn his teachings to harness the new abilities of the Force. Meanwhile, Finn and his new friend must help the Resistance fend off an oncoming assault by The First Order, and the one leading this assault is the son of General Leia Organa and the fallen Jedi, Kylo Ren.
Cast
Daisy Ridley - Rey
Mark Hamill - Luke
Skywalker/Dobbu Scay (Voice)
Adam Driver - Kylo Ren
Gwendoline Christie - Captain Phasma
Domhnall Gleeson - General
Hux
Carrie Fisher - Leia Organa
Andy Serkis - Supreme Leader Snoke
Laura Dern - Vice Admiral
Amilyn Hodo
Oscar Isaac - Poe Dameron
Benicio Del Toro - DJ
Kelly Marie Tran - Rose Tico
John Boyega - Finn
Lupita Nyong'o - Maz Kanata
Jonas Suotamo - Chewbacca
Anthony Daniels - C-3PO
Frank Oz - Yoda (Voice)
Jimmy Vee - R2-D2
Tim Rose - Admiral Ackbar
Tom Kane - Admiral Ackbar
(Voice)
Mike Quinn - Nien Numb
Billie Lourd - Lieutenant Connix
Andrew Jack - General Ematt
Amanda Lewis - Commander
D'Acy
Adrian Edmondson - Captain
Peavey
Mark Lewis Jones - Captain
Canady
Hermione Corfield - A-Wing
Pilot Tallie
Veronica Ngo - Paige Tico
Noah Segan - X-Wing Pilot
Starck
Jamie Christopher - X-Wing
Pilot Tubbs
Paul Kasey - C'ai Threnalli
Brian Herring - BB-8 Performer
Dave Chapman - BB-8
Performer
Warwick Davis - Wodibin
Lily Cole - Party Girl Lovey
(Cameo)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Slowen Lo (Voice) (Cameo)
Justin Theroux - Master
Codebreaker (Cameo)
Gareth Edwards - Resistance Trench Soldier (Cameo)
Hugh Skinner - Holdo's First Officer (Cameo)
Edgar Wright - Resistance Soldier (Cameo) (Uncredited)
Joe Cornish - Resistance Soldier (Cameo) (Uncredited)
Griffin Hamill - Resistance Soldier (Cameo) (Uncredited)
Nathan Hamill - Resistance Soldier (Cameo) (Uncredited)
Chelsea Hamill - Resistance Soldier (Cameo) (Uncredited)
Crew
Writer and Director - Rian Johnson
Based on Characters - George Lucas
Associate Producer/First Assistant Director -
Jamie Christopher
Executive Producers - J.J. Abrams and Jason D. McGatlin
Executive Producer/Unit Production Manager -
Tom Karnowski
Producer/Unit Production Manager - Ram Bergman
Producer - Kathleen Kennedy
Co-Producers - Pippa Anderson,
Candice D. Campos and Kiri Hart
Casting - Nina Gold and Mary Vernieu
Dialect Coach - Andrew Jack
Chewbacca Consultant - Peter Mayhew
Production Designer - Rick Heinrichs
Lucasfilm Design Supervisor - Kevin Jenkins
Concept Artists - Adam Brockbank,
Timothy Browning, Paul Catling,
Paul Chandler, Roberto Fernandez-Castro,
Nick Ainsworth and Chris Rosewarne
Concept Artists: US - James Clyne
and Aaron McBride
Illustrators: US - Mauro Borelli,
James Carson, Rodolfo Damaggio,
Seth Engstrom, Jamie Jones, Tani Kunitake,
Daniel Simon and Justin Sweet
Supervising Art Director - Chris Lowe
Supervising Art Director: US - Todd Cherniawsky
Senior Art Directors - Mark Harris
and Phil Sims
Art Directors - Andrew Bennett,
Neal Callow, Dean Clegg,
Jason Knox-Johnston and Matt Wynne
Set Decorator - Richard Roberts
Property & Weapon Master - Jamie Wilkinson
Costume Designer - Michael Kaplan
Costume Supervisor - David Crossman
Head of Department Modeller -
Pierre Bohanna
Hair & Makeup Designer - Peter Swords King
Chewbacca Consultant - Peter Mayhew
Director of Photography - Steve Yedlin
Second Unit Director of Photography - Jaron Presant
Additional Director of Photography:
Second Unit - Jean-Philippe Gossart
Aerial Director of Photography:
Ireland Unit - Adam Dale
IMAX Camera Operator - Peter Field
"C" Camera Operator - Angus Hudson
Production/Supervising Location Manager -
Martin Joy
Supervising Location Manager: Iceland -
Thor Kjartansson
Second Assistant Director - Matthew Sharp
Crowd Second Assistant Director - Jane Ryan
Stunt Coordinator - Rob Inch
Sword Master - C.C. Smiff
Creature Movement Choreographer - Paul Kasey
Special Effects Supervisor - Chris Corbould
Special Effects Production Buyer - Lynne Corbould
Special Effects Floor Supervisors - Ian Lowe
and John Vanderpool
Special Creature Effects - Neal Scanlan
Electronic Design and Development Supervisor/
Creature and Droid Puppeteer - Matthew Denton
Supervising Animatronic Designers - Gustav Hoegen,
Vanessa Bastyan and Maria Cork
Senior Animatronic Designers - Fiona Cazaly,
Chris Clarke, Andy Colquhoun,
Becky Johnson, Mark Jones, Adam Keenan,
Josh Lee, Nick Martin, Alan Murphy,
Adrian Parish, James Sandys, Darryl Worbey
and Steve Wright
Visual Effects Supervisors - Ben Morris
and Richard Bain
Visual Effects Supervisors: ILM -
Michael Mulholland, Eddie Pasquarello,
Dan Seddon and Alex Prichard
Additional Visual Effects: Hybride -
Michel Barrière, Oliver Beaulieu,
Louis Bertrand, Maryse Bouchard,
François Chancrun, Joanne Croteau,
Thierry Delattre, Yanick Gaudreau,
Joseph Kasparian, François Lambert,
Michel Murdock, Steve Pelchat,
Pierre Raymond, Guillaume St-Aubin
and Marco Tremblay
Additional Visual Effects: Base FX -
Timothy Clark, Tony Como, Eunice Khoo,
Sean Stranks and Sophia Zhang
Additional Visual Effects: Rodeo FX -
Marie-Cécile Dahab, François Dumoulin,
Sébastien Francoeur, Sébastien Moreau and
Laurent Spillemaecker
Animation Supervisors: ILM - Stephen Aplin,
Mike Beaulieu and Matt Shumway
Visual Effects Producers - Lucas Tewin,
Tim Keene and Christopher Raimk
Visual Effects Producers: ILM -
Danielle Immerman, Danielle Legovich,
Daniel Booty and Stacy Bissell
Visual Effects Art Directors: ILM -
Jason Horley and Yanick Dusseault
Digital Artist Supervisors: ILM - Richard Bentley,
Joel Bodin, Ian Comley, Sonia Contreras,
Chase Cooper, Enrico Adam,
Samual Dawes, Bora Dayioglu,
Richard Enders, Gerald Gutschmidt,
Jean-Denis Haas, Rick Hankins, Trevor Hazel,
Erich Ippen, Peter Kyme, John Levin,
Naren Naidoo, Matt Rank,
Malcolm Thomas-Gustave, Paige Warner
and Guy Williams
CG Supervisors: ILM - Justin Martin,
Daniel Pearson and Anthony Zwartouw
Computer Graphics Supervisor: BLIND LTD -
Andrew Booth
Asset and Environment Supervisors: ILM -
Ben Lambert, Iain Morton and Russell Paul
Composting Supervisors: ILM - Dan Snape,
Donny Rausch and Jeff Sutherland
Film Editor - Bob Ducsay
BB-8 Voice Consultants - Bill Hader and
Ben Schwartz
Re-Recording Mixer/Sound Designer/
Supervising Sound Editor - Ren Klyce
ADR Mixer: Skywalker Sound/Supervising
Sound Editor - Matthew Wood
Assistant Supervising Sound Editor/
Sound Effects Editor (Uncredited) - Coya Elliott
Foley Supervisor - Frank Rinella
Foley Artists - Ronni Brown and
Margie O'Malley
Production Sound Mixer - Stuart Wilson
Re-Recording Mixers - David Parker
and Michael Semanick
Additional Re-Recording Mixer/Sound
Effects Editor - Bonnie Wild
Music - John Williams
Scoring Engineer - Shawn Murphy
Review
It's New Year's Day, everyone! The Force is strong with the
Star Wars franchise, though it's been 40 years since George Lucas created the multi-million dollar film series with an enduring cult following. It impacted all the viewers who are now part of its devoted fanbase as they liked the grandeur of this epic space opera with three of its different film trilogies (one of them is currently ongoing) and its spin-offs. The new instalment,
THE LAST JEDI, was more spiritual and original than its predecessor,
The Force Awakens, which re-uses the same plot as
A New Hope and is formulaic. Some fans are very sceptical and fear that this new movie will rehash
The Empire Strikes Back, which most fans, including myself, still consider the definitive
Star Wars film of all time. However, some critics have recently found this movie to be the best of the series since
Empire. It was more than they expected. However, everyone was not happy and excited after viewing the film. As a result, it received some heavy fan backlash.
Fans have not reacted this badly since the prequel trilogy and numerous special editions that Lucas was responsible for its nitpicks. Many of the unnecessary changes and ideas include Greedo shooting first instead of Han and the comic relief character of Jar Jar. Here in
THE LAST JEDI, the magic is slowly fading. Some plot points turn out to be lacklustre and unresolved, such as the information about Rey's long-lost family and the mystery behind the character of Snoke. The other issue with this movie is the useless espionage subplot, which adds very little to the story. The new director, Rian Johnson, isn't taking
Star Wars seriously after stepping in the helm from J.J. Abrams (who is bound to be back in
Episode IX) and has cared too much for style over substance.
Mark Hamill returns as the now reclusive Jedi Master Luke Skywalker since we last saw him in his brief appearance on The Force Awakens. Now that his role has expanded, it's remarkable how Hamill was once a young, inexperienced actor when he first starred as Luke in the original trilogy before he got more camera time. He does better in this recent instalment than his younger self. But his interpretation of the character is nothing like Obi-Wan and Yoda, the two previous Jedi Masters before him and a contradiction from the earlier characterisation in the original trilogy. Speaking of Yoda, the character makes a surprise appearance and is performed again by Frank Oz, only this time through puppetry like the originals. I liked how the film pays tribute to Carrie Fisher, who is in her last moments as General Leia Organa. The fight sequences and the space battles are incredible, with the integration of CG and practical effects.
There are fans like myself who like to disagree with the critics' point of view of THE LAST JEDI being the best of the franchise so far. There's still hype going on about the recent instalment. I recommend all Star Wars fans to see this film, and I rank this as a good movie.
Star rating: (7/10) Good Movie
Dish Film Ltd.
Runtime: 101 minutes 
July 20th, 1969 was the
