Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi Review

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: $1,334,407,706 (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 for this film, and I rank this as a good movie.

Star rating: (7/10) Good Movie

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