Shawn Hill">
Psycho Drive-In logo
Search
  • PDI Press
    Featured
    • ON SALE NOW! NOIRLATHOTEP 2: MORE TALES OF LOVECRAFTIAN CRIME!!

      Shawn Hill
      December 31, 2018
      News, PDI Press, PDI Press Catalog
    Recent
    • ON SALE NOW! NOIRLATHOTEP 2: MORE TALES OF LOVECRAFTIAN CRIME!!

      psychodr
      December 31, 2018
    • VOICES FROM THE NIGHT: The Living Dead Tell Their Stories

      John E. Meredith
      October 31, 2018
    • American Carnage: Tales of Trumpian Dystopia

      psychodr
      March 24, 2018
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-S
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
  • Columns U-Z
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    Featured
    • Promising Young Woman (2020)

      Shawn Hill
      January 1, 2021
      Movies, Reviews
    Recent
    • Promising Young Woman (2020)

      Nate Zoebl
      January 1, 2021
    • Possessor: Uncut (2020)

      Paul Brian McCoy
      December 31, 2020
    • Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

      Nate Zoebl
      December 24, 2020
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
    Featured
    • Interview with Indie Horror Master, Chris Bickel

      Shawn Hill
      July 13, 2018
      Interviews
    Recent
    • Interview with Indie Horror Master, Chris Bickel

      Dory Hoffman
      July 13, 2018
    • David Black: Carnies, Carnage, and the Creative Chaos of Darkness Visible

      Dan Lee
      March 7, 2017
    • Jaiden Kaine joins the Marvel Universe as new Luke Cage baddie, Zip

      Andre Lamar
      September 29, 2016
    • SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators of Batman: The Killing Joke

      Jason Sacks
      July 28, 2016
    • SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators of Syfy’s Van Helsing

      Dave Hearn, Paul Brian McCoy
      July 27, 2016
    • Wondercon Interview: The Cast of Damien

      Gary Richardson, Laura Akers
      April 16, 2016
  • News
    Featured
    • John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum arrives on Digital 8/23 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand 9/10

      Shawn Hill
      July 30, 2019
      DVD/Blu-ray, News
    Recent
    • John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum arrives on Digital 8/23 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand 9/10

      psychodr
      July 30, 2019
    • X-Men: Dark Phoenix arrives on Digital 9/3 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD 9/17

      Paul Brian McCoy
      July 16, 2019
    • Avengers: Endgame arrives on Digital 7/30 and Blu-ray 8/13

      psychodr
      July 16, 2019
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
Breaking
  • Promising Young Woman (2020)
  • Possessor: Uncut (2020)
  • Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
  • Tenet (2020)
  • I’m Your Woman (2020)
  • Westworld Season 3: The New World Blu-ray
  • RSS
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Who We Be
  • Contact
  • PDI Press
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-S
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
  • Columns U-Z
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
Home
Movies

Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Chapter Four: Shawn Hill

Shawn Hill
December 27, 2017
Movies, Reviews

Doesn’t it feel like we’ve already seen him? The similarity of the simplicity of the recapitulated plots from movie to movie have become familiar over the decades (decades, guys). The Jedis have gone from ancient mystical knights (in the first trilogy) to really poor bureaucrats (in the prequel trilogy) to … what, now? Remnants of a defeated army, battle-scarred and vulnerable and very very touchy. The Empire has changed its marketing but kept all its old toys, the same old kings in shiny new clothes. Rather than the meticulous revivals of Rogue One (a film designed to pair with A New Hope like a socket to its plug), we have genuine attempts to move the story along, and to look at the costs of past mistakes. Regrets abound.

What we know is that Leia and Han raised a child who was strong in the Force, but deeply conflicted and undecided about himself. And also excessively haunted by Vader’s legacy. Both parents continued to contribute to the endless Rebellion, but not on the same fronts of battle. Luke was lost, and Rey was a new stranger who stumbled into their lives as she had inherited the Falcon and maybe more, in some unspecified manner. The confrontation between she and Kylo, who seemed almost siblings in their connection to the Force, echoed the lost history of Luke and Leia, the estranged yet interconnected siblings from the previous generation.

Rey has found Luke, and he begrudgingly begins to teach her what he knows of the force. Now the echo is of his abortive training with Yoda, and she proves to be just as bad a student as her new master, a wry irony for the aged sage. And yet, as the force of Mark Hamill’s performance shows, he is now that master as much as Yoda could have expected. Compared to how things turned out for Obi-Wan (with Anakin) and Luke (with Ben Solo), he’s really quite the success as far as Padawans go.

He claims he’s retreated to the hardest island to find in the Universe, but it’s not (it’s just Ireland). Instead he’s retreated to the last and most sacred treasury of Force lore, and he guards it relentlessly. From adept to hero to hermit to monk, the typical male journey, especially in epic science fantasy terms. He’s made it so far by only losing one hand, which was easily replaced, not quite suffering the full blinding or maiming that can also be fated to martyrs and messiahs. And what he imparts to Rey is much more valuable than any light sabre skills (as he observes her training herself, noting she needs little of his help with combat skills built up by her hardscrabble childhood).

Rather, what she needs to know about the Force is that it is more than a useful tool for fighting, and that there’s a reason she senses it so frequently and so strangely since her adolescence, now having (after exposure to Kylo Ren) increasingly powerful and inexplicable visions. Luke’s no-nonsense explanations make more sense than Yoda’s mysteries (because his syntax is more direct) and Qui-Gonn’s technobabble (because he doesn’t confuse science with faith, and has always accepted the Force as magic that exists alongside science; Luke is also good with tools and machines). It’s all just “lifting rocks” Rey complains at one point, but easily lifting rocks is a powerful ability, and another manifestation of the film’s obsessions with entrances and exits, openings and closings, barriers and boundaries. Masters of the Force exert control over their environments, a real advantage in violent times.

This is a film where a fighter infiltrates a landing bay just to blow it up. Where the First Order pursuit of the rebel fleet is a slow-motion chase sequence so attenuated that it has one plot point after another to exhaust and blow through in succession. “They can track us through hyperspace?” “They can track us through hyperspace?” (repeated by newcomer Rose trying to wrap new data into her techy headspace) –But they’re too big to be fast enough to chase our runner! Until we run out of fuel. They’re picking off our slower ships. But now we’re escaping in transports too small to see! UH OH they found out about the transports! Try RAMMING SPEED! If only we can get to the hidden base with the giant Shield Door. Damn, if only they didn’t have the biggest cannon ever created? If only there was a back way out! If only there wasn’t a landslide in the way. Wait, don’t we know someone who can LIFT ROCKS??????

The weakness here is the formula, which isn’t taut so much as repetitive and maddening. It serves to push B-plots that would usually be major misdirections to the side, though they remain interesting as shenanigans on the way to a casino planet, fun character bits from Benicio Del Toro and Justin Theroux, sad stories of sacrifice surrounding hot heads who don’t follow orders, animals and children in cages, a briefly thrilling Holo-communique from Maz Canata, all colorful details that embellish the fabric of a Star Wars tale. Though the only color really allowed this time is red.

The villain’s (he’s really little more than an even uglier Palpatine) Praetorian Guard are more interesting than he was, but the liveliness in the samurai-style battle scene is owed all to Kylo and Rey, who go from fascinating adversaries to even more compelling allies, however briefly.

Back on the island retreat, Rey found her own journey to self-knowledge by falling down a dark wave-washed vaginal hole surrounded by vines.  That entrance lead to a deep cavern and hidden pool. Whereas Luke’s journey to the swampy caves on Dagobah led to a haunting vision of masculine threat and violent temptation, Rey doesn’t find her mother inside the mountain. Instead, she confronts an infinite mirror of herself, a vision that leads nowhere but to her own long-proven self-reliance. It’s Harry Potter before the Mirror of Erised, and the message is the same. Now it is clearly Luke’s advice that is wrong, as Rey makes the decision to face her temptations if there’s any chance at all to save Ben. Heading back to the action to get her adult scars.

She leaves Luke behind, or it seems like she does. Like Kylo, he wants to burn the past down. But his reasons are less rebirth than exhaustion. Though he’s driven (or maybe more accurately haunted), he’s still unsure, until a friendly visitor from the past answers his questions with welcome kindness and familiar decisiveness. It’s one of the best cameos in the film, because it echoes the visitation of Obi-Wan when Luke truncated his training, when we heard that there was another adept in the Force if Luke fell. Of course, they meant Leia, and that she finally unleashes her Force potential (previously only evinced by fleeting visions and premonitions) in a moment of dire need is one of the most majestic and unforgettable scenes in the film. She truly is Vader’s daughter, after all.

But this is not the simple substitution of a female story for a male one. Poe and Finn have their journeys (and uses, and vendettas) as well, and Luke and Ben and even Hux are as key to this new chapter as Rey and Leia and Rose and Admiral Holdo. It’s just that the many worlds of Star Wars have all been through so many orbits since last we checked in. Though familiar patterns persist, there’s no way for them not to have started and continue diverging.

(Visited 21 times, 1 visits today)

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Adam DriverAndy SerkisAnthony DanielsBenicio Del ToroCarrie FisherDaisy RidleyDomhnall GleesonGwendoline ChristieJ.J. AbramsJohn BoyegaKelly Marie TranLaura DernMark HamillOscar IsaacRian Johnsonshawn hillStar WarsStar Wars: The Last Jedi

Bright (2017)
Everybody Dies: Hamlet adapted as A Midwinter’s Tale (1995)

About The Author

monsterid
Shawn Hill
Day Walker / Master of Arts

Shawn Hill knows two things: comics and art history. Somehow that led to him writing the Harvey Kurtzman entry for Icons of the American Comic Book: from Captain America to Wonder Woman (2013). He also writes art criticism and is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA), an NGO of UNESCO.

FACEBOOK

FACEBOOK

Daily Top Ten

  • Adventure Time 6.20 “Jake the Brick”Adventure Time 6.20 “Jake the Brick” by Dave Hearn
  • Nice Guys Finish First: The Death of Masculinity in Friday the 13th (2009)Nice Guys Finish First: The Death of Masculinity in… by The Final Girl
  • The Final Girl: I Spit on Your Grave (2010)The Final Girl: I Spit on Your Grave (2010) by The Final Girl
  • The Hills Have Eyes (1977) vs The Hills Have Eyes (2006)The Hills Have Eyes (1977) vs The Hills Have Eyes (2006) by Corin Totin
  • Sick Flix: Guinea Pig 2 – Flower of Flesh and Blood (1985)Sick Flix: Guinea Pig 2 – Flower of Flesh and Blood (1985) by Corin Totin
  • Page to Screen: The Boys Season OnePage to Screen: The Boys Season One by Paul Brian McCoy
  • Lost in Translation 352: The Untouchables Part III – Tom Amandes as Eliot NessLost in Translation 352: The Untouchables Part III –… by Scott Delahunt

PDI Press Bestsellers

Entertainment Earth

Weekly Top Ten

  • Dungeons & D-Listers: Barbarian Queen (1985)Dungeons & D-Listers: Barbarian Queen (1985) by Alex Wolfe
  • The Final Girl: I Spit on Your Grave (2010)The Final Girl: I Spit on Your Grave (2010) by The Final Girl
  • Page to Screen: The Boys Season OnePage to Screen: The Boys Season One by Paul Brian McCoy
  • The Searchers: A Quaint and Polite Film about Racism, Rape, and RemorseThe Searchers: A Quaint and Polite Film about… by Thom V. Young
  • Sick Flix: Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)Sick Flix: Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) by Corin Totin
  • If It Ain't Funk He Don't Feel It: Howard the Duck (1986)If It Ain’t Funk He Don’t Feel It:… by Paul Brian McCoy
  • Unnatural Selections: Two-Headed Shark Attack (2012)Unnatural Selections: Two-Headed Shark Attack (2012) by Brooke Brewer
  • Dungeons & D-Listers: Deathstalker (1983)Dungeons & D-Listers: Deathstalker (1983) by Alex Wolfe
  • Advance Review: The Legend of Tarzan (2016) Blu-rayAdvance Review: The Legend of Tarzan (2016) Blu-ray by Paul Brian McCoy
  • Sick Flix: Guinea Pig 2 – Flower of Flesh and Blood (1985)Sick Flix: Guinea Pig 2 – Flower of Flesh and Blood (1985) by Corin Totin
Entertainment Earth

Latest Reviews

  • Promising Young Woman (2020)

    Nate Zoebl
    January 1, 2021
  • Possessor: Uncut (2020)

    Paul Brian McCoy
    December 31, 2020
  • Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

    Nate Zoebl
    December 24, 2020

Latest Columns

  • Lost in Translation 371: Spitting Image

    Scott Delahunt
    January 15, 2021
  • Anything Joes: Unboxing: Symbiote Studios 12″ G.I. Joe Plush Cobra Commander & Snake Eyes

    Greg Engle
    January 13, 2021
  • Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! – Apocalypse Male

    Paul Brian McCoy
    January 9, 2021

INSTAGRAM

psychodrivein

Psycho Drive-In
Today at http://psychodrivein.com In Memoriam: Si Today at http://psychodrivein.com

In Memoriam: Sir Sean Connery (1930-2020)

But without further ado, here are some of our favorite performances by the late, great Sir Sean Connery.
---
Read more of our tribute at the link in our profile!

#Marnie #RobinAndMarian #Outland #TimeBandits #TheUntouchables #IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade #FindingForrester #SeanConnery #JamesBond #SirSeanConnery #Zardoz
Today at http://psychodrivein.com Lost in Transla Today at http://psychodrivein.com

Lost in Translation 362: Remaking Airwolf

The pilot could be used with the same beats, with String holding Airwolf as collateral to force the Firm to find St-John. 
---
Read more of Scott's article at the link in our profile!

#LostInTranslation #Airwolf
Today at http://psychodrivein.com In Memoriam: Al Today at http://psychodrivein.com

In Memoriam: Alex Trebek

Trebek seemed to have a good sense of humor and did not shy away from poking fun at himself. 
---
Read more of Jessica's tribute to Trebek at the link in our profile!

#AlexTrebek #Jeopardy #PepperAnn #Rugrats #FamilyGuy #MamasFamily #TheGoldenGirls #TheXFiles
Today at http://psychodrivein.com The Best of The Today at http://psychodrivein.com

The Best of The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror Episodes

The Simpsons’ Halloween Specials/Treehouse of Horror episodes are some of the best episodes of the show.
---
Read more of Jessica's list at the link in our profile!

#TheSimpsons #TheSimpsonsHalloweenSpecial #TreehouseOfHorror #31DaysOfHalloween #31DaysOfHalloween2020
Today at http://psychodrivein.com The Psycho Driv Today at http://psychodrivein.com

The Psycho Drive-In Halloween Party Playlist

For your Halloween enjoyment, here are 161 songs - around 10 hours of music for you - cultivated by the Psychos here at the Drive-In!
---
Listen to the Psycho Drive-In Halloween Party Playlist at the link in our profile!

#Halloween #HalloweenPartyPlaylist #Playlist #Music #Spotify
Today at http://psychodrivein.com Lost in Transla Today at http://psychodrivein.com

Lost in Translation 361: Bean the Movie

The plot is simple enough; Mr. Bean has to accompany the painting, Whistler’s Mother, from the Royal National Gallery in London to its new home at the Grierson Art Gallery. 
---
Read more of Scott's article at the link in our profile!

#LostInTranslation #BeanTheMovie #MrBean #RowanAtkinson #PeterMacNicol
Today at http://psychodrivein.com Pegg and Frost Today at http://psychodrivein.com

Pegg and Frost Return in Time for Halloween: Truth Seekers

It is an unexpected treat this Halloween season that Frost is in Truth Seekers, a Prime series dropping a first season of eight episodes on October 30.
---
Read more of Mike's article at the link in our profile!

#TruthSeekers #SimonPegg #NickFrost #SusanWokoma #JulianBarrett #MalcolmMcDowell
Today at http://psychodrivein.com The Existential Today at http://psychodrivein.com

The Existential Horror of Charles Burns’ Last Look Trilogy 

Last Look tells the story of pretentious art school loser and punk rock scene hanger-on, Doug, as we weave our way through his memories and dreams.
---
Read more of Paul's recommendation at the link in our profile!

#CharlesBurns #LastLook #XedOut #TheHive #SugarSkull #BlackHole #GraphicNovel #31DaysOfHorror #31DaysOfHorror2020 #Halloween
Today at http://psychodrivein.com How That Thing Today at http://psychodrivein.com

How That Thing Ended Up on my Porch: Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated

Underneath all the monsters and mayhem in Mystery Incorporated, the core of the show is the sometimes irrational love we have for the animals in our lives.
---
Read more of Mike's article at the link in our profile!

#ScoobyDoo #ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated #MysteryIncorporated #UdoKier #HarlanEllison #JeffreyCombs #31DaysOfHalloween #31DaysOfHalloween2020 #Halloween
Today at http://psychodrivein.com Nosferatu (1979 Today at http://psychodrivein.com

Nosferatu (1979)

With Nosferatu, Herzog isn’t interested in crafting a horror film with easy scares. 
---
Read more of Peterson's article at the link in our profile!

#Nosferatu #Nosferatu1979 #WernerHerzog #KlausKinski #IsabelleAdjani #31DaysOfHalloween #31DaysOfHalloween2020 #Halloween #Vampire
Today at http://psychodrivein.com Terrifies, Horr Today at http://psychodrivein.com

Terrifies, Horrifies, Forever Scares—Roky Erickson and the Return of the Living Dead

Like many others, possibly even you, I first heard Roky Erickson’s music in Return of the Living Dead (1985). 
---
Read more of Fred's article at the link in our profile!

#RokyErickson #BurnTheFlames #ReturnOfTheLivingDead #31DaysOfHalloween #31DaysOfHalloween2020 #Halloween #TwoHeadedDog #2HeadedDog
Today at http://psychodrivein.com Stay Alive (200 Today at http://psychodrivein.com

Stay Alive (2006)

Being listed as “Disney’s only slasher film,” my interest in Stay Alive was definitely piqued.
---
Read more of Jessica's review at the link in our profile!

#StayAlive #31DaysOfHalloween #31DaysOfHalloween2020 #Halloween #JimmiSimpson #FrankieMuniz #JonFoster #SamaireArmstrong #CountessElizabethBathory #VideoGame #Slasher #Disney
Follow on Instagram
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: API requests are being delayed for this account. New posts will not be retrieved.

Log in as an administrator and view the Instagram Feed settings page for more details.

TWITTER

My Tweets

Look Who's Talking

Amari Wolfe
Amari Wolfe - 12/11/2020
Popcorn Cinema: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
Don't know why, but the mention of Whammo Air Blasters made me laugh until it hurt. Very nicely...
mega leo
mega leo - 12/5/2020
Women in Horror: I Spit on Your Grave (2010)
To torture someone takes a cold kind of sadism. One that exceeds rage or revenge. One that shows a...
Dignan
Dignan - 10/29/2020
Nosferatu (1979)
Thanks for that, I can never seem to nail down that movie!
RSSTwitterFacebookinstagramtumblr

Archives

Large_rectangle_336X280
All work on this site is Copyright © each individual writer.
  • PDI Press
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-S
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
  • Columns U-Z
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
%d bloggers like this: