Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens had a monstrous opening weekend , bringing in a record $248 million domestically and $529 million globally. Not only is it a financial success, but The Force Awakens is certified fresh by Rotten Tomatoes as it sits at a cool 94 percent so it’s a success among critics and audiences.
But there’s something about The Force Awakens that just didn’t sit right with me. A character that even days after watching the movie still bothers me. That character is Kylo Ren.
SPOILER ALERT! The following is very spoiler heavy so don’t proceed unless you’ve seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Now, I should preface that I enjoyed The Force Awakens. Enough so that the pretty large plot holes and thin characterizations are forgivable and don’t detract from the overall experience. But something about Kylo Ren just irks me.
My experience with the character in The Force Awakens was a roller coaster. There was a huge rise in how the character came off and first arrived on the scene. There was a sort of mystique that exuded from Kylo Ren and it gave the villain an imposing yet more terrifying aura than even Darth Vader.
While Darth Vader in the original trilogy was cool, calm and collected (almost robotic) that showed everyone in his path that he meant business, Kylo Ren was unbalanced and visibly powerful.
That scene in the first quarter of the film where he took his lightsaber and just began swiping at a control board in frustration was terrifying. He was unpredictable and that in itself is scary.
Kylo Ren also has very strong Force presence in how he can sense and gain information from people. And just from a cosmetic standpoint, his armor/helmet and his old fashioned knight's lightsaber just makes him look like a badass.
But around halfway through The Force Awakens, the roller coaster that is Kylo Ren began to fall and everything the movie built up around the villain began to crumble around him.
A big point of the film is how Kylo Ren is a young former student of Luke, so he was raw and inexperienced. And that point is made clear with how his master questions his power (constantly) and even a normal general of the First Order is always talking down to Kylo Ren with no repercussions.
Ok, I can get over that. Kylo is young and not confident in himself. That’s ok, it gives Kylo some character for when he becomes the main guy.
Kylo Ren was also revealed to be Ben Solo, the son of Han and Leia. The story of a wayward son going against everything their parents teach them is scary and hits close to home for many. Everything was there to make a villain and character that would be memorable.
But the scene that just killed it for me was when Kylo Ren captures Rey and begins to interrogate her. You may have thought I was referring to the final showdown between Han and his son but I’ll get to that later.
However, in the aforementioned scene Rey coerces him to take his mask off and for some ungodly reason, Kylo Ren obliges revealing a young man.
So, behind the cool mask and gravely voice is Adam Driver. Not what I was expecting, to be honest and the young actor just doesn’t have the “look” of a villain. Yes, this is superficial of me but to see how badass Kylo Ren looks and to see him without his helmet just took me out of it.
A coworker of mine told me that he did that because he was being “overconfident” that he didn’t need the helmet to get what he wanted from Rey. But even if that was the case, that just shows how easily manipulatable Kylo Ren is that he will give in to the demands of Rey.
It was also offered to me that the film had Kylo take his helmet off so he can be humanized and really show his struggles.
But my counter argument would point to the scene where we see Kylo in his quarters talking aloud to the mangled helmet of Darth Vader. We hear and see Kylo’s struggles with the light inside him trying to come out. All that pathos is easily conveyed with his helmet on. We don’t need his helmet taken off to humanize Kylo Ren. He has shown enough emotion before he does.
There’s no reason to take your helmet off in the scene with Rey. In fact, just imagine this scenario.
During arguably the best scene of the movie -- and what many fans will be talking about till the next movie -- Han Solo approaches his son inside the Star Killer and asks him to take his helmet off. Of course, Kylo does so to confront his father who is the single most reason for his struggle between the dark and light side.
Now, wouldn’t it have been better if THIS was the first time he took his helmet off? Even the superficial stuff I mentioned before about Adam Driver not having the look of a villain would go away with him being revealed in this scene. That’s because it would show the son. The son of Han Solo who has turned his back on his family. It would have been a poignant scene and one that the filmmakers totally missed by having Kylo just take his helmet off for a stranger.
But wait, during the final battle Kylo Ren has trouble in a lightsaber battle with Finn. What? Finn was a janitor for the First Order who has never used a lightsaber before yesterday. How can this force user have trouble with him?
And if you want to argue Chewie injured him, that’s fair. But for a trained force user shouldn’t be a big deal. In fact, the first scene in the movie Kylo Ren stopped a shot from Poe Dameron without really looking. How did Chewie get the jump on him? I don’t know, I just want some consistency.
And then, of course, Rey gets the better of Kylo Ren in a battle after Rey just discovered she has the Force. So a force user trained by Luke Skywalker is overcome by someone who just gained her force powers? Ok, sure. But that’s a whole other issue with the movie.
This argument is about how the filmmakers took what was a promising new villain and completely ruined it in one scene. Now, I’m still holding out hope the next movies flesh out Kylo’s character more and return him to the badass he was for the first half of The Force Awakens. Until then, this villain is no Darth Vader no matter how hard he tries to be.
