Kylo Ren in ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Trailer. Image via Disney/Lucasfilm.
2. Adam Driver gives Kylo Ren more depth
While his design, walk and voice were pretty awesome, when you think about it, Kylo Ren sucked for a whole variety of reasons. For starters, he killed Han Solo. Yeah, that’s how Harrison Ford wanted it to go and we could all see that scene coming from a mile away. But boy, Kylo Ren’s reasoning and motives left much to be desired.
Obviously, this has nothing to do with Adam Driver because I think he’s amazing. But what Adam Driver really needs to do is give Kylo Ren a real sense of purpose. He needs to take ownership of the character and add more depth to the tantrum-throwing villain who stopped blasters in mid-air and turned to the Dark Side because his parents kept secrets from him and were separated.
It’s almost as if Star Wars wanted to make him such a unlikable pansy just so they could pat themselves on the back for making him exciting by Episode IX.
But there’s no reason to keep the characters, and villains specifically, of the franchise so one dimensional. You can be a nuanced good or bad guy without being tempted to slaughter younglings or a school of Padawans. It would be more compelling to see how Kylo Ren goes to therapy and learns to handle his rage as opposed to watching him succumb to it, that’s all I’m saying.