Film Review: STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER (2019): A Hodge Podge Film with Lifeless Plot Twists, A Blind Eye Towards Canon, & A Tepid Ending

Kylo Ren’s Arc

Rey and Kylo Ren both have character arcs in The Rise of Skywalker but it is Ren’s arc that is engineered, on paper, to be the most profound.

The realization of the latter arc, in-film, is almost entirely problematic. One would think the presence of the Knights of Ren, the memories they provoke, and his responsibility toward them, would bolster Kylo Ren’s resolve, steadying him on the path that he has chosen. Since the Knights are vacant automatons, this does not happen, a major fault in the writing of Ren’s arc, the Knights, and the script for this film.

Killing his father was a profound act of betrayal and evil on Kylo’s part (yet his eyes did not turn yellow) and a profound show of loyalty to the instigator of that act.

It’s not credible that a single act of magnanimity, a few words on Rey’s part, and the death of the distaff part of his family would spark change in Kylo, especially after patricide. This script’s writers would have the viewer believe that Rey’s words, actions, and Leia’s death create a reflective current within Kylo, generating a moment of introspection via the memory of his deceased father.

It all just rings hollow in The Rise of Skywalker, like the need for redemption in Kylo’s story-line somehow overrides the reality of such a feat happening, even with the “pull back to the light” Kylo felt in The Force Awakens. The spark initiated in The Rise of Skywalker is not profound enough and too much blood-strewn water has flowed under the bridge. Where did all of Kylo’s rage go? What chasm did it empty into? If General Leia’s death is the x-factor element in the equation, why didn’t her brief death in The Last Jedi, which he must have felt, create a smaller, subtler, yet similar reaction in him? He had to be stabbed, healed, and sweet-talked for his mother’s death to really effect him? Vader’s change of heart was initiated by the agonized plies from his son, complimenting his already present conflicted emotions.

With Kylo, it seems that compassion and sorrow were the keys to his change of heart, complimenting his already present conflicted emotions. With Kylo, however, I just don’t buy it. His resolve, his actions, his lack of positive emotions, they all screamed ‘Sith’, not ‘Save Me.’