What’s Going On?

Kylo Ren has seized control of the First Order and brought its military might to crush the Resistance, who are all but defenceless. Seemingly all is lost until the legendary Luke Skywalker appears amongst them, last seen on the other side of the galaxy, living as a recluse. He goes out to face the First Order alone to give the Resistance time to escape. Upon seeing Skywalker, Ren orders a barrage of fire that should reduce Skywalker to a pile of ash. But as the dust settles Skywalker remains unhurt so Ren goes to challenge him in a light sabre duel. Throughout the brief duel, Skywalker refuses to strike Ren, instead dodging his blows until eventually, Ren plunges his light sabre into Skywalker. Again, to no effect. This is merely an illusion, Skywalker remains on his secluded planet, using the Force to project himself across space. But so great is the effort in doing this it causes Skywalker’s death. While this is going on the Resistance are escaping in the Millennium Falcon, but that’s not the iconic part of this scene.

Adventure. Excitement. A Jedi Craves Not These Things

When Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda talk about the Jedi to Luke they often come back to ideas of peace and justice, not adventure or glory, yet most of the films have seen the Jedi fighting and killing, even becoming generals in war. This is not terribly peaceful. As we learn Luke Skywalker had already tried violence, going to kill Kylo Ren (or Ben Solo as he was then known), and that failed, indeed, that set Kylo Ren off on his dark path. Luke failed his student and nephew. He uses this opportunity not to fight Ren but to talk to him. He won’t make the mistake of his past and he won’t do what Ren did, striking down people once close to him. This to how a Jedi should be, not charging into battle, but stopping the battle. Luke has seen this play out before – Obi-Wan taught his father, Anakin turned evil and in the end, Obi-Wan let Darth Vader kill him. When Luke faced Palpatine on the Death Star he was resolved not to fight, understanding that to give in to violence would not lead to any kind of victory.

The Rage of Kylo Ren

Kylo Ren is defeated because of his inability to control his anger. He’d brought an army to deal with the Resistance and there was no reason for him to face Luke in one on one combat but he wanted to beat him. Ren identifies with Darth Vader more than Luke and presumably would see defeating and killing Luke as not only getting revenge but taking his place as the most powerful Force user. By the time Ren realises this is an illusion and marches his soldiers in the Resistance has escaped. Everything about Ren’s fighting style and manner show us his recklessness, how he is just anger unleashed, wild swings of his light sabre and screaming at people, whereas Luke is almost blase about the whole thing. To compare Ren with Vader, the latter always seemed more in control, even when Force-choking admirals. I think Ren is still very much dealing with the betrayals and trauma he’s suffered (much of this self-inflicted), this isn’t just war and politics, he’s upset with Luke. This is Anakin Skywalker of the prequels, violent, unpredictable, emotional, demanding respect and quick to anger.

An Epic Setting

The scene looks amazing. The stark landscape outside this last base, the salt that covers the ground and when disturbed reveals the red beneath, the barrage of fire unleashed against Skywalker that throws up great plumes of red dust and smoke. They fight against the backdrop of the rows of AT-ATs behind Ren and the smouldering base behind Luke, making it look as epic as any fight scene I’ve ever seen. The reveal of the blood-red dirt as Ren slices through Luke only to realise there is no blood as Luke isn’t really there is spectacular (note for pedants: I know light sabre wounds generally don’t bleed as the heat of the blade cauterizes the wound). Ren also gets points for shrugging his cloak off in an awesome way and to make things equal Luke brushes some dirt off his shoulder after being shot 1000 times so both look pretty cool.

This is one of my favourite scenes in Star Wars. It showed a tremendous journey for Luke Skywalker – from the boy on Tatooine, to the Jedi Knight who destroyed the Empire, the Jedi Master who failed his student and nephew and finally giving up his life and winning a fight without fighting. Skywalker’s life wasn’t a simple trajectory of growing power and success, he had faltered, he made mistakes, and he had learned from these.

Also Read: Beyond The Mandalorian: Expanding The Star Wars Universe

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The post Iconic Scenes: Star Wars: The Last Jedi – “The Kylo Ren & Luke Skywalker Confrontation” appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

Back by popular demand but better than the fourth Indiana Jones film is the next instalment in our ‘Villains’ series, where I share my thoughts on which movie bad guys have been worth the wait, and which have been a big ol’ let down.

So far, I’ve put villains from the Harry Potter, James Bond and Marvel series under the microscope – this time around, I’ll turn my attention to the glorious and often polarising space opera saga that is Star Wars (and I’ll do my level best not to geek out too much in the process).

Before I get into it, though, here’s an important disclaimer: there are a TON of heroes and villains in the Star Wars universe and while it would be fun to compare a baddie from the prequel trilogy with someone in Rogue One, it may not be entirely fair, especially if their character spans more than one trilogy and we have more time to love or hate them. So I’m going to stick with the new trilogy on this occasion. 

Also, the new trailer for The Rise of Skywalker dropped as I was writing this and almost made me go in a completely different direction on this one (that laugh…!), but I decided to stick with my original choice in the end.

Part four: Star Wars Villains (Sequel Trilogy)

Kylo Ren – heir apparent to Lord Vader indeed

I love Kylo Ren. I love Adam Driver as Kylo Ren. I love J.J. Abrams for making Kylo Ren such a badass in The Force Awakens, and Rian Johnson for developing his character in the right way in The Last Jedi. He was probably the best thing about both movies.

Remember the first teaser trailer for The Force Awakens? Andy Serkis snarling “There has been an awakening…have you felt it? The Dark Side, and the Light.”

There’s a shot in that teaser that hit the cutting room floor of Kylo Ren igniting his crossguard lightsabre in the snowy woods on Starkiller Base. That was the beginning of the Kylo Ren hype that never really let up at all, even after he took off his mask to reveal the wavy dark locks of Adam Driver (I know a few people who hated that). Here was a villain deliberately modelled on Darth Vader, complete with his own distorted voice and hidden visage.

What I love about Kylo is the fact that we never really know just how good or bad he actually is, or whether or not he’s truly as powerful as other characters in the films keep telling us. At the end of The Force Awakens, he screams “TRAITOR!” at John Boyega’s Finn (something akin to Anakin’s “I HATE YOU!” shriek at Obi-Wan in Revenge of the Sith), reminding us that he’s still quite young and lacking in self-control – he’s also just murdered his own father at this point, so the capacity for evil is definitely there. And yet in The Last Jedi, he often seems just as conflicted as Rey, even veering tantalisingly towards the Light at times.

Ultimately, it’s all a mirroring of Vader, making Kylo Ren the first truly worthy successor to the heavy-breathing Dark Lord of the Sith. And like Vader, as The Rise of Skywalker approaches, we still have no real idea which way this particular Force-wielding villain is going to go in the end. As it should be.

Supreme Leader Snoke – just a red herring?

I thought Rian Johnson did a fantastic job with Snoke. Abrams hadn’t given us much to go on other than a gloomy-looking hologram with a booming voice, but Johnson wasted no time in revealing the First Order’s Big Bad shortly after the opening scene of The Last Jedi. Snoke’s fairly hideous appearance, given life by the brilliant Andy Serkis, was pretty much what I’d been hoping for. I also loved the fact that his throne room was mostly bright and red, and Snoke himself wore gold-coloured clothing instead of the usual black ensemble.

And I genuinely loved the moment when Kylo Ren sliced his master in two – it was totally unexpected and completely threw the audience at the time.

However, I was gutted that we never discovered who the heck the Supreme Leader actually was. Like many fans, I’d spent months trying to work out who he was: Palpatine? Darth Plagueis? Mace Windu (yes, someone actually suggested that!).

So when the credits finally rolled and we were no closer to finding out who he was or why he wanted to take over the galaxy, I felt a little cheated. Don’t get me wrong, I’m on the positive end of Star Wars fans regarding The Last Jedi, but I’d wanted some answers and hadn’t gotten anyway. Maybe we’ll find out in the final instalment who Snoke was, but I fear that ship has sailed.

The bottom line

I don’t think many Star Wars fans would argue that Kylo Ren isn’t a great villain. He has all the makings of a classic cinematic figure on the cusp of a satisfying character arc completion (I hope!), and the trailer shots of his mask being repaired got me even more excited for The Rise of Skywalker than I already had been (he’s cooler with the mask on, right?). On Snoke, I wanted some answers and Rian Johnson didn’t throw any my way, so I can never really feel at peace with that one.

Here’s to a satisfying end to the greatest movie saga of all time!

Read the rest of “The Movie Villains Who Nailed It” series:

Part 1: Harry Potter

Part 2: James Bond

Part 3: Marvel Cinematic Universe

The post The Movie Villains Who Nailed It (And Those Who Didn’t) – Part Four [Star Wars] appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.