Star Wars: The Last Jedi is the ultimate letdown movie and that’s why it’s so great

What are Midi-chlorians?

Then came the prequels and the force became clinical, sterile in feel—just a swab of your blood and, maybe, just maybe, you could be a force wielder, too. While, as fantastic as The Empire Strikes Back and nearly as good Return of The Jedi were, the force took a dynastic turn.

But, in Rian Johnson’s Star Wars, the inclusion that Rey’s parents are, in fact, junkers and drunks who sold her for a fix, meant that someone from the meekest background could change destiny.

Then, there’s Kylo Ren. Say what you want about Adam Driver and his portrayal of the unstable antagonist, which has been the joke of many YouTube videos, Twitter feeds and countless memes, but Driver, Johnson, and Abrams have crafted something in the character that the MCU and DCEU have not: a complex villain.

Driver plays the character with a ferocious intensity, his face always wears an unsure look, as if he’s ever dangerously close to falling off the edge of a cliff. He’s a villain who accepts being a monster, not because he’s sadistic and enjoys the brutality in death, but only because he believes it’s the only way forward and the only way to break from the path that Luke and Snoke set upon him.

With his helmet smashed to little black bits on the floor, Kylo has chosen to move on from Darth Vader.  But he’s still unsure. Rey can see the good in him, Snoke, the raw dark power. In familiar Star Wars fashion, he needs to rectify the two. Johnson gives him a third option, an escape; himself.