Review 651: Obi-Wan Kenobi

 

Obi-Wan Kenobi shows potential, but in the end, it ends being a standard Disney/LucasFilm product, safe, predictable and ultimately disposable. 

Set 10 years after the events of Revenge of the Sith, during the reign of the Galactic Empire, former Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) embarks on a crucial mission. Along the way, Kenobi must confront ally turned enemy Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (a hybrid performance of Hayden Christensen and James Earl Jones) and face the wrath of the Empire.

At the beginning of the series, we meet an Obi-Wan Kenobi who’s damaged by his experiences following the Clone Wars and the Great Jedi Purge and is at a pretty traumatic moment following his losses during Order 66. Obi-Wan is heartbroken by the betrayal of Anakin, literally he’s devastated and gutted and very very damaged because this then pushes him into his arc where he's called out of hiding by an old "friend'' to go on a new mission.

Which brings us to the surprising plot development of the first two episodes: Child Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) is kidnapped by Reva/Third Sister (Moses Ingram) in an attempt to lure Kenobi out of hiding.     Bail Organa (welcome back Jimmy Smits) and his wife Breha (Simone Kessell) reach out to Obi-Wan to rescue her and return her to their home planet Alderaan. Although he initially refuses, he’s convinced by them that hope still remains and ultimately agrees to help. From here, Obi-Wan Kenobi descends into a simplistic chase series that fails to do justice to the iconic titular character.

This development also means that the show runs into a bunch of Star Wars canon problems because Leia’s iconic “help me Obi-Wan Kenobi” message that she gives to R2-D2 in A New Hope seems to imply that she and Kenobi have never met, but she eventually does meet him in Part II of the show and she hears him referred to as Obi-Wan despite his insistence that he is called “Ben.” Surely, kidnapping a senators daughter to lure Kenobi out would cause Bail Organa to raise a fuss and he and “Ben” should’ve seen right through it.

George Lucas always envisioned the Galactic Empire as a reflection of Nazi's and Part I leans into those parallels greatly with an incredibly tense sequence in a Tatoinne cantina where The Grand Inquisitor intimidates the locals for hiding Jedi, evoking the Third Reich's hunt for Jews.

This is a pretty dark time in which the series takes place in; The Empire is in the ascendency, the Galactic Republic had collapsed and the there's Jedi hunter like the Inquisitors out there. Obi-Wan has to keep to keep his head down and keep a low profile. But the show fails to articulate or showcase this dark period of time because of the excessive focus on the Obi-Wan/Leila dynamic.  

The show focuses so much on Kenobi and child Leia, that it seems afraid to delve into Obi-Wan's struggles and showing him blaming himself and having to burden the guilt of everything that went wrong with Anakin and posing questions such as Who is Ben Kenobi? How does he feel and how does he deal with everything? As if the writers didn't trust their audience to accept slowing things down from time to time to handle hard hitting topics.                                                                                                                    Instead, the show returns to the same old tropes used by other Star Wars shows such as the teacher/student, father/son-daughter dynamic as seen with Anakin and Ahsoka in Clone Wars, Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger in Rebels and of course Mando and Grogu from The Mandalorian and since we know that both of them have prominent roles in the Original trilogy there's no tension. As well as showing a Legacy character being broken down which seems to be the only way Disney/LucasFilm seems to know how to handle legacy characters. You gain no new insight into Obi-Wan's character, there are no twists or surprises (or at least none that you can't see coming from a mile away). It felt like a pretty easy threat for Obi-Wan to handle. It feels alot like fan fiction at times. In episodes that repeat themselves, Leia gets captured, he has to rescue her from Reva/Third Sister (Moses Ingram); When the Empire is hot on his tail, Obi-Wan gives himself up to save his allys because Darth Vader is the one he wants. It becomes tiresome and formulaic.

In interviews leading up to the show, director Deborah Chow referenced films like the 2017 Wolverine centric X-Men spin-off Logan in describing Kenobi's darker more character driven approach compared to the rest of the Saga. Judging from  those comparisonds seem pretty shallow as while there is a surface level comparison between Kenobi and Leia and Logan and X-23, Obi-Wan Kenobi has none of Logan's underlying darkness or social comentary. Leia also has none of Laura/X-23's agency, existing purely   Also, whereas Logan felt like one last hurrah for the titular anti-hero, Obi-Wan Kenobi doesn't pack that same punch due to its status as a bridge series between two trilogies and clearly isn't a victory lap for him.

All of this brings me to another big issue with this show, it's connective tissue to the Prequel trilogy rings hollow because of its unwillingness to engage with it's titular hero the way George Lucas did. Instead of feeling like an epilogue to that trilogy, it invokes the Prequels but doesn't do much with it.

All of this Galaxy-trotting with Obi-Wan and Leia is the writers creating a situation here where a series of events is engineered in a desperate attempt to give Obi-Wan something to do beyond stay on Tatooine as a hermit for 6 episodes. Obi-Wan vowed to take Luke and watch over him. Did it never occur to him that something potentially dangerous and life threatening could befall him while he was away rescing Leia. 

Part IV in particular just felt like action purely for the sake of it in what is essentially a tried and tested prison break storyline. It’s where the episode falls short because you’ve seen it before and done much better in The Mandalorian episodes “Chapter 6: The Prisoner” and “Chapter 15: The Believer”

Director Deborah Chow's direction is dramatically and capable of handling all sorts of action in a galaxy far, far away. The production design is a mixed bag, Daiyu is gritty, neon, Blade Runner/Hong Kong esque planet with and Fortress Inquisitorius is (which fans will recognise from the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order game) is a Triangular shaped structure with sharp angles and surrounded by water to give the feeling that it's this impenetrable prison base. On the other hand, because it’s a bridge series set between the Prequel and Original Trilogies, we’re treated to all the familiar looking sights like more Inquisitors and more Stormtroopers but it all feels a little too familiar for my liking.

The score by Natalie Holt is evocative, the cinematography is fantastic and captures vastness of Tatoonie (giving the planet much more texture and depth than in previous Star Wars media) as well as the urban, rain soaked streets of Daiyu. The make up is incredibly ropey at times, The Grand Inquisitor and the Fifth Brother, in particular, look nothing like their animated counterparts with the former looking less like a Pau'an and more like an incredibly anemic person.

The action scenes and locations are a mixed bag; We’re treated to dull lightsaber duels and subjected to some laughable chase scenes like when Leia is able to evade some professional bounty hunters. The lightsaber fight choreography attempts to hit a sweet spot between the stoic tension of the original trilogy and the flashiness of the prequels but the end result looks sloppy and lacking in soul.

As for the "rematch of the century" between Kenobi and Vader, it has its moments but by and large it only captured my attention because I was excited to see these two character have another swing at each other. This fight isn't helped by underwhelming fight choreography, a pronounced lack of tension since we know they must survive due to their roles in the Original Trilogy and such a murky, gloomy, unremarkable setting. The rematch, which is poorly juxaposed with Reva's hunt for child Luke (Grant Feely), took place at night with the red and blue lightsabers being the only light source, making it hard to keep track of the geography of either scenes. Certainly nothing on the level of their final confrontation on Mustafar or their climactic duel on the first Death Star.

The loations are a mixed bag, we're treated to lush and beautiful sites like Alderaan, Tatooine and Daiyu and dull, generic, empty desert landscapes, the outskirts of a town and dark, underlit planes with just rocks on Mapuzo and Jabim. Not helped by the heavy use of StageCraft.  

Ewan McGregor (as expected) delivers an exceptional performance as the titular character. His dedication to this role and this franchise kept this character shining from start to finish. The personal connection to Vader is one that fills him with regret and there's still a part of him that feels that Anakin is not a lost cause. On some level he has failed this kid whom he promised Qui-Gon that he’d do right by. His life has basically crumbled down to nothing. His hope is nearly extinguished and he’s clearly defeated.           Once he goes off to rescue Leia, however, he goes on the most cliched, predictable journey of re-self discovery possible where he has to learn to believe again and reawaken that belief. As the show goes on he learns through characters like Leia and Tala Durith (Indira Varma) that the fight is not done and that there's still hope. But those moments ring hollow because these characters feel like such thinly sketched plot devices to get him to where he needs to be. Here is a man who is going through a crisis of faith because he saw the very instituation he pledged himself to and believed in crumbled before his very eyes due to their own arrogance and is now more numb to the state of things, jaded even but it's never given the food for thought that it deserves as the show instead uses this as a launching pad to send him on a predictable journey we've seen before across other Disney/Star Wars media.

Personally, I find it a bit of a stretch that while the events of Revenge of the Sith would leave him with PTSD that Obi-Wan would be this beaten down to the point where he initially refuses to help those in need. The entire point of him and Yoda going into hiding was to retrain themselves themselves to become true Jedi again because they weren't ready to train Luke. Are you seriously telling me he hasn’t had a Skype call with Force Ghost Qui-Gon in those last 10 years? It’s a detriment to what we as an audience know about his character throughout the original six films. 

There is Hayden Christensen to be found in this series, wether is be through flashbacks or Vader being unmasked but not as much as I would’ve hoped. For the most part, we are treated to Darth Vader in the suit because that's what audiences expect from Star Wars. I was hoping for a lot more Bruce Banner than the Hulk. The rest of the time, he's wandering around in the suit when you can't tell if it's him or a stuntman. He’s basically in this miniseries for what amounts to a glorified cameo.

Homeland’s Rupert Friend is sadly wasted as the Grand Inquisitor (a character Star Wars fans will recognise from the Rebels animated series). Literally this character served no purpose by the end of this show. After being set up as a prominent antagonist in the first two episodes, he unceremoniously drops off the map, not reappearing until one episode before the finale and doing very little then. Friend plays him as a terrifyingly intelligent, well spoken and charismatic foe but he rarely has a chance to demonstrate his prowness as an antagonist.

Similarly, Joel Edgerton & Bonnie Piesse are wasted reprising their roles as Owen and Beru Lars from Attack of the Clones & Revenge of the Sith.

Reva Sevander/Third Sister is one of the most baffling Star Wars characters in recent years. Outwardly, Reva is the new kid on the block - arrogant, reckless, impulsive and clearly has ideas above her station; she constantly undermine the Grand Inquisitor's authoirity when she's been ordered to follow Imperial Procedure. Featuring Moses Ingram in a truly dreadful performance. I wish the series didn’t wait until the penultimate episode to reveal her Order 66 related backstory and vendetta against Vader and when it's presented to us, it comes off a massive sob story as opposed to tragic backstory. At the same time, her beaf with Vader doesn't leave a lot of story to tell because her motivation hinges on an outcome that we know can't come to pass. The show seems strangely attached to the idea that both Kenobi and Reva are both victims of trauma caused by Vader but that idea never lands because the show does a poor job of juxaposing their plights and Reva is so shrill and cartoonishly evil, as a result her story just didn't feel like it had much weight to it. Ingram just doesn't possess the screen presence, menace or charisma necessary to be a credible villain and instead comes off as a petulant, bratty teenager. I never once believed she was cunning enough to lure Old Ben out of hiding or hunt Jedi and every time Reva popped up on screen, I just tuned out because she was such an irritating presence. Without giving too much, the conclusion to her "arc" if you can call it that, feels like the conclusion of one that was never properly set up to begin with.

Fast & Furious' Sung Kang is also truly dreadful playing The Fifth Brother (another Jedi Inqusitor from the Rebels animated series). His performance (which mainly consists of more growling than acting) is alternatively presented as an opportunist and a  the one thing he never becomes is a compeling villain.  

Kumail Nanjiani is rather good in this series playing Haja Estree, a street-level con artist who Obi-Wan encounters on Daiyu. His attempts to do good are undermined by his own selfish tendencies. Nanjiani brought a likeable charm to the role. 

Vivien Lyra Blair is a delight playing child Leia, she captures the child-like innocence and wonder as well as the wisdom beyond her years that she's meant to inhabit. Even though on the surface, she's a smart kid and gives Obi-Wan that spark of hope that he needed and building on that helps him realise that he’s not alone, she's really just a plot device to spur on Obi-Wan's adventure, move him from planet to planet and to eventually get him to face Darth Vader again. Leia and Obi-Wan never meet in the Original Trilogy, so this psuedo Mando/Grogu relationship that develops between them means nothing. Given that she's destined to be one of the leads in that Trilogy, there's never any doubt in our minds that Obi-Wan will succeed on this mission.

Indira Varma playing Cap. Tala Durith, a disillusioned Imperial officer who accompanys Obi-Wan and Leia on their journey and helps him realise that the fight is not done. While I would've liked the series to have delved more into her character and why she became disillusioned, Varma ultimately held the character together with her charismatic performance.

O’Shea Jackson and Maya Erskine appear in similarly underwritten roles as members of The Path network that help Jedi escape the Empire. 

Overall, Obi-Wan Kenobi shows glimpses of potential, but I can't help but feel that with a few rewrites and a deeper emotional focus of its themes and characters, it could have been something truly special.

What we ultimately have is something of a missed opportunity: The first Star Wars/Disney+ show that actually interested me. It's just a shame that in the real world, it doesn't seem to work, 2.5/5. 

The Anonymous Critic.