Obi-Wan Kenobi

At the beginning, Obi is a bit of a jerk, but in the last episode he is the good old Wan Kenobi we all know and love. It’s written pretty poorly and Chow’s directing is a bit lackadaisical, the action is pretty weak, with a couple of exceptions, some scenes don’t make any sense and some are there just for effect. And again we get mentor variations where a surrogate father cares for a child, saves it, loses it again, then saves it again.  Of course, it’s great that we get to know a bit more about Leia, but it’s just fan service, especially since we know that in fact there is no real danger, because we know she survives at least until A New Hope. The existence of a third sister character is interesting to know, but Moses Ingram’s acting is rather bland. Rupert Friend’s makeup is more on the dumb side, rather than being horrifying. Criminal underuse of John Williams’ original score. But when Christensen and McGregor are exchanging views in the last episode, at last it has a shout. I think they should have made this a movie, rather than a half-baked miniseries. (22/06/2022)

In the animated series Rebels, aimed primarily at younger audiences, there is a scene where a grizzled Ben Kenobi, by then ensconced on Tatooine and watching over little Luke from afar, has his final confrontation with Darth Maul. It's not a long fight, but it's a great, exciting and fateful fight. And it's not just about the fight itself, it's about the dialogue between them, its sad and beautiful tone… Watch it. The scene isn't even four minutes long, but it's unexpectedly mature and better than the vast majority of the fan-favoured Obi-Wan Kenobi series. What's the use of Ewan McGregor returning to an iconic role with gusto and really wanting to play well, when in the end it seems like he's pretty much the only one trying. Apart from the utterly uninteresting direction, which makes it look amateurish to the point of parody at times in a galaxy far, far away (the comparison with Andor is abysmal), the main problem is the woefully ill-thought-out script. I really don't think anyone thought about how Obi-Wan will be followed up in Episode IV and how much logical nonsense will be created by involving little Princess Leia. Unfortunately. (03/01/2023)

Poor Ewan, this is a waste of his immense charisma and this weak tea doesn't deserve it at all. I really wanted to like it, if only because of him, but alas. Only a few nostalgic moments work in the weak script (especially in the first part), the direction is pathetic, sometimes it’s really painful to watch, and there are moments when it seemed like a parody and others that had the atmosphere of the TV fairy tales made by the commies, where the production poured a lot of money into mediocre effects and expensive sets. Deborah Chow may be confident in relationship dramas, but she lacks the chops to build the legacy of a famous franchise. Mickey has messed up everything he has touched in Star Wars, except for the narratively courageous The Last Jedi and Rogue One, which were brilliant craftsmanship and had the balls to take the famous saga in a different direction. (27/06/2022)

I'm at peace with it. It's totally unbalanced directorially (the juxtaposition of the opening Jedi Temple scene and the utterly parodic chase between the robbers and Leia is relentless), and script-wise it's a mess, with characters meeting and leaving as if being in the middle of something substantial. It suffers from the Disney SW syndrome - it has terribly limited boundaries because we know where it's going, and it narrows them even further by bringing in completely unnecessary familiar characters in a central role. However, as a collection of pretty set pieces, the dark atmosphere of the Inquisition period and a grim Ewan, who could pull emotion out of a pile of dried dung, it just sort of works. Setting aside the fact that even the best new character, the obsessed Third Sister, doesn't make much dramatic sense in the end, and the expected duel between Ben and "you know who" ends with one team's premature exit to the locker room, it's actually a reasonably entertaining and atmospheric series worth a single watch from a world that's beginning to resemble a coal pit. However, the producers should have come to terms with the fact that a Leia who has barely stopped wetting herself and a digitally-smoothed boomer Anakin might not be what SW fans want. (27/06/2022)

Disney can add another notch to its belt.  The end of Episode III was probably the biggest story treasure that Lucas left behind. There was huge potential, but the suits at Disney, who still have no idea what to do with the Star Wars brand, completely buried it. A tired-ass, boring story. The storytelling is just as pathetic as the technical aspect (at times resembling some insanely low-cost amateur film). There’s zero suspense, heaven forbid a hint of fate. I’m not exaggerating. Nothing about it works, except for the flashbacks to the previous trilogy. Congratulations Disney, keep it up. (27/06/2022)