'Slow And Meandering,' Disney+'s 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' Pulls From The Worst Parts Of The 'Star Wars' Prequels
I just sat through the first two episodes of the new Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi.
From the opening recap, I should have been suspicious of where the show was going. Reliving the uneven lighting and lackluster CGI of the Prequel Trilogy was a reminder of why I was so dubious of Star Wars from 1999 on. But there it was, waiting for me to hit the SKIP AHEAD button.
I held back.
Obi-Wan Kenobi is a love letter to anyone who enjoys the slow, meandering pace of volumes 1 through 3, with dull digital effects not far off from those films.
The characters all speak in stilted, over-written dialogue which feels beneath its core actor, Ewan McGregor, who is forced to make the best out of obvious story beats that come with every line spoken by anyone on screen. Worst of all, it's just plain boring.
The show revolves around, what you might think is Obi-Wan trying to keep an eye on young Luke as he grows up on the desert planet of Tatooine. (That is, until the writers decided to flip the script and introduce young Leia, who is written as a "too smart for her age" rebel who has an adult-level quip for just about any occasion - but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.)
Now working on a meatpacking line, Obi-Wan is in hiding and has quit using the Force in order to keep off the Silth's radar after the events of Revenge of The Sith and Order 66.
They next introduce the Inquisitors, a group of Sith soldiers hell-bent on eradicating the entirety of the Jedi for good. Enter Inquisitor Riva, played by a bored-looking Moses Ingram. She is vicious in her pursuit of answers, going to violent ends to find Obi-Wan, though never really comes off as a memorable heavy, regardless of how brutal they push the actress to be.
Then the mood of the show takes a complete 180 and follows a 10-year-old Leia in her day-to-day life, living like royalty.
Played by Vivien Lyra Blair, she falls into the same trap Jake Lloyd did when playing 10-year-old Anakin: They try to make her act too much like an adult, making the whole character feel fake.
Now, I understand that Leia is supposed to be an advanced child, both with her higher education and Force abilities, but if they had cranked up her age slightly it could have helped to sell her exceptionalism in a more believable way. 10 is just a little too young. (Is this a Pokemon game?)
Of course, then Leia is kidnapped by none other than Flea from The Red Hot Chili Peppers, playing a cookie-cutter bad guy with little to do other than be outsmarted by a kid. Desperate to rescue his daughter, Jimmy Smits, reprising his role as Senator Bail Organa, drags Obi-Wan out of hiding to help him.
Forced into do the right thing, he obliges, leading us into the next overly-designed set piece.
I don't want to go too deep into the story, given that once Obi-Wan finds Leia, it becomes a flat, goofy farce of the adult getting to know this precocious kid.
I'm realizing upon reflection that this show is not for everyone. It is for the die-hard defenders of the Prequels who want something to enjoy with their kids. It feels safe and sanitized, sharing none of the grit of the original trilogy.
The interactions are forced - no pun intended - and obvious, setting up the next scene with every utterance. The effects are as cartoonish as they were in the early 2000s, and the music is forgettable.
I wanted to go into Obi-Wan Kenobi with the same elation I felt watching the innovative world of The Mandalorian. Instead, it gave me the same dread for the future of Disney-made Star Wars projects I got from the completely mishandled Book of Boba Fett.
Is it the worst thing to come out of the new era of Star Wars? No, but it certainly could have been better than all this.
We'll just have to wait and see if they can pull out of the skid that Disney has been going through lately.
Obi-Wan Kenobi episodes 1 and 2 are streaming now on Disney+.
