Review of the first episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi, the long-awaited Star Wars series
A flawed but intriguing story of the iconic Jedi, with Ewan McGregor returning to the role.
On the desert planet of Tatooine lives the sullen hermit Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), or, for the sake of secrecy, simply Ben. Ten years ago, he watched as Imperial forces slaughtered almost all of the Jedi. Obi-Wan, one of the last surviving members of the Order is forced to hide from the authorities and keep an eye on little Luke Skywalker from afar - someday the time will come to teach the boy how to handle the Force. In the meantime, Kenobi gets a job at the local meatpacking plant (where he comes out with a stolen piece of meat every time), does business with the little alien Jawami, and tries not to draw too much attention. Even when a Jedi (Ben Safdie) who has somehow escaped execution asks for help, Ben doesn't help.
Meanwhile, the Inquisition, a band of trained Imperial warriors skilled in the ways of the Force and lightsabers, hunts for survivors. One of them, the Third Sister (Moses Ingraham), clearly has a personal grudge against Obi-Wan. To do so, she even kidnaps little Leia Organa (Vivien Lyra Blair). To save the princess, Obi-Wan has to come out of his safe hiding place.
The very appearance of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series demonstrates a curious change in the Star Wars franchise. Past Disney shows have parasitized on the cult status of the original trilogy - both "The Mandalorian" and "The Book of Boba Fett" were closer in spirit and performance to "A New Hope" than, say, the new parts from J.J. Abrams. And the characters were borrowed exactly from the classic episodes. With "Obi-Wan" it is not so simple. McGregor and Hayden Christensen (he plays Darth Vader), who played the same roles in the prequel trilogy, returned to the old characters. It used to be common to berate these films, and the new management of the franchise tried not to mention them in particular. Now it is clear that the prequels have experienced and continue to experience a renaissance: a whole generation of people who genuinely like Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith has grown up. They don't care that in the early 2000s the films were berated by oldfags and depressing critics.
Disney is clearly trying to jump on that revisionist wave. Christensen and McGregor go on talk shows and talk about how the prequels were terribly underrated, delighting audiences with meme-like phrases and honestly admitting that they're pleased with this belated success. Given all the hype, it's even strange that the show's creators didn't go even further and make Obi-Wan Kenobi the absolute spiritual successor to the trilogy of prequels. Yes, the show brings back familiar actors, but in terms of texture it is still the new, averaged Star Wars - without a hint of the colorful expressionism of the noughties.
On the one hand, it's a shame: it would be interesting to see how modern filmmakers reimagine George Lucas' crazy digital aesthetic. On the other hand, it is the contrast with the prequel trilogy that helps "Obi-Wan Kenobi" show the sad transformation of the protagonist. It would seem that only recently McGregor was chopping droids to pieces on top of a huge alien reptile and fighting a future Darth Vader in the mouth of a volcano planet. Now he sits alone in a cave, cooking an incomprehensible brew and bemoaning all the mistakes he has made. "Obi-Wan Kenobi" is the first Star Wars project where quiet episodes are much better than action scenes. Here the whole story is in McGregor's extinguished eyes, in Ben and Uncle Owen's skimpy dialogues (Joel Edgerton's brief but spectacular exit), in a sad portrait of the Tatooine routine. If the original "Star Wars" was inspired by John Ford's classic westerns, "Kenobi" is so Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven." A grim tale of a downed pilot living under the weight of past traumas and long lost his former grip.
Obi-Wan has the wrong eye, the Jedi's sword is not as confident, and his joints are treacherous when he has to engage in hand-to-hand combat. He's probably the best protagonist in modern Star Wars - not a badass bounty hunter, no "chosen one" or ready to lay down his head rebel. Just an aging pessimist trying to shut himself away in his cave and somehow live out his allotted days. In one of the best scenes of the first episodes, Kenobi sees a clone beggar on the street, a veteran of the very war in which the Jedi died. The hero looks at the former enemy and silently holds out a coin: the characters may have fought against each other, but the PTSD is the same for two.
And it's a shame, of course, that the story in "Obi-Wan Kenobi" isn't even half as entertaining as the hero. The central plot follows an already tried-and-true formula: an ambiguous protagonist takes custody of a child (here it's Leia) and runs with him across a galaxy far, far away from Imperial forces. The action scenes, as is the norm on TV, are uninspiring, and the central villain, the very Third Sister, is one of the most annoying characters in Star Wars history. Although, maybe this is done on purpose: fans already hate her far more than the other antagonists of the franchise.
Maybe the show will fix the flaws in the next episodes, but don't put too much faith in that - it's usually the other way around for Disney. The only intriguing thing is Obi-Wan's emotional meeting with Darth Vader. We want to see McGregor and Christensen on the same screen, no matter how you look at it.
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