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It’s hard to watch Disney+ & Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi and not draw obvious comparisons to the 2017 James Mangold classic Logan because in this case, the current arc has the title character played by Ewan McGregor trying to escort Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) back to her “parents” on Alderaan. Naturally, they’re running into some major obstacles along the way. This is your minor spoilers warning.
As Obi-Wan and Leia try to find their way off the planet having narrowly escaped the clutches of Leia’s captors and inquisitors, the duo is still trying to evade imperial forces and it’s been long established that the one-time Jedi master has a few cobwebs as far as his abilities go. Guess after ten years, Kenobi wouldn’t be equally be exercising his abilities while trying to lie low. Think of it as a muscle that atrophies he needs to retrain. There are several instances as a long-time fan, you have to suspend some disbelief where certain skills would have come in handy.
For example, there’s a scene where Ben and Leia have to share a convoy with stormtroopers while the driver is pro-Empire. The Jedi mind trick as Ben’s shown several times throughout the films, would have made the experience far less taxing than it had to be, but we get our usual awkwardness and interrogation as they ask appropriate probing questions consistent with most cop shows. We quickly find out just how much those cobwebs have cluttered Ben’s mind (always a convenient plot device that sets up another confrontation where the hero gets their mojo back). They end up meeting Tala (Indira Varma), who disguised herself as an imperial officer to help the duo out. It’s probably not a stretch to assume she’s part of the Rebel Alliance. The other major arc of the story is Darth Vader, who Reva (Moses Ingram) makes contact with informing him of their chase of Obi-Wan. While the older canon would build up his arrival, the Disney+ series doesn’t screw around in these things seeing his quick arrival at the scene. Yes, we do actually see Hayden Christensen as Anakin in Ben’s vision, in all that burned makeup, and in the Vader suit with James Earl Jones returning to voice him. This version is as savage as ever, who doles out as much punishment as he does trash talks.
There’s literally no time to waste with build-up as the series takes you straight into the action. You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce how Disney is not going to spend most the limited series teasing an encounter that may or may not ever come. In a way, it does kind of piss me off how it literally takes away from their final encounter in A New Hope and makes their dialogue moot. For those looking for that epic and instant gratification, you won’t be disappointed. While the prequels treated their audience with kid gloves, Obi-Wan just stuffed their boxing gloves with cement and delivered the devasting blows every step of the way. Also, I’m 99 percent sure actor & Star Wars superfan Donald Faison will be “pissed” at his Fake Doctors, Real Friends co-host & Scrubs co-star Zach Braff on their next show given his appearance as Fleck. But that aside, Disney+ & Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi has effectively pulled me into its story, with enough remaining episodes to effectively “land this plane” and set up a proper hand-off to “A New Hope.”
Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi Part III
Review by Tom Chang
8/10
Director Deborah Chow shows us just how beaten down Obi-Wan Kenobi is and how he’s saved more by luck than his weakened Jedi powers. And writers Joby Harold, Hannah Friedman, and Hossein Amini step up to the challenge and then some by showcasing just how stacked the deck is against Obi-Wan, even bringing Darth Vader on to Force-choke the point home.
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