After a solid first two episodes, acting very much as the first act of this elongated six-part movie, Obi-Wan Kenobi gets much messier in its next two instalments, with great highs but also the lowest lows of the series.
Thankfully, after the tease at the end of the second episode, we don’t have to wait long for Darth Vader to get involved. Watching the show for the first time, I was expecting Vader to continue to only have brief scenes for the bulk of the series, leading to a more prominent appearance only in the finale. But I like where, how, and why the character is used. He’s a key component of the third episode, confronting Kenobi halfway through the show. Vader looks and sounds great, as does his brilliantly overdramatic castle, which I was glad to see again after debuting in Rogue One. I don’t love the suiting-up sequence, however; I wish the mask was attached in the same way it was taken off in Return of the Jedi instead of just being plonked on his head like a helmet on a Lego figure.
Vader is notably not accompanied by the Imperial March, with composer Natalie Holt steering clear of familiar themes and musical cues until the finale. It’s a choice I respect more than I enjoy. Holt is a talented composer, doing great work in Loki and her greatest achievement: interrupting a live Britain’s Got Talent performance to throw eggs at Simon Cowell. But her work on Obi-Wan Kenobi is disappointing. Outside of the wonderful main theme, which is John Williams’ final contribution to Star Wars, the music in the show is unmemorable. I wonder whether, like Michael Giacchino and Rogue One, she just didn’t have enough time. Although, the Rogue One score has grown on me an awful lot over the years, so hopefully Holt’s work will too.
Having said all that, the music at the start of Part III is one of the more striking pieces on the soundtrack. It introduces the planet Mapuzo using a nose flute, giving it a distinct and weird alien sound. It’s a real shame then that the setting doesn’t really match the music. Mapuzo is perhaps the most boring planetscape in the franchise. Clearly shot in the California countryside, just by the highway, it’s a flat dry field that looks bad when shot on location and even worse when it’s transposed onto The Volume soundstage. They really couldn’t add a colour filter or some weird CGI alien flora and fauna or something?
But while the show doesn’t look or sound its best, I think the actual storytelling of the episode is well handled. Kenobi’s talk with Leia is great as he tries to give her answers on her parentage only to be reminded of his own past, including the detail he has a brother he’ll never know. It could paint a sad picture of Obi-Wan’s life but he seems to convince himself that Jedi service is worth living and fighting for. Mapuzo also throws untrustworthy characters, such as Freck, along Obi-Wan’s route to enforce his lack of trust and loneliness, but this too leads to a character revelation. These betrayals make the reveal of ‘The Path’ more important, character-wise, and narratively, showing Kenobi that there is still hope. I think The Path is a great addition to the canon and I’m glad it’s appeared in more, and very varied, stories, such as Jedi: Survivor. And the namedrop of Quinlan Vos serves a purpose to show Kenobi that Jedi can still help while also being the right kind of fan service.
People can and will complain about anything and everything Star Wars in the present Disney era but I will contend that the character of Darth Vader has been treated incredibly well these past few years. His big action moment is Rogue One is great but he shouldn’t always be shown as cool and badass. He’s powerful but that power is rooted in evil and I love that Part III doesn’t shy away from showing just how much of a villain he is. Vader doesn’t battle a room of soldiers but instead massacres innocents in ugly ways. He calmly walks down a street, using the force to drag civilians and even snap a child’s neck. That’s what Anakin has become: not a character to be idolised but to be disgusted by.
Which brings us to the first confrontation between Vader and Kenobi. I remember freaking out when I first watched this episode two years ago. When Vader ignited his lightsaber I had to pause the episode and get up and have a walk. I like that it’s not really a fight, with Obi-Wan desperately trying to run away the whole time. He ignites his lightsaber out of fear, although I wish director Deborah Chow made a little more of that moment; it’s his first time using his weapon in a decade. The battle itself is a disappointment. It just looks like two guys in a quarry, like a cheap fan film, and the shaky handheld camera doesn’t help. Thankfully, this isn’t ‘the rematch of the century’ we were promised, that’ll come in the finale, but I wish this fight looked better. It ends well, though. A one-handed Vader besting Kenobi and then trying to burn him alive is great. That’s another side to Vader I enjoy: his pettiness.
Part III is a mixed bag of an episode while Part IV is undoubtedly the weakest of the six. The show never not feels like a film stretched and shaped into a TV show and the fourth episode is an awkward additional piece that doesn’t quite fit. It features another rescue of Leia, just two episodes after the last, and while Obi-Wan is now a more active character, feeling more like a Jedi, it’s still far too repetitive a beat, stretching the story out.
Part IV begins with a very Last Jedi-style edit. Kenobi emerges from a bacta tank and asks “Where’s Leia?” before immediately cutting to Leia, just like Finn asking “Where’s Rey?” in that film. But aside from that, and the sight of a sodden Kenobi with a rebreather in his mouth bringing to mind The Phantom Menace, the fourth episode of the show feels like an ode to the fourth episode of the Skywalker Saga. Both feature an infiltration into an imperial base to rescue Leia. In fact, each episode of the show corresponds to the same numbered entry in the saga: episode 1 is Tatooine-based, episode 2 sees Kenobi in an underworld investigation, episode 3 has a fiery duel between Vader and Obi-Wan etc. It’s a fun detail but I think it’s more likely a happy accident than intentional.
Before leading a rescue mission for Leia, Obi-Wan first has to convince Roken, the leader of the safehouse, to help. It’s a really bad scene, probably the worst of the series. The change from movie to series should have expanded the story but this moment feels so rushed I’m shocked it was even included at all. Roken refuses to help, very unnaturally explains his backstory, and then says he will help all in about thirty seconds. Kenobi barely has to say anything; Roken is convinced instantly. I wish there was a heart-to-heart between them, that Kenobi earns Roken’s trust, explores the base and understands what the Path are doing. Expand the story and characters a little more!
For what should be the imposing stronghold of the Inquisitors, Fortress Inquisitorius feels so empty and unthreatening in this show. It doesn’t seem like a home for the Inquisitors and Purge Troopers, they barely feature, and instead there are just mostly regular stormtroopers walking around like any other imperial base. Path spy Tala can even kill an officer in a room with other people in and no one seems to notice. The Fortress also looks too real world, too toned down from its other appearances. It’s smaller and less oppressive than it was in Fallen Order, surrounded by dull grey water and dull grey sky. Like the game, it should have a more alien backdrop, with Mustafar in the distance. I can’t believe they got Kenobi and Vader so close to that location and didn’t even mention it. Most viewers have no idea the Fortress in the same system as that lava world.
This episode is a particularly difficult watch for Fallen Order fans because we’ve seen all this before, played it even, and the game’s infiltration of the base is better in every way. The one aspect/location that the show adds is the episode’s highlight: Kenobi discovering the Jedi tomb. The bodies are kept encased, like trophies. It looks less like they’re dead and more like they’re frozen in time. It fits well with the themes of the show, that these Jedi are trapped exactly as they were during Order 66. They can’t move past the trauma of that day, just like Obi-Wan and Reva. I do think the main Jedi character we see entombed should have perhaps been a more recognisable figure for general fans but I personally loved seeing Tera Sinube, who starred in a very underrated episode of The Clone Wars.
Reva finds herself with little of consequence to do in these two middle episodes. The plotting really doesn’t help the character or actress Moses Ingram. She had drive in the first two episodes but now we desperately need to know more about her already. Keeping her past a mystery this long hurts the character. She was hurt as a child and now she’s interrogating a child herself, but we don’t learn that backstory until next episode so she just feels like a generic and shallow baddie. Now that the Grand Inquisitor seat is open the infighting between Inquisitors works much better, although I don’t like the Fifth Brother very much in this series, especially when compared to Rebels. The best villain moment of the episode comes, unsurprisingly, from Vader when we suddenly cut to him angrily marching down a corridor, with it almost being a jump scare.
Obi-Wan rescues Leia and fights his way out of the base. The action sequences are all fairly unremarkable. I also don’t like how the lightsabers look in this show. It’s neat that they throw realistic light, so scenes can be lit by lightsaber, but they look like glass neon tubes because that’s what they are. I always worry they’ll shatter when hit. I wish they looked more like energy and, dare I say, weren’t practical effects. The lightsabers in The Acolyte are a big improvement. I do like Kenobi turning off his lightsaber and disappearing into the darkness only to reappear somewhere else and reignite, however. And him holding the water at bay with the force is a good moment. But the end of escape sequence, in the hanger bay, feels so small scale. There are few troopers and the speeder attack looks very poor. And surely the empire would dispatch TIE fighters to give chase. Part IV bares the brunt of the budget and COVID issues that plagued the show.
I think Obi-Wan Kenobi has a strong story worth telling. At the best of times the execution in telling that story is a little haphazard and at the worst, which are these two middle instalments, particularly Part IV, that storytelling and thematic work is buried even deeper under poor pacing, structure, and the presentation of the direction, music, and visual effects. After a competent start, the show begins to feel in danger of falling apart. Thankfully, the best is yet to come…
