This was published 2 years ago
Obi-Wan Kenobi mines Star Wars nostalgia, but is the franchise getting tired?
By Karl Quinn
Obi-Wan Kenobi ★★★½
Disney+
Over the first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi, which dropped on Disney+ last Friday, all the strengths and weaknesses of the ever-expanding Star Wars universe – which has shifted its focus from big screen to small since the disappointing performance of the spin-off movie Solo in 2018 and the mixed reception to The Rise of Skywalker in 2019 – are on display.
The immaculate (if derivative) world-building, the fusion of medieval chivalry and futuristic sci-fi, the cherry-picking of the western and the samurai genres all make this, the third live-action streaming series (after The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett) eminently watchable.
Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi.Credit: Lucasfilm / Disney+
But the reliance on well-worn tropes, both from within its own canon and from the greater realm of mythology and religion beyond, make it feel predictable and occasionally a little tired.
And as ever in this universe, thin characters, an over-reliance on fan service, and the fetishising of cuteness, ugliness and Otherness are a bit of a bore.
The new six-part series is set 10 years after the events of Revenge of the Sith, the final film in the much-maligned prequel trilogy, which ended with the burnt-to-a-crisp Anakin Skywalker being salvaged from the lava and retrofitted with gleaming chrome, glossy black trimmings and a dashboard sound system to become Darth Vader, the evilest Chevrolet in the universe.
The environs of Tatooine are by now very familiar to Star Wars fans. Credit: Disney+
But when we first meet Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) here, he doesn’t even know Anakin has survived. The Force should surely have alerted him to the growing strength of the Dark Lord, but Obi-Wan – now going by the name Ben (as he did when we first met him in 1977) and working as some kind of sushi chef, carving huge chunks of flesh from a giant sand shark in the desert – has dropped out to such a degree that tuning in isn’t an option. It’s a glitch in the logic of the series’ conception of the Force, but we’ll let it slide.
This Obi-Wan is like Christ in the wilderness, hiding his superpowers under a bushel even as Satan – here dressed as Imperial Inquisitors, bent on hunting and destroying the last remnants of the Jedi – tries to lure him out. He has renounced his powers because exercising them has brought nothing but trouble.
His sole self-appointed duty is keeping a watchful eye over Luke Skywalker, who is 10 years old and living with his uncle Owen (Joel Edgerton) and aunt Beru (Bonnie Piesse) is the desert. But when he hears Luke’s twin sister Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair), who is living as an adopted princess on the distant planet Alderaan, has been kidnapped he is reluctantly dragged into action.
The first episode, set entirely on Tatooine, feels overly familiar, not just from the original film but because it’s the realm of The Book of Boba Fett too. It’s a rich world, for sure, and taps into the notion of the desert as the birthplace of so many of humanity’s great religions, but the recent screen majesty of Dune has reminded us just how indebted to Frank Herbert George Lucas was.
With its shift to the techno-punk realm of Daiyu, the second episode at least looks different, even if it too is indebted, this time to the pseudo-Asian tech-noir stylings of Blade Runner.
Fifth Brother (Sung Kang), one of the Inquisitors, hunts for Obi-Wan on the set of Blade Runner ... er, the planet of Daiyu. Credit: Disney+
A woefully inept chase scene in episode one, in which the pint-sized Leia outruns and outwits a team of intergalactic toughs (led by Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers), is simply embarrassing, and points to the dangers of working with children and Muppets ... and ageing rock stars.
George Lucas was, famously, inspired by Saturday-morning serials, made for the cinema but screened before the main attraction. In a sense, the Star Wars series now being churned out in industrial quantities for Disney’s streaming service are the apotheosis of that vision: they are cinema quality, but with the same penchant for pulpish plots and telegraphed cliffhangers.
Pacing is a real issue. If Obi-Wan Kenobi were a movie, 60 per cent of it would have ended up on the cutting-room floor, and only half of that carnage would be lamented. That often translates to a lack of urgency on screen: watch the way Ben ambles around the freight terminal as the homicidal Third Sister (Moses Ingram) closes in on him and Leia, and you’d swear he thought she was after nothing more than a cosy chat and a cup of tea.
The trailer for the next spin-off series, Andor, was released a few days ago. Set five years before the events of the terrific Rogue One movie (2016), it focuses on Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a member of the Rebel Alliance. It looks to be a story about the resistance rather than the Force, of an oppressed people attempting to rise up against totalitarianism. And it looks great.
The Force has its fans, unquestionably. But for anyone who feels the finest moments of Star Wars have come when it has been at its most grounded, it is Andor rather than Obi-Wan Kenobi that offers new hope there may be life in this saga yet.
Obi-Wan Kenobi is on Disney+. Episode three drops Wednesday.
Email the author at kquinn@theage.com.au, or follow him on Facebook at karlquinnjournalist and on Twitter @karlkwin
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