![]() The Grand Inquisitor (Rupert Friend), a bald-headed fiend with a rotating lightsaber strapped to his back, leads one such battalion to Tatooine in search of any remaining Jedi, whose do-gooder tendencies reliably compel them to emerge from the shadows and expose themselves. With the Republic in ruins and the Empire in command, Vader has created an army of Inquisitors to hunt down and eliminate the scattered vestiges of the largely extinct Jedi race. That’s crucial to the success of Obi-Wan Kenobi, given that its story soon revolves around Leia. ![]() ![]() At a gala, Leia is mocked by her cousin for not being a true Organa, a sentiment swiftly shut down by her senator father Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits, returning to the Star Wars fold), who compassionately tells his precocious daughter that she’s destined to rule, and in fact that her desire to flee her leadership fate is precisely what makes her fit for the noble role.īlair’s line readings may not be consistently great but, in the aftermath of Jake Lloyd’s much-maligned turn as adolescent Anakin, her performance suffices. The series, however, subsequently pulls a bait-and-switch on audiences by shifting its attention to Alderaan, where 10-year-old Princess Leia Organa (Vivien Lyra Blair) bristles at her adoptive mother’s demands that she stop playing in the woods with her beloved droid-watching and identifying the passing starships overhead-in order to execute her royal duties. Obi-Wan Kenobi begins by implying that its protagonist’s latest odyssey will involve Luke. Re-enlisting Ewan McGregor for galaxy-saving duty as famed Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi, showrunner Joby Harold and director Deborah Chow’s six-part affair feels like a natural extension of that which came before, led by its headliner’s subdued and world-weary performance as the Man Who Will Become Alec Guinness, whose failure to prevent talented apprentice Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) from turning to the dark side of the Force and transforming into Darth Vader remains, ten years after the conclusion of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, a crushing blow from which he’s not yet recovered. Unexpectedly, on the basis of its first two episodes-which premiere today on Disney+-it appears to be capable of pulling off that balancing act. Even when they’re lame (which is often), they’re at least interesting byproducts of a singular artist’s imagination, and thus far removed from the current flavorless tentpoles now dominating the American movie marketplace-including, of course, most of the Star Wars films and TV series produced since Lucas sold his franchise to Disney for a few billion.Īll of which means that Obi-Wan Kenobi is a unique undertaking tasked with simultaneously expanding the Star Wars IP (à la its post-2005 offerings) and faithfully following in the footsteps of Lucas’ idiosyncratic second trilogy. That’s certainly been the case with George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels, whose many shortcomings (The dialogue! The wooden acting! Jar Jar!) were rightfully ridiculed at the time, and yet now seem amusingly quaint and corny aspects of uniquely quirky and visually striking blockbusters made by an artist with a distinctive vision. Time may not heal all wounds, but it does sometimes allow one to overlook the bad in favor of the good.
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