There was a lot of excitement this spring that included articles proclaiming the merits of the prequels. The fans wanted to see Obi-Wan and Anakin again, but they were also excited to see the original actors play them. Many were happy when the show aired. The realization that came with almost every Star Wars project was that this isn't that great.
This is the reason why every Star Wars show and movie has been recut, rewritten, restaged, reconceptualized, and regurgitated by online fans. The compression of the show's six episodes into a feature-length film of two and a half hours was created to fix things that were easy to fix.
Is the new version of the show fixing the issues? Is it worse? Is it an example of how the application of a little more common-sense story telling and film making could improve a flawed original? The Obi-Wan Kenobi series had its problems, but if Disney had gone the movie route, would it have been a better experience?
The show doesn't start fast. Is it really necessary to see Obi-Wan at his blue-collar job three times to get a sense of his life after the events of the prequels? The introduction of the future Hutt strangler, 10-year-old Leia Organa, as well as the reassuring presence of Ewan McGregor, who is even better as the character in the series, made for a smooth setup. Younglings escape from the Emperor's Jedi purge in the opening sequence of the first episode.
The second episode, in which Obi-Wan searches for the kidnapped Leia, feels a tad rushed, but the action and visual effects are engaging, and the Inquisitor Reva makes for a pretty bad villain. After spending a lot of time on Tatooine in The Book of Boba Fett and The Mandalorian, Star Wars has decided to leave for a cool planet called Daiyu.
The third episode made viewers believe that Disney had done a good job. The episode features a chilling appearance by Darth Vader that is very similar to his classic appearance in the movie. The brutality of Vader's fight with Obi-Wan, the intensity of his hate, and Obi-Wan's lack of preparation for the encounter are moving and disturbing.
The show's first weak episode was delivered. The rescue of Rey from the Death Star in A New Hope is already a reprise of the rescue of Leia from the Death Star in Episode 4.
Some viewers wondered if the show was in trouble. After suffering serious physical and psychological wounds at the hands of Vader, Obi-Wan is all but fine. Obi-Wan was able to sneak into the Imperial base with the help of a breathing apparatus.
The episode misses a beat when Obi-Wan tries to hold off stormtroopers and the ocean threatens to flood the corridor he's in. He uses the Force to keep the plexiglass wall from imploding while being fired upon. Put it in and drown the mothers.
The series as a whole is summed up by the earlier setup. The scene in which Obi-Wan and Tala walk out of the stronghold is now known as the "Obi-Wan and Tala walk out of the stronghold" scene. Even assuming that a trench coat would be on hand, it seems that Imperial officers have a pretty rigid facial hair code and Obi-Wan looks like Rip Van Winkle after a rough sleep.
The best episode of the series may be Episode 5. Reva is a more sympathetic and compelling figure as we learn more about her background. Finally, we get to see a performance of a training scene between Obi-Wan and Anakin.
The final episode is bad because of the cringe dialogue and lazy plot, but it is also bad because it shows how the Star Wars canon restricts the drama. In the episode, Vader and Obi-Wan fight on Tatooine, while Reva threatened the young Jedi. Even if the battle between Vader and Obi-Wan provides some emotional closure for their relationship, both plots feel rushed and anticlimactic.
Something for which Star Wars can be relied upon is the fact that even the details are wrong. Vader's Star Destroyer can't hit or catch a piece of junk that's barely ahead after what we know about it. In this episode, the filmmakers are not good. I could barely see the action on my new TV because it was in the dark. It feels like an attempt by the filmmakers to stretch the technology.
Obi-Wan didn't have a place to go. After a decade of making Taken movies, Liam Neeson finally shows up after the events of A New Hope, but who knows what to do with Obi-Wan until then? We knew the show would end tragically because there was no real danger for any of the characters. It could have been more emotional. Reva was treated badly in the final episode of the show, despite the fact that it didn't have a foregone conclusion.
What else are we left with? Some cool new environments, some great lightsaber battles, some nice moments with Obi-Wan, Leia, and the Organas, and a few mediocre ones, in all a few above-average episodes.
The goal for his version was to get rid of the fluff. The most material is cut from the three weakest episodes. Reva's visit to the Skywalker homestead is the weakest part of the series. The battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin is more important because of this. Although Star Wars is famous for its use of parallel action, it's better to let the duel build without interruption to its emotional climax.
The first act of his cut feels choppy and truncated. In a later scene between Leia and her father, he asks her to apologize for her insult to her cousin, but he left out the scene in which she insulted her cousin. The early scenes of the series establish more of the character of Leia and her desire for independence. Our sympathies, as well as our understanding of how capable she is, are not as developed because we don't spend a lot of time with her before she's kidnapped.
Cause and effect are not always understood. The Inquisitors show up on Tatooine and we think they are looking for Obi-Wan until they discover another Jedi and Obi-Wan ally, Nari, who narrowly escapes them. Nari asked Obi-Wan for his help in dealing with the new danger. Nari found Obi-Wan in the desert at night before the Inquisitors arrived. The viewer has no idea who Nari is or why he is trying to find Obi-Wan because they haven't seen him before.
The Duel of the Fates score from The Phantom Menace is one of the things that Star Wars fans are happy about. When we hear the master's themes, our pulse races a little faster than when Natalie Holt's music is playing.
Quite large, but not completely. The movie highlights how well done many scenes from the show are in terms of the filmmakers, a testament to the quality of the series. The narrative momentum already works well in episodes 2, 3, and 5 of the show, so it makes sense that the cuts flow better during these parts of the movie as well. His transition from episode 5 to 6 isn't as smooth as he would have liked.
Not omitting the entire fourth episode is probably the biggest mistake he has made. The episode has some decent action, great visual effects, and snazzy production design. Movies can't repeat beats as much as television. You can't include two rescues that achieve the same thing narratively because they need to continually escalate the stakes. At the end of season 3, Obi-Wan convalescing in the Bacta tank after his fight with Vader, then cut to Obi-Wan, Leia, and Tala joining the refugees at the beginning of episode 5.
The question of whether Obi-Wan should have been a movie instead of a series is a better one to ask. Surprise and suspense are compromised when we know the ending of the drama. Rebels and The Clone Wars had better ideas about how to use legacy characters, which didn't always involve them as leads, and which often diverted from the main Star Wars storyline.
Give Obi-Wan a secret love and then send him off to help her on a planet we haven't seen yet. You have real jeopardy and stakes if Obi-Wan loses someone he loves so much. If we must have new Star Wars stories, stop filling in the gaps and begin expanding them. Less is probably more when it comes to recontextualizing old material.
Don't you think we're not trustworthy? If you want to know if the series works better as a movie, you can watch the cut of Obi-Wan.
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