Love George Lucas’ “Star Wars” prequels like a cuddly Ewok, or detest them with the power of one thousand Demise Stars, it is difficult to deny that Ewan McGregor was a smash as younger Obi-Wan Kenobi back again in 1999.
On Disney+. New episodes out each and every Friday.
Twenty-a few a long time in the past — extensive before origin stories have been in vogue — the actor shrewdly conceived how a preternaturally clever whippersnapper version of Alec Guinness may well behave and explored the changeover of student to hermit. McGregor and Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn had been, 100%, significantly greater additions to “Star Wars” than any of the bland performers in J.J. Abrams’ a lot more new wobbly trilogy.
And so it’s a pleasure to welcome the Scot back again in “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Disney+’s most recent sequence that is established a extended time in the past, in a galaxy considerably, significantly absent (some 9 far more are coming quickly). The initial two episodes of the sci-fi drama that dropped Friday do not recommend the addictive triumph that the first period of “The Mandalorian” was, but the Power is primarily with it.
The exhibit will take spot 10 several years soon after the situations of 2005’s “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,” which saw Anakin Skywalker turn into Darth Vader — the OG mask fanatic.
Although the math is perplexing, it basically can make perception. McGregor the actor is 17 decades more mature now, real, but the tale of the aughts videos happened in excess of 13 decades and the hottie was prematurely despatched into a midlife disaster with a foolish beard. Now, at 51, he is nearer to his character’s actual age.
A 10 years on, Obi-Wan calls himself Ben, as he does in 1977’s “A New Hope.” He life on the two-sunned desert planet of Tatooine, retaining an eye on 10-12 months-old Luke from afar and trying to endure in magic formula as the past remaining Jedi are violently hunted down by Inquisitors (led by a freaky Rupert Friend).
This is the place “Obi-Wan” starts off to resemble “The Mandalorian,” “Star Trek” and “Stargate SG-1.” Obviously it would be no exciting to enjoy a burlap-hooded guy cower in a cave all working day, so there are unplanned missions that acquire him off-planet, exactly where we satisfy big-personality people. Kumail Nanjiani, with his signature dry humor, performs one particular underground figure we’ll with any luck , see far more of.
All the when he’s pursued by a dogged Imperial Inquisitor named Reva (Moses Ingram).
Early on, very little Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) performs a main job from her property world of Alderaan with her adoptive father Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits, back from the prequels). She’s now powerful-willed and precocious as a preteen, and the composing goes too significantly with the spicy mind-set. We don’t need Princess Doogie Howser.
What’s lacking from “Obi-Wan” is the identical Jedi sais quoi which is been absent from most of the overstretched “Star Wars” franchise (exterior of “The Mandalorian”) given that Disney bought Lucasfilm: the feeling you’re seeing a little something sparkling and new. The creation is pricey with thorough CGI set pieces and creatures. However, there’s quite minor difference to the filmmaking. Very little modern or awesome. Aesthetically, the collection is part of an ongoing hard work to drinking water down an iconic American blockbuster and make it glimpse like just an additional “Star Wars” solution.
Appearances apart, the story so much is engrossing and McGregor carries on Obi-Wan’s tale in a richly emotional way — something that Alden Ehrenreich’s dreadful Han Solo movie couldn’t do.
The most crucial thing to take note (this isn’t so substantially a spoiler as a sweetener) is that in the very first two episodes of “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Jar Jar Binks does not appear. Everyone can rest. Reportedly he’s off annoying someone else, significantly, significantly way.
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