Joek3rr
Master Member
Same!
Star Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi (tv series)
- Thread starter ghostryder
- Start date
HMSwolfe
Master Member
Ooooh boy, do I have thoughts on this mess…
Anyway, those are my thoughts. Story/character issues notwithstanding, the pacing is consistent, as is the direction and cinematography, which I can’t say for Book of Boba Fett, so there’s that.
To start off, I don’t abjectly hate it, but it swings back and forth between pretty decent and absolutely appalling.
Right off the bat, they play essentially a five minute-long trailer for the prequels before the show actually starts. Pretty sure everyone watching this is up to speed, guys, thanks. Don’t need to see this. Also, I’d rather them not rely on archival stuff. I’d rather them shoot new stuff with maybe a little de-aging, so that it aesthetically fits in with the cinematography and direction of the show. Plus it’s neat to see a different director/DP’s take on the same events.
I really do not understand the thought process behind asking John Williams to come up with one theme and then have someone else do the rest of the score. They did the same thing with Solo, and as a result the music here feels confused and inconsistent. It really is a shame, I think—I’m pretty sure Natalie Holt (the composer for this show) did the music for Loki, which I thought was stellar, but here, anything that isn’t the Kenobi French horn motif is shockingly bad and amateurish. Think trailer music/royalty free action music. Also, the distinct lack of classic Star Wars themes is depressing me in a major way with all these shows. Just give me a little something, please.
Ewan is entertaining. Always has been. He does a good job. That’s about all that needs to be said about him, other than I like his meat-monger? outfit, and the fact he carries a blaster. He has a brief interaction with a Jawa he knows which I really liked. The back-and-forth was nice.
What’s-his-face, Joel Edgerton I think? Does a good job as Owen, I really think so. Obi-Wan does try to give Luke the T-16 toy from ANH which made my eyes roll into the back of my head. Which is where they stayed anytime the Inquisitors were around.
Oh boy. The Inquisitors. Just plain awful. Cartoonish, silly, juvenile, and poorly acted. Everyone’s chewing the scenery but worse than that is that the actors clearly don’t think they are—they think they’re putting out some grand performance. The worst by a wide margin is Moses Ingram’s character. Terrible. There is a long, long sequence of her parkouring over rooftops and it’s just unwatchable.
Oh, and there’s a young Leia. Her teeth scare me and she talks incessantly. I guess she’s a decent motivation for Obi-Wan to leave Tatooine. Jimmy Smits sure is getting old, though. He does play Leia’s father well—I mean in the sense that we’ve already seen him as Bail Organa plenty, but seeing him interact in a fatherly role is nice. He felt genuine, even if Leia is very young. Can we just—can we as a society just make a rule to stop telling live-action stories about kids this young? Rarely if ever are they good enough actors and they just don’t make for very compelling characters.
A little Temuerra Morrison cameo as a Clone Wars vet. It’s a nice touch, I suppose. Weird that he’s in full armor, and it’s coincidentally the 501st too.
Kumail Najiani (I hope I spelled that right) wasn’t nearly as irritating or as present as I’d feared he’d be.
Um. I guess a lot (not all) of the designs look good. Love Obi-Wan’s blaster, as I mentioned before. A lot of the ships look nice.
Oh, and freaking heck, why was Flea on this show? So, so weird.
Right off the bat, they play essentially a five minute-long trailer for the prequels before the show actually starts. Pretty sure everyone watching this is up to speed, guys, thanks. Don’t need to see this. Also, I’d rather them not rely on archival stuff. I’d rather them shoot new stuff with maybe a little de-aging, so that it aesthetically fits in with the cinematography and direction of the show. Plus it’s neat to see a different director/DP’s take on the same events.
I really do not understand the thought process behind asking John Williams to come up with one theme and then have someone else do the rest of the score. They did the same thing with Solo, and as a result the music here feels confused and inconsistent. It really is a shame, I think—I’m pretty sure Natalie Holt (the composer for this show) did the music for Loki, which I thought was stellar, but here, anything that isn’t the Kenobi French horn motif is shockingly bad and amateurish. Think trailer music/royalty free action music. Also, the distinct lack of classic Star Wars themes is depressing me in a major way with all these shows. Just give me a little something, please.
Ewan is entertaining. Always has been. He does a good job. That’s about all that needs to be said about him, other than I like his meat-monger? outfit, and the fact he carries a blaster. He has a brief interaction with a Jawa he knows which I really liked. The back-and-forth was nice.
What’s-his-face, Joel Edgerton I think? Does a good job as Owen, I really think so. Obi-Wan does try to give Luke the T-16 toy from ANH which made my eyes roll into the back of my head. Which is where they stayed anytime the Inquisitors were around.
Oh boy. The Inquisitors. Just plain awful. Cartoonish, silly, juvenile, and poorly acted. Everyone’s chewing the scenery but worse than that is that the actors clearly don’t think they are—they think they’re putting out some grand performance. The worst by a wide margin is Moses Ingram’s character. Terrible. There is a long, long sequence of her parkouring over rooftops and it’s just unwatchable.
Oh, and there’s a young Leia. Her teeth scare me and she talks incessantly. I guess she’s a decent motivation for Obi-Wan to leave Tatooine. Jimmy Smits sure is getting old, though. He does play Leia’s father well—I mean in the sense that we’ve already seen him as Bail Organa plenty, but seeing him interact in a fatherly role is nice. He felt genuine, even if Leia is very young. Can we just—can we as a society just make a rule to stop telling live-action stories about kids this young? Rarely if ever are they good enough actors and they just don’t make for very compelling characters.
A little Temuerra Morrison cameo as a Clone Wars vet. It’s a nice touch, I suppose. Weird that he’s in full armor, and it’s coincidentally the 501st too.
Kumail Najiani (I hope I spelled that right) wasn’t nearly as irritating or as present as I’d feared he’d be.
Um. I guess a lot (not all) of the designs look good. Love Obi-Wan’s blaster, as I mentioned before. A lot of the ships look nice.
Oh, and freaking heck, why was Flea on this show? So, so weird.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. Story/character issues notwithstanding, the pacing is consistent, as is the direction and cinematography, which I can’t say for Book of Boba Fett, so there’s that.
HMSwolfe
Master Member
The one thing I can always come back to on the prequels is, “well, at least they don’t feel like they were written by a committee”. They had bizarre choices and a lot of bad execution but they all came from one man. The ST, this show—it’s all just market-testing and focus-groups and algorithms and every other cold, sterile way to tell stories coming up with the broad strokes and then having someone string those together bluntly. Watching the credits (to find out the composer’s name, mainly) I felt like I was watching one of the Kurzman Trek shows with the number of “story by” and “producer” credits.
The scene when they told Leia "no one is coming for you" should have been placed BEFORE the scene with Bail on Tatooine, not after. In the place it is now, we know that someone is. (Well, deep down we know regardless, butyaknowwhatImean)
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Anyone else think parts of that first scene looked a hell of a lot like the POV shot from Grogu’s memory? I was expecting to see him in the back there.
Also, was nice to see that bubble strip.
I thought Leia was great, they got a child actor that can act, and she was written well, wise for her age.
Also, was nice to see that bubble strip.
I thought Leia was great, they got a child actor that can act, and she was written well, wise for her age.
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That montage made me want to watch the prequels again.
I was actually surprised by Ewan's performance. He looked uncomfortable and not in a purposeful way. At times it almost seemed as if he wasn't sure how to play the role again. Other times he sounded wooden like they just went with first take. Really strange. Heck, maybe he was channeling his performance in the prequels lol. Still, he was better than the rest of the cast who were just awful, especially Ingram. She's terrible.
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AnubisGuard
Master Member
I really should be getting to sleep as I have to be up earlier than usual for work tomorrow...and instead I poured myself a glass of whiskey at 12:24 am to sit and enjoy with Obi-Wan.
First world problems.
First world problems.
AnubisGuard
Master Member
The clone troopers are real, right? It looks like they built actual armor this time.
I would just like to say I called....
AnubisGuard
Master Member
**** yeah, the Graflex is in its ANH configuration. Beautiful bubble strip
Somerset
Sr Member
I think overall it was better than I expected it to be and I definitely enjoyed it as a way to spend a Friday morning.
In general, I would have preferred Obi-Wan to be sitting tight on Tatooine for the duration of his exile and that they would make shows focusing on some other part of the galaxy. However, with the acceptance that they decided to make a show and that it must have 'excitement and adventure(!)', I think that the 'Leia's been kidnapped' plot was probably as good a reason as could be mustered for Obi-Wan to leave Tatooine. I don't think it would interfere too much with Leia's message in ANH (although really the formality of that message and explaining how he served her father implies that they have not met before, but whatever).
Ewan was good, though I think (even though he was being hunted and a little on edge) he could have been a bit more laid back and 'grandfatherly' in the way Alec Guinness portrayed Obi-Wan.
I thought the young actress playing Leia was reasonable enough in the role. I understand how child actors can be generally off-putting (especially when given 'sci-fi dialogue' about pirates), but she got the job done.
I think the show would have benefited from having fewer inquisitors - I think they only really needed to have one at time, rather than running round in posse. They were quite cartoony and didn't really inspire enough dread or competence, which was their problem in Rebels.
There wasn't that much that took me out the show while viewing as compared to BoBF (the most notable being the skyhopper model - I think there was probably a collective eye-roll on that), but there were a few things that occurred to me afterwards that probably could have been a little tighter, (plus, c'mon we all like to have some good-natured nit-picking!)e.g.:
1) How did the other Jedi on Tatooine know that Obi-Wan was there, and how to find him?
2) How did the kidnappers a) get into the grounds of the royal palace on Alderaan without detection and b) get out again with a hooded princess and launching their ship without being caught when they looked pretty amateur (although I guess they must have been somehow spotted if Bail could track their eventual destination).
3) I didn't like that almost everyone seemed to be a bounty hunter and that they got the contract on Obi-Wan. I think that would have been better if they had made it some sort of official Imperial broadcast that everyone would see.
4) Hopefully the start of the next episode will be Reva saying into a commlink something like 'Launch a fighter to follow and disable that freighter', otherwise she seems to have forgotten the resources available to the Empire. I get that she wanted to bring Kenobi in alone, but now that she stabbed old pumpkin head, it seems her best chance of survival would be bringing him in fast by any means necessary.
Anyway, looking forward to what happens next but hopefully it won't come too far off the rails.
Ewan was good, though I think (even though he was being hunted and a little on edge) he could have been a bit more laid back and 'grandfatherly' in the way Alec Guinness portrayed Obi-Wan.
I thought the young actress playing Leia was reasonable enough in the role. I understand how child actors can be generally off-putting (especially when given 'sci-fi dialogue' about pirates), but she got the job done.
I think the show would have benefited from having fewer inquisitors - I think they only really needed to have one at time, rather than running round in posse. They were quite cartoony and didn't really inspire enough dread or competence, which was their problem in Rebels.
There wasn't that much that took me out the show while viewing as compared to BoBF (the most notable being the skyhopper model - I think there was probably a collective eye-roll on that), but there were a few things that occurred to me afterwards that probably could have been a little tighter, (plus, c'mon we all like to have some good-natured nit-picking!)e.g.:
1) How did the other Jedi on Tatooine know that Obi-Wan was there, and how to find him?
2) How did the kidnappers a) get into the grounds of the royal palace on Alderaan without detection and b) get out again with a hooded princess and launching their ship without being caught when they looked pretty amateur (although I guess they must have been somehow spotted if Bail could track their eventual destination).
3) I didn't like that almost everyone seemed to be a bounty hunter and that they got the contract on Obi-Wan. I think that would have been better if they had made it some sort of official Imperial broadcast that everyone would see.
4) Hopefully the start of the next episode will be Reva saying into a commlink something like 'Launch a fighter to follow and disable that freighter', otherwise she seems to have forgotten the resources available to the Empire. I get that she wanted to bring Kenobi in alone, but now that she stabbed old pumpkin head, it seems her best chance of survival would be bringing him in fast by any means necessary.
Anyway, looking forward to what happens next but hopefully it won't come too far off the rails.
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I believe they first made real armor for a flashback in Mandalorian.
