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.