That new generations of filmmakers take care of recovering some of the most iconic and beloved heroes of the seventh art, among which can be counted the Obi-Wan Kenobi of the saga of starwars (since 1977) is by no means an easy undertaking. It was no longer when George Lucas, the Californian director who launched all this immense narrative machinery and, with it, knew how to push us to the modernity of cinema, decided that it would be good to expand it with three prequels.
We do not miss Alec Guinness in the skin of the gentleman jedi in the phantom menace (1999), Attack of the clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005), nor in the new series Disney+ directed by Deborah Chow (2022). Not because we do not esteem the late London interpreter, it would be missing more. What happens is that the Scottish Ewan McGregor does him justice spare your knight jediand he has the opportunity to go deeper into it because his tribulations are greater now.
On the other hand, what we see at the beginning of the first episode turns out to be so recognizable for any follower of the franchise of starwars that can overwhelm him with some enthusiasm: moments of the massacre of Order 66, which Anakin Skywalker himself had led after rushing into the Dark Side of the Force.
And the fact that they allow themselves the luxury of giving us a short sequence shot accentuates our willingness to Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Warning, spoilers ahead!
A more serene start than expected
However, the exposed situation of the protagonist played by Ewan McGregor is not what one might expect from someone of his category, and the contrast caused pleases us because the unexpected social realism which shows us This covers the gaps about how the jedi on Tatooine. And if the tone of The Mandalorian (since 2019) and even in the boba fett book (since 2021) we find it more intense, Obi-Wan Kenobi then stands out for the serenity of myth.
The way Deborah Chow plans how villains appear with Rupert Friend’s Grand Inquisitor, formerly Peter Quinn in Homeland (2011-2020), for example, in the focus of the intrigue, fulfills the purpose of clothing him with the wicked charisma that is necessary for someone like him. Without losing sight of the fact that Moses Ingram’s Reva constitutes a disquieting loose verse for these vile hunters of Jedi terrorizing the population of the Galactic Empire.
What we could not even have guessed is not that a child Luke Skywalker appears on the screen, nor that Joel Edgerton’s Owen Lars intervenes in a threatening scene, but that Little Leia Organa be in the Disney+ miniseries to stay. And to answer the question of her meeting Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi and asking him for help in the early stages of Star Wars: A new hope through R2-D2.
The pleasures and needs of ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’
During awareness of the main character to put on his robe again and wield his lightsaber, the typical objects of the Jedibecause a trap forces him out of his quiet and depressing burrow, screenwriters Joby Harold, Hossein Amini and Stuart Beattie don’t forget to provide us with certain pleasures. The biggest one, of course, is to rediscover the indomitable personality of the princess brought to life by Carrie Fisher.
Under the rule of the Empire, Obi-Wan Kenobi undertakes a momentous mission
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But they are not limited to that, but verbally claim this essential heroinestill short but already unruly and hairless with the proverbial ensaimadas, as a decisive piece in the fight against the servants of the Dark Side of the Force, continuing with the perspective on the matter that Rian Johnson, JJ Abrams and their teams raised for us with the astonishment of the respectable in Star Wars: the last jedi (2017) and the rise of skywalker (2019).
The danger that runs this little princess with the face of Vivien Lyra Blair, whom you may remember in Blindly (2018) or Mr Corman (2021), along with the murder of the Nari played by Benny Safdie, the Joel Wachs of Licorice Pizza (2021), and the other Imperial outrages push Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi to finally get his act together. A classic narrative mechanism, that of the sorrowful men of action to whom duty calls. No objections.