Disney Plus new Star Wars series Obi-Wan Kenobi debuted on the streaming platform last week. The sci-fi drama released third episode on D+ yesterday and the following 3 episodes are going to release weekly. All the episodes have been directed by Deborah Chow and the show is basically a Midquel, placed between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope unlike Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett, or Ahsoka. Obi-Wan Kenobi Episode 3 is out and though it is much better than the first two episodes, it is still quite bad.
WARNING: The following article contains mild spoilers to the plot.
Rating – ★★★
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Let’s start with the bad and slowly move towards hope. So, firstly the performances barring Ewan McGregor, Indira Varma and Vivien Lyra Blair, are below par and inconsistent. Next the little to no action we’ve seen in the series so far is poorly choreographed and makes even the action featured in the original trilogy look better. Moses Ingram’s Reva still isn’t a compelling villain and her performance, though better than first two episodes, is still wooden and unimpressive. That aside, she was completely overshadowed by the return of Darth Vader, which was the best part of this show so far. We’ll talk about that in the next section.
But first, let us talk about the writing, which was so poor it makes me want to cry. Not only is it overly bland, it is very inconsistent and just too damn lazy sometimes. The sequence where Varma’s character and her loader droid save Obi-Wan Kenobi is just very poorly written and directed. I mean, you are telling me that a little bit of fire in the middle stopped Darth Vader from capturing Obi-Wan who was barely a few meters ahead? What is going on? Also, Vivien Lyra Blair’s Princess Leia is just unrealistically wise for her age and though it was cool in the first episode, it’s just annoying now.
But credit where credit is due, the series features awesome VFX, production design, and costumes. Its production value is the only thing that feels satisfying an din sync with the promise this series made. Although, it’s not as good as The Mandalorian, it is still good and the cinematography is on point as well. Its soundtrack also deserves praise as it befits the Jedi but still remains the weakest among Disney Plus Star Wars live action series. Now let’s talk about the best part of the episode in the next section.
Obi-Wan Kenobi – Darth Vader Returns
The iconic Star Wars character, and one of the best villains of all time Darth Vader returned in Obi-Wan Kenobi Episode 3 and served as the only good thing about it. We saw glimpses of Hayden Christensen throughout the episodes and we saw Darth Vader voiced by James Earl Jones in his former glory. He appeared in the beginning of the episode, and later towards the end as well. Obi-Wan Kenobi reminded us of why we feared Darth Vader as he was as ruthless as he’s ever been.
He went on a murder spree just to incite Kenobi to action and later faced him head to head in a poorly choregraphed fight. Anyways, he managed to mess Kenobi up pretty easily and would have resorted to extensive violence, had Kenobi not been saved by the lazy plot. So, return of Lord Vader worked pretty well and even after 45 years he still makes up for a compelling villain.
Final Verdict: Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 3 is an improvement of sorts but it still has miles to go before it can be called good TV or even good Star Wars.
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