OBI-WAN Series - May - Trailer

[Monterey Jack]

Can they afford to LIGHT SCENES PROPERLY on this show?! All nighttime scenes are basically nothing but pools of inky blackness with lightsabers bobbing around in them.

[AndyDursin]

This is the rare series that seems to have brought everyone together -- in unison about how utterly crappy it was.

Kathleen Kennedy, needless to say, simply needs to go. She was never a creative element in Spielberg's entourage -- more someone who was efficient as a producer and presumably more like an accountant. All of the STAR WARS she's been in charge of has been an absolute mess with behind-the-scenes turmoil, constant rewriting, creative talent firings, gender-fueled ideology and the recasting of two classic characters (Luke in THE LAST JEDI, Obi-Wan in this show) as weakened, "old fuddy duddy white guys." She should just remake A NEW HOPE at this point, kill Luke off in the first reel, and have the whole thing be about how superpowered Leia saves the galaxy.

The only STAR WARS in the Disney era that's had its bleep together is THE MANDALORIAN and Boba because Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau were left to handle the creative aspect of it -- not Kennedy.

And Disney HAS done something remarkable -- turned a special event film series that captivated the audience imagination every 3 years in favor of another clog in their IP machine that no longer holds the quality or uniqueness it once did. Congrats Kathleen and Bob Chapek!

[Edmund Kattak]

I find it interesting that Andrew Stanton of JOHN CARTER was credited as writer and story on the finale. Honestly, I didn't notice if he had a hand in the prior episodes, so I guess I'll have to go back and look. Overall, I think this final episode may have been the strongest and best of this series. It felt a little more cinematic than any of the others, in terms of its pacing and cuts. If only the rest of the series had this sensibility. Again, this could have been better - and probably was intended to be so - than executed. After her story arc changed a bit, I think Moses Ingram worked out better than when the series first started. So maybe some of the negativity directed at her character at first might have seemed warranted. I blame the writing for this format that didn't help her at first. The first four episodes for me were clunky, filled with lazy plot development. Episodes five and six were much better in comparison, but again, the mindset for writing a two hour film and working in as many visual elements to tell story is far more disciplined than having an expanded amount of time to space out the story. This really should have been a two-hour feature, instead of a five and a half hour series. It could have been edited as such - with perhaps much exposition being left out.

We didn't get any resolution on many of the elements that they introduced, namely, the fate of the "Inqusitors." Even though Disney is calling this a limited series, why keep this element open-ended if you aren't planning on a follow-up of sorts?

I liked a couple of cameos for continuity in the last episode, but the one at the end left me a little stumped because this person was asked about it about a year or so ago. This person played it down and basically made it seem like it's about the money. But, this person has made some straight to video clunkers kind of pictures that guess play well in other parts of the world. Anyway, that's my two cents. It was serviceable overall, but could have been better.

[AndyDursin]

Keep in mind this show was supposed to be about Obi-Wan's protection of Luke on Tatooine and was going to have Darth Maul in it. You know, like actually play into the pre-established story line of the old movies, which Kennedy clearly has no fondness for at all, and which some of the writers who worked on this series seemingly didn't watch! They even cast a kid playing Luke -- only to fire him when Kennedy decided to reconceptualize it as another "Leia is the most important hero in the galaxy" female-empowerment story.

Can they be any more heavy-handed? "Luke has lost his mojo", "Obi-Wan has lost his mojo." You just know Indiana Jones will "have lost his mojo" too but, don't worry, he's going to be spurred back to life by some free-thinking female empowerment! You go girl!

For me this is why Disney fails utterly at stuff like this. They "create" by studio mandate and producers who meddle, seldom by hiring someone with a vision. They are more insistent on "inclusion" and diversity check boxes than telling a story that makes sense. NOTHING in this show made sense. You can tell they had no handle on where the story was going, no idea what it was really about, and tried to scrap it together like they did SOLO (fired those directors), ROGUE ONE (they fired that director also), and the senseless "Skywalker Trilogy". The episode order of THIS show got cut because of the problems. They decided to nix Darth Maul (they hired the same guy!) and throw in Darth Vader -- why? I don't know. Because it sounded cool? Because it's "let's just toss all this **** in a blender and have these cool moments and fans won't notice"?

To some degree they will always have the goodwill of some fans who love this series. Theo still enjoyed it, but it shows that they can throw anything with STAR WARS on there and it will sell to someone. Their problem is they have increasingly abused the hardcore fanbase that's simply had enough of them disgracing the old movies and not even caring to pay attention to their story line. That, and how they've taken classic (white, male) characters and turned them into weak, feckless burnouts who need the help of (female, diverse) characters in order to succeed.

It just stuns me that Kennedy's entire POV seems to advance Leia is the most important character in the old movies. Undoubtedly because it's a money thing and Disney's entire motivation since they bought the franchise is to make it appeal (sell merch) to young girls as much as it does young boys. In the end, that's always what it's about, but it's still surprising in how heavy-handed and transparent they've, and she, has been.

[jkholm]

Can they afford to LIGHT SCENES PROPERLY on this show?! All nighttime scenes are basically nothing but pools of inky blackness with lightsabers bobbing around in them.

I was distracted by many of the directorial choices in the last episode, possibly because the series had been getting more uninteresting as it went along. Aside from the lighting issue, those battles were poorly filmed. And could the director not think of another way to frame a shot other than a medium shot with no visual information on either side? I also found the CGI to be worse than usual. Again, maybe I was just bored and hadn't noticed before but every time a ship landed or took off it had no weight to it whatsoever. Did they not have the budget this time? Thee were no stakes in the finale. It seems to me that they were only interested in creating new characters who can now show up in future shows.

[AndyDursin]

It seems to me that they were only interested in creating new characters who can now show up in future shows.

Call it OBI-WAN but it's really designed to promote new characters -- just like the Marvel product, this is all less intended to tell a satisfying, self-contained story than it is continue to advance a perpetually evolving story leading into the next show. That's why it's really a bait and switch, which people thought it was going to be from the get-go (and was).

[Monterey Jack]

That, and how they've taken classic (white, male) characters and turned them into weak, feckless burnouts who need the help of (female, diverse) characters in order to succeed.

And if you're a white male who complains about this obvious storytelling bias, you're branded as a racist/sexist/homophobe and shouted down in discussion forums, if not outright bullied out/banned. It's gonna be painful seeing an elderly Harrison Ford playing second fiddle to a much-younger female character in the next Indiana Jones, but if you complain about it...!



This is what made The Legend Of Korra a much better example of what Disney-era Star Wars is trying to do...create a "girl-centric" next-generation updating of a beloved fictional franchise without it seeming forced or gratuitous. Even the "Hey, Korra likes girls...!" moment at the end of the series was slipped in totally unannounced beforehand, and it felt truly, pleasurably earned, instead of Disney announcing gay/black content months in advance just to puff their chests out for "inclusiveness" and to stir sh!t up on social media (because "controversy" gets eyeballs on their movies/ shows).

[Edmund Kattak]

I guess one could make a case that Natalie Holt was also attached for the "girl power" woke element of the production. I have nothing against her personally - and I did like the quirkiness of the Loki score. But she was WAY out of her depth on Obi-Wan. So much so, that this is a snippet of the end credits. To me, it speaks volumes. Pinar Toprak/Michael Giacchino syndrome?

[Monterey Jack]

I guess one could make a case that Natalie Holt was also attached for the "girl power" woke element of the production._?width=1024&height=562&cropmode=none[/img]

It makes me REALLY sad that Shirley Walker isn't around anymore, as she would have gotten a lot of work for female-driven action and superhero movies...and would have written GOOD scores for them, too!

[John Johnson]

https://thedirect.com/article/obi-wan-k ... theme-song

[AndyDursin]

"It was very much overseen by everyone there"

Yes, I'm sure it was.

[AndyDursin]

As rumored.

[Monterey Jack]

Saw a "Reva, the third sister" plush doll in the 50% off remainder bin at work along with leftover Valentine's Day stuff today.

Disney:

[AndyDursin]

Sounds like the internal battle for LucasDisney is real between Favreau and Kennedy...can only hope the former wins out needless to say!