Obi-Wan Kenobi: Part II

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Ewan McGregor, tracks Princess Leia, played by Vivian Lyra Blair, to the planet of Daiyu.

Reva’s parkour race/flip session was the most low budget goofy thing I have ever seen from Star Wars. Honestly whoever put that together should get fired.

I thought this episode was better than the first, though not by much. McGregor was on top from and I liked his back and forth with Leia. The two have great chemistry together and I hope they spend a lot more time together over the course of the series, though maybe not as Disney + Star Wars already has enough parent child dynamics.

Moreover, though I was initially disappointed that Kumail Nanjiani’s character wasn’t an actual Jedi, I do like the mystery of who these friends of Obi-Wan are. I liked Nanjiani and thought he was a welcome addition to Star Wars lore, again I hope we see more of him as the series goes on.

I thought Reva, played by Moses Ingram, continued to be a problem and that her conversation with the Grand Inquisitor, played by Rupert Friend, about her not being one of them and her being beneath them was so incredibly on the nose that I question if the writers even understand the concept of sub-text. Furthermore, her stabbing and seemingly killing the Grand Inquisitor at the end of the episode both further ruined him as a character and also made no sense in terms of the franchise’s cannon. We know he can’t be dead as he later appears in Rebels unless of course this show is going to retcon that. Reva makes it so that the Grand Inquisitor is no longer threatening in anyway and totally undoes a lot of the good character development.

Overall, Reva still continues to hold the series back in a big way and Ingram also comes off as the weakest member of the cast in terms of acting ability.

Pros.

Kenobi and Leia

Nanjiani

The Vader tease

Letting Kenobi fight and be badass

Cons.

Reva

Seeing Reva seemingly kill the Grand Inquisitor

The flips and parkour scenes

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Obi-Wan Kenobi: Part I

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Ewan McGregor must come out of retirement to save a capture Princess Leia, played by Vivian Lyra Blair.

So this was a deeply mixed bag, though I would say there was slightly more good than bad.

The good first, I really enjoyed McGregor as Kenobi again he did a really great job of playing the broken Jedi who has all but given up. His interactions with the other characters always feel heightened by his acting prowess as well.

Moreover, I also enjoyed the tone and the more violent edge this series had, with the Inquisitors chopping off people’s body parts and actually feeling threatening. However, this was some what undercut by the fact that only one Inquisitor actually behaved as you would expect, that being Reva, played by Moses Ingram. I will get into later why Reva as a character doesn’t work and why it points out everything wrong with modern day Lucasfilm, but I will say that she was the only Inquisitor that acted the part wanting to hurt civilians for answers and being evil, the rest felt like they were holding back and the show didn’t explain why.

My issues with this series do mostly stem from how they use Reva, having her openly defy the Grand Inquisitor, played by Rupert Friend and thinking that she knows better than all of her male colleagues. A lot of very simplistic people online will scream that anyone who doesn’t like Reva is a sexist or a racist or both, however, I am here to tell you that these people are stupid and so obsessed with their own politics that they have to inject it into any media that they see. The reason Reva sucks is not because of the actor’s race or gender, it is because they have written her as one dimensional, her writing doesn’t feel in keeping with what has been established, by having her treat the Grand Inquisitor as her whipping boy it makes him lesser as a character; and his lack of violent response to her makes it worse. I thought we had all collectively agreed that the girl boss archetype that only existed as a shallow gesture within media to try and force in strong female characters was bad and tokenistic? Or did I miss the memo.

To move off Reva, this show continues another of Disney + Star Wars’ key issues and that is having humans be everywhere. Honestly, at times in this show you would forget it is supposed to be set in a wide interconnected galaxy and just think it was on Earth as humans are most of the characters you will meet. There are a few here and there peppered into backgrounds and in some small supporting roles but for the most part they don’t seem to exist.

Overall, I like what they are doing with Obi-Wan and the more adult tone, however, they need to do more with Reva to make her a better character, humble her and have her overcome something rather than just having her be super great at everything, oh and include some damn aliens in your space show.

Pros.

Obi-Wan himself

The more mature tone

The order 66 flashback opening

Cons.

Reva

The lack of aliens

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The Book Of Boba Fett: In The Name Of Honor

2/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The war between Boba Fett, played by Temuera Morrison, and the Pike Syndicate finally comes to blows.

This was one hell of a mixed bag.

On the one hand you had the Grogu and Din, played by Pedro Pascal, stuff, which was really sweet and well done and honestly also quite effecting. As well as some great action set pieces that felt intense and bloody, and had a nice heft to them that helped you forget you were in Disney era star wars where blasters are set to stun half the time.

However, on the other and infinitely worse hand you had the Mods at their most insufferable, lecturing Boba Fett, an experienced mercenary, on battle tactics and social justice and being far too prominent during the final battle. The social justice message of the Mods really makes me dislike them, and it takes me out of the show and makes me feel like Hollywood Z listers are talking down to the fans. I understand that Robert Rodriguez likes to push diversity in his kids films now, and for the most part that is admirable and well done, but here it is forced down your throat by characters that never fit into the universe. Also surely if it was a diverse street gang they would have at least some alien members? No? That seems well thought through.

Moreover, this episode has Boba learn that it was in fact the pikes that killed his beloved Tuscan Raider tribe, yet can he avenge them? No, no he can’t. Instead the show has to once again take the action and badass moment away from Fett and give it to Fennec Shand, played by Ming-Na Wen, which feels illogical and like a slap in the face to anyone invested in the show. To not give this to Boba means his character journey is not ended in any meaningful way.

Finally, and perhaps most egregiously of all they kill off Cobb Vanth, played by Timothy Olyphant, off-screen…… The last episode had him survive his injuries, what happened? Honestly this made me want to turn off the finale.

Overall, Boba Fett spent more time in a bacta tank then doing anything even remotely cool.

Pros.

Grogu

The action

Cons.

The Mods

Cad Bane’s awful death that looked hilariously bad

Not finishing Boba’s character arc

Cobb Vanth

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The Book Of Boba Fett: From The Desert Comes A Stranger

4/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The Mandalorian season 3 continues on with a silent cameo from Boba Fett, played by Temuera Morrison.

I think this may have been the best episode of the series yet. Admittedly much like with last week’s episode it is concerning that the episode without Fett in them pretty much at all are the best ones, considering this is Boba Fett’s show. In my mind this has now just become The Mandalorian but under a different name.

I think this episode does a lot right, I enjoyed that it brought back Timothy Olyphant’s Cobb Vanth, Olyphant can do no wrong and he was on fire in this episode. Likewise I thought they nailed the emotional reunion between Din, played by Pedro Pascal, and Grogu: though not much of a reunion took place. I thought the episode’s cliff-hanger cruelly played with our emotions in the best way, though I have a fairly good feeling I know where it is all heading.

The things I don’t enjoy about this episode all come back to the same thing, the effects. Ashoka, played by Rosario Dawson makes a return to the show and continues to look like a cosplayer, there is something deeply uncanny about the way her character looks as she moves, especially when there is a focus on her talking. It is quite jarring. Moreover, the bad effects continue with the return of a de-aged Luke Skywalker, played by Mark Hamill, and the less said about this the better. What I will say is that every time the character talked or we got a close up of his face it looked like a video game cut scene from over ten years ago, there were major issues with the dubbing. The de-aging tech clearly isn’t there yet and I really don’t think they should be showing this much Luke Skywalker if it is going to look this bad. In a final example of horrendous special effects this episode marks Cade Bane’s, played by Dorian Kingi and voiced by Corey Burton, first appearance in live action and my word does he look terrible.

Overall, in terms of emotions and action this episode is ahead of the pack sadly the tech and the effects really stop the episode from being perfect.

Pros.

More Mando

The emotion

Bringing back Olyphant

The ending

Cons.

The effects and the look of some of the characters

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The Book Of Boba Fett: Return Of The Mandalorian

3.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Mando, played by Pedro Pascal, returns in search of a new ship and a new purpose.

This is a good episode, perhaps even the best of the series so far, sadly it doesn’t even feature Boba Fett, played by Temuera Morrison, thereby side-lining him in his own show. Really this episode reminds us all of how much we have missed Mando and how poor of a replacement Boba is for him. The scene in which Mando despatches a large group of enemies in a brutal fight, woefully contrasts with the moments in prior episodes when the weaker Fett gets beat up and has to use his minions to fight on his behalf.

Though I liked seeing Mando again, and found it heart warming to see him set off on a new quest to give Grogu some beskar armour, it did all feel a bit like filler. The latter half of the episode when Mando is just looking for a new ship drags on and on and eats up runtime. Moreover, the Mando storyline is only used to kill the remaining episodes until we get to the final as clearly they have realised people don’t want any more boring flashbacks from Boba.

Overall, I enjoyed this episode more than a lot of the others, but after I finished it I was sad as this really shows the failure of the series as the best episode didn’t feature the protagonist at all.

Pros.

Mando is always great

The edge and the violence is back

It actually feels like Star Wars

The new Grogu quest

Cons.

It feels like filler

It highlights how The Book Of Boba Fett has failed

It doesn’t feature Fett

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The Book Of Boba Fett: The Gathering Storm

3.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

An almost entirely flashback set episode, that explains how Boba Fett, played by Temuera Morrison, and Fennec Shand, played by Ming-Na-Wen, came to be associates.

For the most part this was an enjoyable episode, I liked most of the flashback stuff and it was nice to see that journey come to an end. I would have liked to see Boba do more during the reclaiming of his armour and ship action wise, but the show seems to only allow Fennec to do the action set pieces. She is cool, but this is supposed to be a Boba Fett show. That said I thought seeing Boba gun down the bikers who killed his Tusken tribe was a nice moment, and showed the character’s harder side better.

I can’t quite move on from the flashback scenes until I talk about the return of the horrible cyberpunk elements. So during the episode Boba takes a near death Fennec to a modifier to try and save her life, whilst there he is surrounded once again by bad cyberpunk cosplayers that remind you of the budget for the show. To make matters worse they play some god awful techno during this scene which feels incredibly out of place in Star Wars.

The present day stuff is all a big tease, but an exciting one at that. We see the character preparing for war with the pikes and see a familiar face return. I enjoyed all this well enough and hope that the next episode is truly crazy in order to make up for the tameness and general lameness of the series so far in most aspects.

Overall, a nice episode though it would be better if Boba actually did something and didn’t just let Fennec do everything.

Pros.

Ending the flashbacks

Teasing the war to come

Seeing how Boba became the crime lord

Boba breaking bad slightly

Cons.

Boba does nothing during the action scenes and is further watered down

The cyberpunk elements

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