Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return

This documentary is a retrospective on the making of the Obi-Wan Kenobi mini-series. It features various archival footage, impressions of the main actors and directors, describes the importance of the series in the Star Wars universe. Actually, as befits a documentary.

In the documentary there are new footage, as well as footage from the shooting, and archival footage, which is good. It's nice to observe the story told from the first person. The narrative is well written.

However, it can not boast anything special, which may surprise. Just pleasant to watch, no more.

As for special fans or just wanting to watch a documentary about the watched series - okay, but no more.

It's a making-of documentary on the making of Obi-Wan Kenobi, the TV show. I did not agree with all the choices made in the TV show, but it is still nice to see these people talking about them. It's nice to see some of the old footages or simply watching the principles in front of the wrap-around screen. This doesn't go that deeply into the computer special effects although who wants to watch a bunch of nerds in front of their screens. It is funny that Ewan McGregor actually thought that he's going underwater. There is some fun with the practical stuff. It's always nice to hear from Alec Guinness. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I sensed that Ewan and Hayden Christensen almost let out something interesting. All in all, I actually like this a little better than the show itself.

This was a nice little companion piece to the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney Plus series.

It's not really a 'making of', that's a bit of false advertising, but it is very nice to hear Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christiansan talk about how much the saga/series means to them, and perhaps how they feel that the prequels have now been reappreciated by the fans after their mauling initially.

Perhaps because the sequel trilogy was inconsistent at best!

I couldn't care less though when supporting actors and the director start to parrot out such pleasantries though. Ultimately it's work for them either way.

Fine enough.

As an avid Star Wars fan, I was eagerly anticipating the release of Obi-Wan Kenobi. The prospect of Ewan McGregor reprising his iconic prequel trilogy role was enticing, however, this do not live up to my +even not that high) expectations.

The story follows Obi-Wan coming out of hiding to rescue a kidnapped Leia Organa, all while being hunted by Imperial Inquisitors and his former apprentice Anakin Skywalker, now the ruthless Darth Vader.

On paper, this premise showed promise. Yet in execution, the plot was lackluster with cheap storytelling devices and second-rate acting from some of the cast.

While Ewan McGregor delivers another OK performance, even he cannot salvage the mediocre writing and direction.

The action scenes, for all their flashy effects, lack tension and feel more like video game cutscenes than cinema.

As an older Star Wars fan, I also take issue with the films juvenile tone that seems squarely aimed at young viewers. This contradicts the intended nostalgic nature of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the first place. The movie can't seem to decide whether this is a kids program or a mature character study, and it suffers greatly from this identity crisis.

In the end, Obi-Wan Kenobi amounts to a missed opportunity. It boasts strong production value and has glimmers of the franchise's former glory. But subpar execution in writing, direction, and acting drag the series down, making it difficult to recommend even for die-hard fans.

For me, this was a disappointing 5/10 return to a galaxy far, far away.

Calling this a "behind-the-scenes" or "making of" documentary is false advertising. There is nothing in this documentary that explains how anything in the show was made, filmed, composed, or any of those things that are staples for a good behind-the-scenes documentary. The only exception is a look at the puppet/mask designs for some of the aliens, but this is only a 2-minute scene.

Instead, the the show focuses almost exclusively on having each of the major actors talk about how they felt being in a Star Wars production. As a fan of the prequels, the first 5-10 minutes were interesting to hear about Ewan's original acceptance of the role, and it's nice to see Ewan and Hayden are such good friends, but there's no reason to drag out the feel good stuff and the "I love Star Wars" sentiment for a whole hour when they could be showing us some actual information about how the show was made.