This review contains full spoilers for episode five of Obi-Wan Kenobi, now available to view on Disney+. To remind yourself of where we left off, check out our Obi-Wan Kenobi: Episode 4 Review.
Obi-Wan Kenobi’s penultimate episode puts the spotlight on Reva, rounding out her character and telling her story to satisfying effect, with a handful of action scenes that serve the story well, even if they aren’t all presented in the most stylish of manners. Ultimately, it moves the plot along well – even tying up some threads – and keeps us eagerly awaiting another Kenobi and Vader showdown.
Obi-Wan Kenobi seems insistent on reminding us of some of Star Wars’ greatest moments, with familiar scenarios popping up like a force ghost reminding us of ‘the good old days'. If episode 3 paid homage to Empire with its Cloud City showdown, episode 4 was A New Hope’s Death Star escape in a different prison, this time it’s The Last Jedi that gets the tribute treatment, with a cluster of the resistance trapped on the planet Jabiiim. However, it’s more a cover band version because it has nowhere the same sense of scale or visual identity as the Crait attack. I wouldn’t be surprised if “brown rock” was the only design note given.
Reva finally gets the recognition she seeks from Vader and her reward is to spearhead the attack on Obi-Wan and friends. As always, Moses Ingram embodies the threat superbly, wielding power in whispered conversations and loud action alike. She displays a one-track mindedness for revenge only her master can appreciate. Her motivations are finally unveiled and while the fact she was an escaped youngling during Order 66 is pretty much a reveal most saw coming, it does serve as a logical origin for the character and the resentment she feels towards Obi-Wan.
That resentment is only outweighed by the hatred she feels towards Anakin and the catalyst to her shift towards the dark side. This secondary twist is less obvious and ultimately much more exciting in terms of where it leads the plot. Ultimately Reva won’t be able to deal her revenge personally, but it does present a welcome new dynamic between herself and Obi-Wan, allowing him to place a level of trust in his new-found double agent.
The episode does a great job of delving into Reva’s relationships with both Obi-Wan and Vader, but truthfully neither of those are as interesting as the one between the two main adversaries. This episode does little to expand on that though, and it feels like the narrative between Vader and Kenobi has been on pause ever since their showdown at the end of episode 3.
The action for the most part is yet another opportunity for stormtroopers to display they’re the most ineffective military unit to ever grace the screen, charging through narrow corridors and missing almost every shot. One shot does hit however, and Tala’s sacrifice foreshadows the one Obi-Wan himself will make to help Luke escape 10 years in the future. While we didn’t know her long enough for it to feel like a real gut-punch, it does serve as a moment of real jeopardy in a series that has contained relatively little, due to the fact we know most of its lead characters survive. The base assault has faint echoes of the assault on Hoth, but is nowhere near as exciting or visually interesting, and it is times like this you just wish the Imperial Theme would kick in to lift the moment.
The same can’t be said for the moment Darth Vader force pulls the escaping resistance spacecraft down to the ground – a moment all Star Wars: The Force Unleashed fans will enjoy. Obi-Wan Kenobi has done a great job of showing us a full-strength Vader and this is yet another thrilling example. It’s just a shame it happened to not be the ship he was looking for.
That’s not to say he doesn’t get to have his fun and the way he toys with his newly crowned Grand Inquisitor is frankly unfair. He one-handedly dispatches her like Morpheus schooling an inexperienced Neo in The Matrix as she lashes out with her lightsaber, only to be met by an immovable force. It’s a creatively choreographed fight, but one that does leave a little to be desired in terms of cinematography and staging. The return of the old Grand Inquisitor (presumably another fan of a Bacta tank) only rubs salt into the wound for Reva, as it’s revealed she was never the step ahead she presumed she was. When are people going to learn that leaving people for dead is never the smartest thing to do in this galaxy?
We do get another Anakin and Obi-Wan duel but not necessarily the one we were expecting. The flashback scenes of one blue lightsaber clashing against another may well only serve as sparring, but displays the differing shades inside of each of the Jedi. It also cleverly serves as the dialogue between the two over the course of the episode, but is still no match for when they physically met again at the end of episode 3. Hopefully we’re set for another clash between the two old friends next week as Obi-Wan Kenobi reaches its finale.
from IGN Reviews https://ift.tt/zLDr7ut
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