Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

They're using the Force to augment their jumps, like a rocket booster. It makes sense that supremely powerful Jedi like Anakin, Obi-Wan and Yoda would be able to jump incredibly high and far — especially during an intense showdown like on Mustafar, when they're tapping into their Force abilities on a higher level than usual. During less intense situations maybe they tone it down a little bit to conserve their strength.

 

The nit I picked had to do with Leia and her plea to Obi-Wan in Ep. IV. In her message through R2-D2 she says, "You fought alongside my father in the Clone Wars" (or something like that). Why wouldn't she say, "Remember that one time you saved me from kidnappers when I was 10 years old ..."? But then I Googled, and, of course, some fanboi already tackled that issue and suggested this "Obi-Wan Kenobi"storyline actually helps Leia's "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope," plea make more sense. Of course he is; she knows, in desperate times, he can and will do everything to save the day. The reason the kidnapping is not mentioned (other than no writer had thought of it yet), is because she doesn't want to relay too much information about their relationship. Maybe that's a bit of a stretch but it solved my minor grievance.

 

I'm definitely sniffing the scent of a Season II in the wind; the disagreement between Owen and Obi-Wan was essentially dismissed in about 30 seconds of screen time in Episode I.

Oh, and Hayden Christensen is awesome as the fully suited Vader, as well as the horrifically maimed Anakin in the bacta tank.

 

What exactly is Christensen doing in the suit that any stuntman couldn't do?

I saw a video breakdown pointing out that it isn't really the voice of James Earl Jones. It is a company that produces the dialogue using his voice, which is why it sounds like it did 40 years ago instead of how the much older Jones sounds now. Supposedly, they mix in some of Christensen's voice at times, too.

They did the same trick on the animated Rebels series, mixing the voice actor who portrayed Anakin in with the deeper voice of Vader for a scene when his mask is damaged.

 

I do kind of wonder how they're going to spin this, like if they try to keep "logical" cohesion with A New Hope or just kind of handwave it. I mean, already, it seems like Reva might be aware of Leia's connection with Vader. Does she know that Leia is his daughter, or was the kidnapping orchestrated because she knows that Kenobi and the Organas are close?

I'm also unclear how "active" Vader is at this time. Like, did it take him years to heal after his campfire date with Kenobi? Or, has he been doing evil shit this whole time? Ten years have passed since the end of Sith, and we've got roughly 8 to 12 more years before A New Hope, so what's the Empire been up to during that time frame?

 

Probably nothing really, and when you have a character in a suit of armor obviously there isn't much emotive acting you can really do, but maybe as a carryover of his training for ROTS 18 years ago, he really seems to have all the Force mannerisms down.
Maybe it's just good directing and editing, but the look is really natural.

The battle choreography of their lightsaber faceoff also seemed logical: instead of the leaping and whirling moves of the Mustafar battle, now you've got a triple amputee in a robot suit fighting against a weary beaten old man.

It addresses the long term point of contention among SW geeks: how could the two lithe and graceful light saber battlers turn into the clumsy ponderous one-step-at-a-time nemeses 18 years later in ANH? Here we see the midway point.

 

Except that if you follow the timeline, about a day before A New Hope, Vader was at the end of Rogue One, looking like right-handed Inigo Montoya

 

Eh, those are just Rebel Alliance mooks, though. If you rewatch the scene, Vader isn't exactly agile. He uses his lightsaber to deflect blasters back at them, force pull and force choke to fuck up their days, and some lightsaber slashes. Arguably, Jedi / Sith are at their "strongest" when they fight like Eastwood at the end of "Unforgiven." (I think there is an intentional "echoing" of the Vader hallway fight with the end of MANDO season two, where Luke mostly mows through a platoon of super engineered soldiers calmly.)

Also, while it seems like Vader is kind of toying with Kenobi, the last time they faced off with one another he lost three limbs. I don't know if there will be another confrontation in this series - it seems likely - but he's also much more dispassionate in the Death Star fight with Kenobi.

 

Still, the Vader in A New Hope was a shell of the one in Rogue One. You’d think they’d pay better attention to stuff like that. Of course, they also didn’t when making all the prequel technology more advanced than stuff in the original three.

 

While Vader's advance in the big hallway scene of Rogue One is pretty startling, basically he just goes in there hacking with one hand, not the two-handed style Anakin showed through most of ROTS and AOTC.
His blocking movements to fend off the blaster shots seem clunky. Pretty much the sheer energy of the attack overrides any technical quibbles, but Vader in Rogue One definitely looks rusty in technique.

 

That kind of makes sense, though - He's going to be more cautious with Kenobi than with a bunch of Rebel Alliance scrubs who can't use the Force. Also, you can view it as how time goes on, Vader becomes more cold and calculating. I mean, the "final" duel between Kenobi and Vader is slow and clunky because of the 1970s tech of the time. But Vader has also "learned" lessons from the past encounters - When he went at Kenobi like a rage fueled madman, he lost, and every encounter after that featured Vader acting slower and more deliberately.

 

Just watched Episode 3. I know Obi-Wan and Leia survive all this. But I still got nervous watching it.