Obi-Wan Kenobi: The Complete Series (Steelbook) (4K UHD Review)

Reviewed by: Bill Hunt
Review Date: Dec 18, 2024
Format: 4K Ultra HD

Director

Deborah Chow, based on Star Wars created by George Lucas

Release Date(s)

2022 (April 30, 2024)

Studio(s)

Lucasfilm/Disney+ (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)

Film/Program Grade: C+
Video Grade: A+
Audio Grade: A
Extras Grade: C

Review

Set ten years after the events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Deborah Chow’s Obi-Wan Kenobi finds its title character (played by Ewan McGregor) in hiding, living a modest life on Tatooine as he watches over young Luke Skywalker, who lives with his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru (Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse, reprising their roles from the Prequel Trilogy) on their remote desert moisture farm. He’s also closed himself off from the Force entirely, and is haunted by nightmares stemming from having failed his Jedi apprentice and friend Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), who has now fully embraced the Dark Side and become Darth Vader.

But Vader hasn’t forgotten his former master. He’s sent a team of Sith Inquisitors—including the Grand Inquisitor (Rupert Friend), the Fifth Brother (Sung Kang), and Third Sister Reva Sevander (Moses Ingram)—to hunt down and destroy any Jedi who survived the Emperor’s Order 66. And it turns out that one such survivor has recently appeared on Tatooine, endangering Obi-Wan’s purpose there. But when mercenaries kidnap a young Leia Organa (Vivien Lyra Blair) on Alderaan, her adopted father Bail (Jimmy Smits) calls upon his old ally for help. Obi-Wan can’t save the Jedi survivor, but he also can’t refuse a friend in need. So after retrieving his lightsaber from the desert sands, Obi-Wan sets out to find the girl… and, just maybe, his way back to the Force as well.

Watching Obi-Wan Kenobi is a frustrating experience. It feels like a great idea ruined by rewrites that watered-down the story. There are so many missteps here. First, the Inquisitors are caricatures that speak stilted dialogue in bad accents, seem barely competent, and never feel genuinely threatening. I’m not sure whose idea it was to include Leia, but when has any film or series been made better by adding a precocious child? The young actor does grow on you, but I doubt what any fan wanted for Obi-Wan’s return was to see him playing second fiddle to a wise-cracking kid. Temuera Morrison cameos as a homeless clone trooper who’s meant to be Captain Rex (right down to the blue stripe on his armor), but that goes nowhere. And the supporting cast is a mixed bag. Kumail Nanjiani, Flea, and O’Shea Jackson Jr. essentially play themselves. Indira Varma is terrific, but while Moses Ingram gives it her all (and Reva is a compelling character) she’s let down by a script that makes her seem petulant and rash. What’s more, over-reliance on the StageCraft volume contributes to pacing, cinematography, and simple believability issues. Whole sequences feel like video game cutscenes. Almost every shot of characters standing in the desert on Tatooine looks completely fake. Overaggressive use of handheld camera during the final saber duel actually takes away from the majesty of the moment—even in pivotal close-ups of faces, the camera won’t stop shaking. There’s also a flashback of Obi-Wan and Anakin set before Revenge of the Sith, except ILM didn’t de-age the actors enough to sell it.

And yet… Ewan McGregor is fantastic as always. It’s a thrill to see Christensen again, and he’s excellent too—the pair still have terrific chemistry after all these years. It’s nice to see Edgerton and Piesse have the chance to do a little more, and Smits is always welcome as Bail Organa. (I expect we’ll see him again in Andor: Season Two.) Vader is once again voiced by James Earl Jones, though it’s actually the same speech synthesis software that was used for younger Mark Hamill’s voice in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. And the two lightsaber duels between Obi-Wan and Vader are pretty good, despite the fact that the second occurs entirely on a virtual volume. There’s real emotion between these two, especially in that second fight. McGregor and Christensen bring their A-game and it mostly works. But that level of angst and intensity should have fueled the entire series. Instead, we get filler subplots, too much of sassy child Leia, and humor beats that feel out of place. What fans wanted here was dark and gritty. What they got instead was Lucasfilm playing it safe.

I also want to briefly address the controversy surrounding the response of some fans to the show’s Black cast members. Disney and Lucasfilm have too often in recent years made a point of promoting in advance the diverse cast members in their films and steaming series, and then when that content is actually released it turns out to be mediocre. Look… there’s no doubt that some small but vocal percentage of pop culture fandom in 2024 is toxic, racist, and otherwise odious, and the online behavior of this cohort is unacceptable. But it’s also true that what the overwhelming majority of fans want is simply great content. So how about this: Make great content! Cast great talent in said content, including diverse talent. And once that content is released—and fans see that it’s great—then and only then pat yourselves on the back and take a public bow. Because when you cast diverse actors in terrible shows and movies, and parade them around in advance, you’re just hanging them out to dry. They deserve better. And they sure as hell deserve to appear in great content.

Obi-Wan Kenobi was captured digitally in the ARRIRAW codec (at 4.5K) by cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung (Oldboy, Zombieland: Double Tap, Last Night in Soho) using Arri Alexa LF, Mini LF, and RED KOMODO cameras with Cooke Anamorphic/i FF, Xelmus Apollo, and Tribe7 Blackwing7 lenses, along with heavy use of the StageCraft volume. It’s finished as a 4K Digital Intermediate at the 2.39:1 aspect ratio and is presented on physical 4K Ultra HD encoded for 100 GB discs, this time with high dynamic range in HDR10 only. As is the case with the other recent Disney+ 4K releases, the resulting image quality is fantastic and a massive improvement over the steaming version. With video data rates consistently in the 60-70 Mbps range, the result is greater clarity and fine detail, a notably richer color palette, and a far more dimensional image. There’s none of the banding and artifacting sometimes visible in the Disney+ stream. Notably, the HDR experience on disc is superb, with deeply detailed shadows and more naturally bright and eye-reactive highlights. Unfortunately, it’s painfully obvious when the StageCraft volume is being used—and it’s being used way too often. But this is still a very pleasing 4K image overall.

Primary audio on these discs is offered in English Dolby Atmos. And unlike the compromised sound experience on the Disney+ stream, the uncompressed Atmos mix really shines. All the dynamics are present, with pleasing LFE and immersive use of the height and surround channels. The soundstage is nicely wide, with subtle atmospherics all around the listener. Dialogue is clean and readily discernible, movement is smooth, and the score by Natalie Holt (Kindred, Loki) and William Ross (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker)—which features a new original theme for the title character by John Williams—is offered in pleasing fidelity. Additional sound options include English 2.0 Descriptive Audio, as well as French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital. Subtitle options include English for the Hearing Impaired, French, and Spanish.

Disney and Lucasfilm’s 4K Ultra HD Steelbook release of Obi-Wan Kenobi: The Complete Series features all six episodes spread across two UHD discs (Blu-ray versions are available separately). The specific episodes and bonus features included are as follows:

DISC ONE (EPISODES 1-3)

Part I (UHD – 52:31)
Part II (UHD – 38:44)
Part III (UHD – 44:37)
- Duels of Fate: Obi-Wan vs Vader (HD – 11:22)
- The Dark Times: Villains (HD – 11:46)
- Designing the Galaxy (HD – 10:57)

DISC TWO (EPISODES 4-6)

Part IV (UHD – 36:22)
Part V (UHD – 40:13)
Part VI (UHD – 48:23)
- Audio Commentary with Deborah Chow

The three featurettes are solid, but they unfortunately only add up to about thirty minutes worth of content. Duels of Fate is interesting in that it offers additional behind-the-scene clips from the original Star Wars that may not have been released previously. It includes a look back at the fight training that McGregor and Christensen did for the prequel films, compared with the new training for this series. There’s clearly a strong bond of friendship and respect between these two. And we get a peek at the pre-viz for the final fight scene, which is fascinating. The Villains piece isn’t quite as compelling, simply because again the Inquisitors were poorly handled here, though I respect Ingram for really trying to bring something interesting to her role. There’s also another great look at the artistic design for the series, once again featuring the excellent work of Lucasfilm’s Doug Chiang and others. Chow’s audio commentary on the final episode is interesting, and it’s clear how thoughfully she approached the entire project. But it’s also apparent that she’s so invested that she lost perspective. Unfortunately missing from these discs is the Disney+ behind-the-scenes special, Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi’s Return (HD – 60:00), which was directed by David Gelb. There’s really no excuse for that not to be included (even if only on Blu-ray) other than the fact that the studio wants to save it as a Disney+ exclusive. In any case, its absence here is both glaring and irritating.

Obi-Wan Kenobi isn’t terrible, but it’s not particularly great either—and that’s a problem. Apart from Rogue One, Andor, and their many fine animated series, Lucasfilm seems to have mastered the art of taking fresh, daring, and compelling stories and grinding them down into lukewarm, designed-by-committee mush. Great ideas go in, blue milk comes out. I really hope there’s some kind of internal assessment happening at the company, because it feels like whoever’s been making the decisions up there until now isn’t especially good at reading the room—knowing when things are working well and when they’re not. In any case, the re-teaming of Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen delivers enough strong emotional moments to make the series worth your time. (One certainly hopes we haven’t seen the last of either of them.) And if you’re going to watch this series, 4K Ultra HD is certainly the best way to do it.

- Bill Hunt

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