Kenobi - A Star Wars Story (by JXEditor)
7/10

A radical contextualization of the Star Wars prequels which focuses solely on Obi-Wan Kenobi’s arcs throughout the prequel films, weaving together a more compelling and tighter story than (imo) George Lucas had, this film isn’t afraid to do things like rename Maul to Darth Grevous in order to make the now composited villains of Maul and Grevous into a slightly more developed villain. It really succeeds in its goals, but perhaps the mode of that success is also what brings it down a few notches. And of course the lower resolution of the file or source quality loses points too.

While I did enjoy this very much and think it’s actually watchable compared to revisiting all three prequels as Disney/Lucas intends. It’s also superior to the anti cheese cuts.

While I allowed it to rewrite my headcannon for the prequels and I’d gladly watch this cut again (as it’s now my preferred prequel edit), I would have found it a stronger piece with three simple adjustments:

-while clever, I would have done w/out the added footage in the very beginning which depicts Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan exiled on Tatooine, contemplating his past; it’s too rough around the edges and too visually inconsistent with the overly CGI gloss of the rest of the movie that it should’ve been conveyed within the opening crawl text.

-would have kept Mace Windu’s confrontation w/ Sidious (as is, Palps simply appears transformed before the senate and no one questions the transformation, leaving somewhat of a continuity error), plus the omitted scene builds our villains: Anakin and Palpantine- which are necessary to understanding and enjoying Kenobi’s arc as a whole

-Would have kept Anakin’s brief slaughtering of the Separatists on Mustafar, again, because this better-develops the villain, Anankin, and also concludes/ties up the dangling Separatist plot thread

great job otherwise, very enjoyable re-contextualization