I'll be the one to say it: I don't like it.
Sure, this is an impressive technical marvel (or one might say a
technological terror?) of CG edits, but almost everything about it feels out of place and, frankly, like a
bad fan edit especially when spliced alongside the original footage. Purely
technical issues aside (hard matte lines, Sir Alec's floating face, inconsistent motion blur, inconsistent costumes, unrealistic lighting), most of the performance, camera direction, some of the pacing, and the general theme of this act still feel just wrong to me.
It seems very out of character for Obi-Wan at this age and in the context of A New Hope to be so relatively spry and strong in a fight. It reminds me of the grasshopper-like bounding around the room that Yoda does in Episode II before slowly picking back up his cane. I suspect fans will defend that scene as showing the power of the
midichlorians Force overcoming the frailty of one's corporeal body, but it contrasts
far too starkly with everything else we've seen about the character that it breaks the suspension of disbelief and turns what could be a tense sequence into a cartoon for me. I guess we're supposed to expect characters to turn into CG ragdolls once a fight breaks out nowadays. I felt distinct twinges of that Yoda vs. Dooku nonsense when seeing this version of Obi-Wan fighting with such resolve.
The camera work feels nothing like what you'd find in the 70s or 80s. Sweeping low dramatic angles, gradual orbiting pans, slow almost-dolly zooms, Zach Snyder-y speed ramping, nothing staying still — these are all modern styles that were rare if not completely absent from the era of the original Star Wars. Maybe a closer imitation of the classic cinematography would make this feel less like an awkward cut-and-paste job.
I would have loved to see a more authentic, stylistically conservative take on an extended Obi-Wan vs. Darth encounter. Something like that would take an extra mastery of the art since it's so easy to fall into the trappings of modern cinema and computer animation.
I'm sure this kid will fit right in at JJ Abrams'
School of Novice Lens Flares, though. This entry might get him bumped up the early admission line!
edit: Curmudgeonly ranting aside, thanks for sharing this,
Mac+.
