Yep. Discerning does not make one less of a fan.
If we had to watch ALL Star Wars to be a real fan, did everyone watch all the Ewoks cartoons and that Caravan of Courage thingy?
I definitely reject the notion of "real" fandom. If you like Star Wars, cool. I don't expect everyone to immerse themselves to the same level in order to gauge their level of "into-it-ness". It's not about memorizing names or knowing when this battle took place or having read that issue of the old Marvel comic or whatever.
I, personally,
did watch the Ewoks and Droids cartoons, the Ewok movies, the Holiday Special, read all the books and comics, played all the games, had the "read-along" audio adventures, had some younger-reader books that make me seriously
confused:wacko
facepalm to look at them now. I was with it through the Renaissance, I got every installment in the Shadows of the Empire cross-media event -- even the pop-up book and the soundtrack CD. I suffered through clinkers like The Crystal Star and the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy. It wasn't until the New Jedi Order that my immersion took a hit. I stuck with it through the first eleven New Jedi Order novels before I just gave up until the final book. Didn't bother with the Dark Nest trilogy. Re-engaged with the Legacy of the Force series, but can't stomach Troy Denning's three books out of that cycle. Fate of the Jedi was largely leaving me cold, though. I was skimming to read the stuff with Luke and Ben out questing, and skipping all of the political BS. I
did stick with the comics and games and standalone novels all through here, though.
Not to mention all the art-of and making-of books, all my old Bantha Tracks newsletters, the Lucasfilm Fan Club (later Star Wars Fan Club, later Star Wars Insider) magazine; the Topps Star Wars Galaxy cards, companion books, and magazine, blueprints, etc., etc.
I delve more deeply than most, and I know I'm atypical. *lol* I don't hold myself to be "more" of a fan than someone who's just seen the movies once and that's it.
They simply did not make a Han Solo movie for this Han Solo fan. They made Ranger Solo and the "Millennium" Falcon became a double meaning... more about appealing to the millennium generation.
43, here. Tail end of Generation X, in the cross-bleed between that and Millennial that has come to be referred to as "X-ennial". I tend to identify more with the latter than the former, despite being old enough to have seen Star Wars in the theater with my parents in 1977. I liked Solo a lot. Seen it twice so far, and hope it has enough life in it to stay in theaters long enough to see it at least once or twice more. The balance of hits and misses, for me, is comparable probably to... *thinks* ...I'd say Star Wars. So, #3 on my personal list, after Empire and Star Wars.
-L3 is super annoying and basically throws "droid equal rights" in your face for half the movie. Now I've heard it's deliberate, but it doesn't come across as such at all. It's just annoying. I'm actually kinda happy when she is destroyed so we don't have to listen to her excessive jabbering.
I'm a little surprised this is a complaint I hear (see?) as often as I have on here. Droid rights, droid rebellions, etc., are a thing going back to the early '90s in the EU, and I can think of at least half a dozen instances and examples over the following decade. Apropos of my above commentary, I am not saying that awareness makes me more of a fan, but I'm a bit surprised there isn't more background awareness that there have been instances in Star Wars prior to this of droids wanting freedom and equal treatment under the law. This is just the first time it's been in a film.
-The showing was too dark, which I've heard is a prominent problem with this movie. I could hardly make out any details, and everything looked desaturated. It was not visually enticing at all.
More a prominent problem with some of the theaters showing it. The two I've been to so far had good projectors and I had mo problem seeing anything, even under the smog of Corellia.
-There's waaaaaay too much "wink wink nudge nudge" thrown into the dialogue. The amount of callbacks was almost every other line. It comes to the point of being annoyingly superfluous. Like, we get it, this is what's going to happen in the OT. It's terrible. The dialogue in general isn't great though.
The dialogue in the first six Star Wars movies isn't exactly top-shelf, either, you remember...
I, personally, loved all the little references. I didn't feel bashed over the head with any of them except You-Know-Who's reveal at the end. I think my favorite, besides Beckett's offhand reference to "the Felucia job" and Han and Lando's "I hate you" "I know" moment was the inclusion of references to the Lando Calrissian Adventures.
-Are we really supposed to believe that Lando's been hanging on to that same Jabba Palace guard costume for 15 years? Really? That was a terrible callback. In fact, let me reiterate: TOO MANY CALLBACKS, especially Lando's. "I hate mining operations." ... But I'll be happily operating one in about 10 years because I just so happened to win one.
Well, two things here. As with Vos' trophy room, I feel like that's something he acquired during his exploits that he keeps as a trophy -- and that also occasionally comes in handy to sneak in somewhere. As for the change of heart about mining colonies...? What I caught from that was the beginning of a shift in viewpoint, triggered by Beckett's "that's where the money is" response to his voiced sentiment.
Well, I don't know where you get the comlink idea from, but okay.
He went back to wait on his ship, telling Han to let him know when to come get his cut. Were you figuring semaphore?
And why did you say Solo didn't kickstart the rebellion? Wasn't that the implication? Not necessarily that he was the only patron of the cause, but that he was a big one and an early one.
Nooo... The implication was he had an earlier brush with a faction who would, in another five or six years, probably be part of the initial unified Alliance to Restore the Republic we saw forming in Rebels. At this point, there is no Rebellion -- just semi-isolated pockets of resistance, some of which are
trying to get things organized into something bigger. And he was no patron. Enfys Nest was after the coaxium on her own, from her own information sources, and twice thwarted Han's efforts to turn a buck from it. The second time, after hearing what was going on with them, after having Lando ditch them, having Qi'ra rip his heart out and abandon him, having a decade of hardening still ahead of him, and there being more of them with more guns than him, and with Chewie bein ghis Jiminy Cricket, he just didn't (die trying to) stop them from taking it.
yes right you are inquisitor but you can see how errr compacted the film is in order to fit in all those callbacks. To me it makes the film somewhat artificial? or predictable?
Yes, but that's a gripe of mine going back to the '80s, so...
