Solo: A Star Wars Story

I have trouble with "bomb" if it's #1 in the box office this weekend... I'll accept "underperforming". Which I personally find sad. It's a good movie. Not great. There are plenty of things I would have done differently. Hey -- it's me, What'd you expect? :p Maybe break it into two films, one covering Han's earlier life of getting off Corellia by joining the Imperial military and ending with his getting kicked out/deserting in the process of saving Chewie... and one about Lando doing the Kessel Run in twelve parsecs (notice in ANH, he only says the ship did the Run in that time -- not Han himself). Something like that. I dunno. I'm not thinking too hard about it because I liked it in general. No huge surprises. Some cool-if-expected twists... My main gripes are larger than this film, so I don't focus them on it.

As I said in the post-release thread, I intend to see this at least twice more in theaters. More if I can manage it. Partly because I like it and want to share the experience with other friends and family, and partly to do my part to help its box-office. I'm hoping for a slow burn with minimal drop-off as word-of-mouth does its thing. I know some on here didn't like it, and I feel bad for them. I hope one of the upcoming projects does finally land for them.

What I did say is that it plays like lazy fanfiction. It’s a string of story beats deserving of those people you’re describing who think they could do it better - the obvious stuff which you seem to think were inevitable. Any kid could have accurately guessed at the contents of this script without any hints. My 8yo may not be able to script that connective tissue between those beats, but that’s a super low bar, ain’t it?

Where you see plot “tentpoles” which have been inevitable since 1977, I see all the obvious traps which higher caliber creatives than my 8yo should have dodged. It’s amazing to me that they couldn’t come up with a new story, but would rather show us that everything we already know about the character - meeting Chewie, getting his blastet, completing the Kessel run, meeting Lando, winning the Falcon, even joining the empire if you’re up on the most famous bits of the EU - conveniently happened in the three days they’re putting on screen.

I can see telling an original story surrounding one of those events I guess, but it’d be better to let most of them be as throwaway references in OT dialogue. Like the Clone Wars, it’s never as interesting as it seems it may be before it’s spelled out. Why not tell a random adventure from his empire days? Show us a particularly difficult smuggling operation, an original thriller. Instead, they try to present us with too many wholly expected events at hyperspeed, and give all of them short shrift.

In connecting every bit we ever heard about the guy in the window of time they targeted, the character’s universe is shrunk beyond reason or interest. Even that “original” connective tissue found subtle ways to constantly wink at the audience.

As I said above -- and in thread on other Star Wars films -- I generally agree with that. When we know something from dropped references in other films, a more creatively interesting approach is to show the events around the references, but not explain the references themselves. Or take what we thought we knew and turn it on its ear -- like my half-joking idea of having Lando be the one to set the Kessel Run record, with Han later taking reflected credit for it after he got the ship...

It doesn’t seem to be long before ANH when this film ends. You guys are fine with Han & Chewie being such short friends when we first meet them? That their smuggling “career” is seemingly a job or two long?
Where did you pick up on that? I was assuming this was like ten years before ANH. I didn't see anything indicating it's that short a time period between the two.
I think it was the mention of going to Tatooine, which they didn't need to be honest.
I agree it was unnecessary, but I'm guessing this is just the beginning of a relationship with Jabba that goes sour. It's still like 7 years before ANH.

Solo starts 13 years before ANH (interestingly, the same time Krennic tracks Galen Erso to Lah'mu, i.e. the beginning of Rogue One), ends about 10 years before ANH, and the coda where he finds Lando and wins the Falcon is about 7 years before ANH. Put another way, the early stuff on Corellia is about 6 years after the end of ROTS, and by the end it's about 12 years after ROTS. The Empire is still gearing up and consolidating. The Death Star is maybe half-built. Luke is a youngster getting into trouble on Tatooine. Obi-Wan is about 50...

I have a feeling the crew organizing on Tatooine isn't Jabba -- he's been established there for more than a couple decades, at the least. My hunch is it's an opportunistic gang trying to set up shop under Jabba's nose, possibly affiliated with Maul, possibly not, possibly the antagonists Obi-Wan will have to deal with in his film... It's entirely possible those events put Han in contact with Jabba and he starts periodically doing jobs for him. But one thing that was not was an indicator that they were heading to Tatooine to get the job from Jabba smuggling Spice that he will have to dump immediately prior to ANH. That's still years away.
 
Just going by what I was told by the Internet. I don't have the Ultimate Visual Guide yet. Dunno if it means Solo II will have him and Chewie sans Falcon on Tatooine. Don't know if they're not going now that Beckett's out of the picture, and that's a tease for what Obi-Wan will be dealing with. *shrug* My instinct is the latter.
 
****ing hell, guys. It’s a MOVIE! Who cares who Lando screws!? It’s a moot point - as the galaxy is populated with beings, I’m assuming the inhabitants of such a place copulate from time-to-time. Whether they’re doing it with male/female/droid/alien/etc... good for them - but we don’t see it, so who cares!

Why is this even a concern?

Star Wars fans are, from what I have seen lately, becoming a group of petulant idiots.

N.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
****ing hell, guys. It’s a MOVIE! Who cares who Lando screws!? It’s a moot point - as the galaxy is populated with beings, I’m assuming the inhabitants of such a place copulate from time-to-time. Whether they’re doing it with male/female/droid/alien/etc... good for them - but we don’t see it, so who cares!

Why is this even a concern?

Star Wars fans are, from what I have seen lately, becoming a group of petulant idiots.

N.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Um that topic ended like a week ago after the episode of RPF cribs.
 
Lame / Cringe-worthy:
--How he got the name Solo
--Speaking Chewie's language
--The Imperial March playing in the Empire recruitment ad

Agree. Overall, I liked it for what it was - an entertaining some action movie. It’s got some Star Wars elements, which I enjoyed. Definitely ranks above TLJ in my book...

Sean
 
Agree. Overall, I liked it for what it was - an entertaining some action movie. It’s got some Star Wars elements, which I enjoyed. Definitely ranks above TLJ in my book...

Sean

The growling to Chewie was silly, but I can roll with, and apply the concept of "no harm, no foul" - no permanent damage.

But "Solo", and how the name came about was shockingly lame and disappointing, and is not - strictly speaking - canon. It has taken one of the coolest names in the series - in all of film, really - and trivialized it.

Lawrence, how could you do this...?
 
The growling to Chewie was silly, but I can roll with, and apply the concept of "no harm, no foul" - no permanent damage.

Ya wanna really cringe, Rob?? Imagine Harrison Ford speaking shyriiwook to Chewie--either as his cool, badass young self in the first couple films, or as the doddering old man in TFA. We would've thrown up in our popcorn.

I think it is permanent damage. Because it never happens again, and there were many times when it would have, if Han could indeed speak shyriiwook. Thank God this is the first time we've heard it. But to show it at all is inexcusable.

The Wook
 
Ya wanna really cringe, Rob?? Imagine Harrison Ford speaking shyriiwook to Chewie--either as his cool, badass young self in the first couple films, or as the doddering old man in TFA. We would've thrown up in our popcorn.

I think it is permanent damage. Because it never happens again, and there were many times when it would have, if Han could indeed speak shyriiwook. Thank God this is the first time we've heard it. But to show it at all is inexcusable.

The Wook
I think we're taking Hans wookie growl a little too seriously.

Remind ourselves these films are for kids (not just high SW IQ adults). From a kids perspective it was halarious, even magical.

Thats why I love going to movies with my kids! You see and hear things differently.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
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