Solo: A Star Wars Story (Post-release)

What did you think of Solo: A Star Wars Story?


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Yeah, the lighting in this film was really quite bad.....questionable decision to go that direction.....

I loved Solo, much more than Rogue One, (which is chock full of unlikeable (apart from Chirrut) characters and the whole film feels like a video-game adaptation....)

Rich
 
I could be wrong but the snowball fight looks like it takes place after the failed heist, if that is the case Beckett's wife has not long since been blown to bits and he would have been a bit miffed if these two stared clowning around. He would have most likely shot the pair of them.
 
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... The Imperial Starfleet infantry having, essentially, the breastplates and helmets Veers had in ESB, for instance. ...

was this ever something they covered in Rebels? I've not seen it, but it's really the only thing these days I haven't caught, and I don't remember the powers that be officially giving a uniform type to imperial navy and army.

The break down I remember from the original films, other EU, and what else I can imply, is below, it'd be great if you could point me to when/wear they locked any of this stuff in.

Storm Troopers:
white armor, black armor, patrol troops from solo, death troopers, snow troopers, sand, etc

Imperial Navy:
Gray dress uniformed officer (never see navy "pilots" from my recollection), deathstar gunners with the goofy long helmets

Imperial Army:
Black dress uniform, mud troopers (since we see actual storm troopers covered in muck also, and they seemed like mostly conscript soldiers, since Han was one), gray uniformed guys in AT-ATs and AT-STs with or without Veers/mud trooper style torso or helmet

Not sure:
Tie pilots; they seem to numerous to be all storm troopers, but any we've seen are depicted with the black storm troopers style helmets, and I'm sure the couple we saw go out with Vader were, retroactively plot wise at least, 501st.
 
A lot of misinterpretations have crept into the mix over the years. Going by first sources (the original films, before there was much of an EU to muddy things):

ANH gave us officers addressed with Army-like ranks in steingrau (an irritating gray-green that looks more one or the other depending on lighting, camera filters, angle, etc.) two-piece uniforms. ESB used those same uniforms with officers being addressed with both Army and Navy style ranks. Thus, we concluded ages ago it's a combined service. Ground forces are useless without ships to move them from planet to planet, star system to star system... And ships on their own can't take and hold planets.

ANH also gave us light-gray-uniformed personnel -- mostly one-piece jumpsuits, but also one officer with light-gray jacket and black breeches and cap. That officer was only seen in ANH, but the jumpsuited personnel are seen through the OT in technical roles -- scanner techs, comm techs, armored-vehicle drivers.... They've been loosely postulated to be Combat Engineers or Construction Battalion analogues.

ANH also gave us personnel in black one-and-two-piece uniforms. They were seen in the boarding of Leia's ship and in guard and gunnery stations aboard the Death Star, as well as the TIE fighter pilots. The jumpsuits are the same ubiquitous pattern used across Rebel and Imperial forces throughout the OT, but the two-piece uniforms are a slightly different cut from the previous two types. Further, those two-piece uniforms are seen on officers with plaques, a presumed non-com without a plaque, and even on some of the black-helmeted guards. Those, at least, were always presumed to be part of the same command, otherwise what's the point of a uniform. The Marine-like context has led me and others to conclude those are the non-combat uniforms for Stormtroopers.

Lastly, ANH also gave us a couple guys in black breeches and caps, with off-white jackets that were made of a lighter fabric and had an even more substantially different cut to them than the above. No breast pockets, and the front placket overflap only goes about half as far over as the standard jackets', and doesn't go up to the shoulder. I remember in the '90s when people were first getting widespread looks at the OT in widescreen, and "Yularen" (as Decipher named the character in their card game) was "rediscovered". Many people thought he was a Grand Admiral, as the Thrawn Trilogy had been published recently, with that uniform being described therein. Others cooly pointed out we can see him and another individual in identical dress walking by the elevators where Our Heroes are waiting to go up, and it's clear in that shot that their uniforms aren't all-white (and the jackets aren't white, anyway, compared against the white of the Stormtrooper armor).

But that persists up to the present. Dave Filoni made Yularen an Admiral in Clone Wars as backstory to him being a Grand Admiral in ANH. He was genuinely surprised when it was pointed out to him that Yularen wasn't a Grand Admiral, and why. The costume dude who designed Krennic for Rogue One also cited that uniform and that scene, also "loving Yularen's Grand Admiral uniform" and modeling Krennic's on what he thought he'd seen. But because they're working on actual official canon, unless someone stops them before, their misinterpretations make it in.

Also, the Imperial gunner uniform was black leather. I could argue either way on that. Could just be protective gear, and they're not Stormtroopers... Or, since leather can come in any color, the fact that they went with black indicates they are...

For Solo? The Mudtroopers (really, IMO, just Imperial Starfleet infantry with theater-specific ponchos and such) are wearing the same steingrau uniforms of the OT, so they're part of that branch of the Imperial military. The Patrol Troopers seem to be more paramilitary, as with the Coruscant Shocktroopers and guards -- being more martial-law police than active combat troops... But still nominally part of the Stormtrooper branch. It's easy to argue the light-gray uniforms and armor of the AT-AT drivers in ESB indicates they go through advanced training wherever it is the tech branch operates. (Lengthy sidebar on other new troop types in Rogue One omitted -- Shore Troopers, Tank Drivers, and AT-ACT drivers. Much to unpack there...) The fighter cockpit is too dark to see clearly what color flight suit Han is wearing. It seems black... but less black than his armor. Could just be tricks of lighting, could indicate a charcoal-cray jumpsuit. *shrug* And his helmet being black is nothing solid. The OT TIE pilots had black helmets, and I'm pretty sure they weren't all Shadow Troopers.

I've seen it argued, convincingly, that the black caps and helmets worn by the various non-black-uniformed personnel through the OT indicate, essentially, a combat-centric or combat-only role; whereas the steingrau caps worn by others in non-steingrau uniforms (mainly bridge techs in gray jumpsuits, alongside other bridge techs in gray jumpsuits with black caps) indicate more of a "bigger-picture" role. Same reason Clone Troopers and Stormtroopers have non Clone/Stormtrooper Generals. What that significance specifically is has only been speculated from all sides, but that there's something to that is widely agreed-on.

So that's the short breakdown of Imperial uniforms in the OT, derived from on-screen material, and bringing in as little of the EU as possible, considering how many things EU contributors got wrong, or conflicted with other​ EU sources.
 
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So I finally watched this over the weekend. I kept forgetting there was a Star Wars movie I hadn't seen, so I figured I'd better get it checked off the list. If Solo took the top spot in any category, it was definitely the most forgettable Star Wars movie that's come out. It wasn't as outrightly terrible as TLJ was. It was just forgettable.

First of all, that dude did nothing to capture the essence of Han Solo. There was never a time where I looked at the screen and felt like I was watching Han Solo in action. I wish that was the biggest knock of the movie, but it wasn't...

Secondly, had it not been "Han Solo" in the leading role I think it would have made for a better movie. If there would have been a straightforward heist movie in a Star Wars setting with all-new characters I think I would be more prone to enjoy it. Instead, the familiar and safe direction was just another detriment to the film.

Lastly, I love how they created an A plot (Qi'ra being taken by the empire) in the first sequence and then resolved it in the second act in the most anticlimactic way possible. The whole movie was B plot. How does something like that make it to the silver screen? Apparently there is no accounting for quality anymore.

I was under the impression that Solo was going to be better than TLJ. It might have been? I'm still not sure where this film landed with me. It wasn't good, but I can't figure out how bad it was. Is it TLJ bad, or AOTC bad, or is it just forgettable? At any rate... I have 2 5-day passes for SWC 2019. Maybe I can make some decent money off of those. It'd be the best thing Star Wars has done for me in 30 years.
 
Finally seen it (on Blu-ray). I enjoyed it much more than I expected. I'd have preferred Han to be more of a scoundrel and a bit less likeable, to give him room for his character arc. I think I forgot he was meant to be Han Solo for much of the film, and enjoyed it all the more for that. Glover did a great job, as did Bettany. Overall, fun but fairly forgettable.

With regard to the Earth numbers, it's always seemed strange to me that the droids and ships are all named with Latin alphabet letters...
 
I watched it again last night. First time since the theatre.

The one thing I really appreciated was the final act. I like a third act that gets tighter. Like a standoff, rather than stopping a super weapon. Frankly, I think Rogue one would have worked a lot better if they stuck with the heist for the third act.

But the one that I really couldn't stand was the final moment when they went to win the falcon from Lando. It was just unnecessary and left us with a cheesy moment.
 
Just watched it. Didn't really feel like a star wars film that just happened to have star wars stuff thrown in the mix. Better off as a scifi movie than a star wars one. And i thought han solo was in this, dont think i saw him once...........
 
As I've said before, the droid-rights thing goes all the way back to the '80s EU. It's not a new thing. It's part of who Elthree is as a character. It's one of the things about her Lando grudgingly puts up with... And it ended up being very helpful to Our Heroes being able to complete their objective on Kessel and escape, so it was actually germane to the plot. Could they have come up with some other way to get the coaxium and offworld again? Sure. Same as they could have done other things with any plot point going back to the original film..


I found that to be EXTREMELY heavy handed writing. That had been that droids shtick all the way up to that point, then was an off the cuff comment that she then acted like it was on purpose which was half of an almost funny without actually being at all interesting. Would've worked better if it had been something that she'd never mentioned, and it was an off the cuff comment that that resulted in rebellion. It could even have served as the moment that it became part of the character. As is...it was the opposite of an arc.

Overall the movie was OK. I didn't hate the lead. I actually thought he did OK. It was never going to be Harrison Ford and you kind of had to go in accepting that.

It did weaken the Solo character some. GREAT character arc: average scoundrel with a few good points makes good and becomes hero. Weak character arc: Cleverest street rat of all the street rats with the heart of goldiest of all the hearts of gold becomes slightly tarnished by life before remembering to be cleaver and have a heart of gold. Han had a better arc without this story.

Also, they entirely skipped him being in the Empire which actually sounded ten times more interesting than most of what made it onto the screen.
 
Having him leaving the Empire so quickly is one thing that really bugged me. They already had a good premise from the novels, that Han was an established Imperial pilot and then gets booted for rescuing Chewie. It's perfect. Yet someone was determined to make their own version.
 
I dont see any difference. He was always a young officer, like lieutenant grade, in the EU when he got d.d.'ed. In Solo, rather than show us his time at the academy, which several EU sources already did, they showed us how they changed his meeting with Chewie and his departure from Imperial service from what we "already knew". The novel covers more of his time in service, as the novelization authors have the script and don't know what will ultimately be cut for time, pacing, or service to the story. And what it includes is good, and I agree with it being cut from the film. The cut from "We'll have you flying in no time." to him flying through the air worked great. Is there more that wasn't covered? Of course. There always is. That's what the ancillary materials are for. I don't feel the movie was hurt for not showing more of Han's Imperial service...

That said, of course I'd've liked to have seen it, and more that was glossed over. But that would have required multiple films. I've griped about story-forshortening enough, though.
 
I have to say, I kind of prefer the way he left imperial service in the movie, vs the EU. In the movie, he's just some expendable grunt that disappears in a warzone. presumed dead more than likely.

The EU story where he free's Chewbaca, and then gets "kicked out" of the service for it... I don't know of any military that has ever existed where anything resembling a simple discharge from service is the punishment for freeing a prisoner... He'd have been locked up himself, or at the very least, they'd know what happened to him.

The events on Mimban, where life was cheap, and everything was chaos, fit a lot more nicely into being able to escape, and actually be able to show his face in the galaxy without instant arrest.
 
Also fair. Some have. I never did, because it was always there for me. From his description in the Star Wars novelization to the stories told by his old flight instructor in Han Solo and the Lost Legacy, I has enough glimpses before I was ten years old that I never got a chance to wonder. On the other hand, some people want the full bio and family history of Random Cantina Alien #16, so...
 
I haven't actually watched it again since it was in theaters. I remember being so disappointed with this one, even going in already knowing the faults and the spoilers. It's the only SW movie I don't own besides the Clone Wars movie.
 
I think I enjoyed it because I have a new outlook at SW Films.. “I just don’t care” only thing that is sacred to me is the OT

All this new stuff is just parody’s...
 
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