long winded gripes and vents ahead,
There was a key factor missing from the overall tone and feel of the movie which was popular back in the 70's with a strong influence on the character of Han Solo, dont trust anyone over 30. Instead we are told to not trust anyone by a weak mentor character in a terrible hair piece. One sad trait of modern rushed film making is the loss of character development and the complete dumbing down of the modern day film viewer. Where once an actor was there to create a character, find ways to convey or connect with the viewer, show depth... we have been forced into a rut of over explanation or surface deep predictable plot and reheated popcorn action scenes. Solo is a prime example of all this.
I know Ron Howard understands the dont trust anyone over 30 thing because he was ripe age for it at the height of it all. Why its missing from this movie is mind boggling. Instead Han is happy and out going all around. This alone kills the vibe of the film as a whole. Being someone that see's both sides of a situation I wonder if this was a conscious decision to keep existing footage melded with the reshoots for a completed film.
Is it just me or was the train job a direct rehash of the episode literally titled "the Train Job" from Firefly which was a series itself ripped from an idea of the adventures of Han Solo. No joke, I expected to hear someone say "goram" or speak a lick of Chinese during the train job.
Doing it all for the love of a girl, terrible idea, just awful. Its just as bad as linking the heist itself to funding the rebellion and making it well known Han is the good guy by repeatedly telling us Han is the good guy. Han was an anti hero that became a good guy by doing the right thing, in ANH after he took his space ship full of credits and left only to return to steal glory and likely another space ship full of credits as a reward and to make this into something as confusing as the Terminator timeline (for those that cant accept each movie is the current time because time travel) Han actually got paid by his own job at the end of Solo by allowing the cargo to go to the rebellion! It was a deferred payment which could well be one of the greatest trolls in movie history. Brief explanation, most indie productions will attempt to get people to work for them on a deferred payment which of course that payment never happens. Ive friends that worked on Reservoir Dogs that still to this day were never paid yet received full credit in the film. Actual work, not donut wrangler or radio battery attendant. Han gets paid in ANH by a deferred payment from the heist in Solo. Good job, really, no sarcasm, bravo.
The clothes, WTF was going on with the clothes through the entire film? Where is this custom tailor to everyone in the Solo film verse. Its beyond distracting making Han look as if he is wearing a childrens jacket. On a personal eye roll, dont walk around with your hands on the gun belt. Its not a gunslinger thing to do.
The cast, as ive said prior, AE did a good job on an impossible task. But the cast overall was flat and one dimensional. Woody Harrelson is one of my favorite actors but totally wrong for the part of Beckett. Lee Marvin is dead but thats who the role needed. Ill go out on a limb and toss in Clive Owen as proper casting. Thats someone that could visually convey a gritty history, can talk his way out of things as a good guy yet still be a bad guy at the end. A proper mentor with an implied history based on visual alone, a swagger walk, experienced enough to know you cant bull**** a bull****ter so you have to play the game to tread water. The person Han would grow into vs the boy he started out as whom without said mentor would have succumbed to the streets at a young age. Opportunity missed.
Throw away characters I dont even know the names of, Becketts original crew, total throw away characters. The multiple monkey arm guy that was a monkey arm guy for whatever reason other to have a multiple armed monkey guy and at the mall Forever 21 girl that pulls on things on the gun then blows herself up, just generic filler.
Han and Chewie meet at possibly the worst thought out way possiblistically, because Han randomly speaks Wookie. It made a real impact on Chewie because shower scene.
More wasted character development, because I cant remember the name of the main bad guy with random marks on his face. Early on it was implied he would be a prior Mandalorian Warrior with the main boss he answers to being Boba Fett. This all could have left when the original directors did as its well established the original actor chosen had scheduling conflicts. As per the actor intended being half tiger or something, meh. In the end they went with Darth Maul as the crime boss so the Fett things moot anyways.
When everything went all Temple of Doom I had to laugh. But am I missing something with Chewie and the Wookie's he leaves to help? Ive seen the movie twice ironically in both good and bad (dark and blurry) projection and seemed to miss something both times or is any interaction just missing with those Wookies. Or am I just supposed to know thats his wife from the Holiday Special?
The Nest character, again problem with design and wardrobe. The typical cosplay problems excel here being over propped and designed in a way physical movement is sacrificed for the sake of looking neat. The helmet alone looks like it was inspired by my WiFi router. Again poorly thought out character as the gang is introduced as cold blooded killers and thugs then reduced to peaceful talking when the loot is at hand and the threat outnumbered. With that stand off my gut feeling is the writer was aiming for Josey Wales on paper yet the actual outcome was solving grade school issues with the teacher watching.
Han and the bad guys end fight and the pose for the camera fighting between the girl and the bad guy, as flat as can be. One could argue time and reshoots as a practical reason for this but its the end finale on a super dollar budget movie. We get a feared main villain with a couple throw away guards (I think there were a couple but they go down so fast I missed it both times) and thats it. This big bad guy everyone fears crossing has a couple guys with him on his entire ship. I get the feeling I could go rob the guy, fart on his couch, make a sammich, sleep in his bed and nobody would even know I was there.
To end with some positives,
I like how dark it was visually on proper screening. Most movies these days are lite like a shopping mall with no ambience or atmosphere. I get the feeling of both black and white movies as well as low budget sci-fi from it but it works very well. Its extremely difficult to make things work this way on camera with digital while keeping depth. On the downside to this, there are some generic camera set ups that take me out of it.
The WW1 vibe of the mud tranches. Its a shame we didnt spend more time here with Han seeing some bad stuff helping his demeanor become darker and cynical.
Little things such as weapons show some decent thought went into things. Missed opportunity for Beckett to give Han his first blaster and that blaster being the one Han gives to Rey in TFA. Han shouldnt have been given the ANH blaster, he should have taken it off Becketts body after he shoots him. If I recall this is how Eastwoods character gets his snake gripped Colt in Rawhide, than the snakes carry over to the Man With No Name trilogy.
Although I dont care for how the Kessel Run was handled, the nod to NOS and supercharging an engine for a boost is a throw back to old hot rodders. This I did expect from Ron Howard 100% and I am glad its there. Makes me wonder how many here used to go to, take part in, or know enough about old skool street races where people would run aviation fuel or have a custom cheater system hidden within an air filter housing or faux duel carb set up with a NOS set up hidden within.
Had TLJ not been the travesty it is and Solo been released in December 2018 I think it would have done quite well. As I said before, the failure of this one ups the ante for the next stand alone film. Also I stated somewhere prior my hunch was Disney LFL may be aiming to have the stand alones piggy back off each other meaning Solo leads into Boba Fett which leads into Obi Wan which leads into ... making a coelenterate time line with a base line story to play off of. If not why bump Obi Wan for Boba Fett as the next film?