Solo: A Star Wars Story

Saw it last night after I bought a second hand digital code. It was fine. Fell asleep toward the end. Seems they want to make this anthology film into a series instead. Whatever.

Well, the parody of the character certainly has.

(Not bagging on Pine here, he was fine when they wrote him to be remotely likable)

(OT, haven't seen this one yet and not excited to unless it gets great reviews, which it hasn't)

Everybody notice Ron Howard's brother Clint as the guy running the robot cage match?

Doesn't Ron Howard have a thing about having his brother in every movie he makes in some capacity? And sometimes his daughter and father as well.

He often has his brother Clint in small roles in his films (Clint's best is Apollo 13). Daughter Bryce is pretty successful actress in her own right (Spider-Man 3, The Village, Terminator: Salvation, Jurassic World) Father Rance also appeared but died some years back.

Incidentally, that's Ron Howard's mother who gets the best line in Apollo 13. She plays Blanche, the mother of astronaut Jim Lovell. During the crisis, Marilyn Lovell attempts to distract Blanche from upsetting news on the television by introducing her to two visitors...

Saw this a week or two ago. It was pretty good, better than I expected based on the box office and critical reception.

Didn't really stand out but was enjoyable. I don't get why the Empire would transport fuel on a train when they seemingly have an endless supply of ships, but whatever, it was a good train heist so I didn't think about it too much.

So far I'm enjoying the side movies more than the main sequel movies.

I still think Firefly did it better.



The sequence from 39:36-40:31 is probably my favorite from the series.

Caught it on a flight the other week, and I'll damn it with faint praise - it was okay.

Most disappointing was there was enough material for a potentially brilliant trilogy, and they missed some great opportunities by compressing everything into one okay film.

I mean, come on, you've a golden opportunity to show the Empire from within and why some would join up. Instead we get Saving Private Solo. Where's the meaty scenes with Solo butting heads with officers? Or have him desert and, when asking a friend to join him, the scene where said friend tells him straight that being kept awake by their conscience is still a better nights sleep that the ones they had on Corellia.

I could easily enjoy an entire movie with Harrelson's crew, get to know them, and then feel for them when the train job goes wrong rather than think that Thandie Newton has likely been in ads longer than her scenes.

Or any number of scenes setting up a deep father/son relationship between Beckett and Solo to add real emotion when Solo shoots him. I mean, yeah, I appreciate the fuck you to Lucas over the Greedo changes, but it feels a little cheap, and I think a parallel to how Solo dies in TFA would have been more satisfying.

It was a missed opportunity for me.

They cut it.

They should have kept that in, although I can see why they didn't as they may as well have cast Simon Pegg as Solo if that was the bar.

Yeah, that was a little too broadly comical. Han Solo has his dense moments, but he's not an idiot. And being a smart-ass in the Empire seems like a recipe for career dissolution.

Seen it. Paid for it - what the fuck was I thinking?

Poor, poor stuff. The introduction of Darth Maul as a random crime lord without any explanation is the only thing about it that I might remember.

I guess they were banking on people having watched the cartoons.

You mean Rick didn't?

AAAAHAHAHAAHAAAA!!!!!!

*Runs around Rick in a circle*

Na na na na na naaa naaaa!!
Na na na na na naaa naaaa!!

*Runs faster*

Na na na na na naaa naaaa!!
Na na na na na naaa naaaa!!

*Even faster*

Na na na na na naaa naaaa!!

*Stops and gets up in his face*

Na na na na na naaa naaaa!!

NANA!!! NANAA!!! NANAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

I’ve seen Clone Wars and Rebels and I’m fully aware Darth Maul survived, but I still didn’t get the crime lord thing. All I remember is him wanting revenge on Kenobi.

Maul's role as a crime lord doesn't make a whole lot of sense. If he survived TPM, why has his employment changed?

I mean, sure, I get how a Sith could get to the top of the underworld, but if for some reason he was no longer in Darth Sidious's good graces, this would hardly keep him off the radar.

Whenever I say something like this about this sort of movie, understand that it carries an asterisk labeled "but eventually KJ will bring it home and I'll probably watch it then".

I enjoyed it. Expected a competent movie, got something a little more. Not convinced we needed it. Young Han and Lando did well with their roles.

I think I counted 6 or 7 EU borrowings for sure (depending on whether you consider Qi'ra a riff on Mara Jade), plus two maybes.

Maulwas presumed dead, but I do wonder why Palpatine didn't sense him.

You know, when TPM came out, I was one of the few people who didn't think Maul was dead and always assumed that he'd show up in the sequels.

He should’ve been the big bad up until Palpatine is revealed. There was no need to kill him.

Yes, I was of the "didn't see a body, he ain't dead" belief as well. The character was so well-received, I'm astonished Lucas didn't bring him back. Could be that there was already too much of AotC in the planning stages to revise. You can't just cut and paste Dooku with Maul.

I was of the belief that I saw one half of a body plummeting after another half

Well, I'm also of the "it's space fantasy so there are few hard and fast rules" belief.

Well....he basically did, he was hands-on involved with Clone Wars, and injecting Maul was his idea.
But, y'know, I get what you mean about the prequel trilogy.
Maul should've been the Vader.

Just realized... Solo will be the first Star Wars I haven’t watched multiple times in the theater. And I have no great desire to ever watch it again either.

I watched episode 1 a few times in the theater even though I was aware on 1st viewing that it wasn’t a very good movie.

And I even watched episode 8 a second time to give it a second chance after being disappointed in it the first time (still find it to be a very problematic film although not quite as awful as episode 1).

But Solo... I have no reaction to it at all. It’s just vanilla. I don’t hate it. But nothing about was exciting or intriguing or worth revisiting.

Even episode 1 at least had the epic duel with Maul. This was just... there.

How old are you? I never saw the OT in theaters.

I was born in 81 so I obviously never watched the original theatrical runs. But I had all three on VHS at 4-5 years old and pretty much watched them over and over again non-stop for years... and then eventually watched each special edition re-release in the theater multiple times.

There really is something special about watching Star Wars at the theater... it’s a rare movie experience that you can’t really replicate at home. Star Wars is supposed to be a visually stunning, epic experience. Solo was like watered down fan fiction.

Ah, you poor youngsters who never experienced standing on a line wrapped around the theater in the rain waiting for a chance to see a Star wars movie.

Shit, if I'd known that someday I'd have them at my fingertips for widescreen living room viewing any time at all, I wouldn't have done that.