Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

[Grissom]

[thecolorsblend]

It looks more interesting than any of the other supposed Star Wars movies coming out lately, I'll give it that.

[johnnygobbs]

I'm looking forward to it.

I much prefer the self-contained Rogue One to anything we've yet seen from the present JJ Abrams trilogy (i.e. The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi), so hopefully Solo will be in the same vein of the former rather than the latter.

But with Infinity Wars and Ready Player One, there are so many big blockbuster films to look forward to over the next few months.

And that's before I even consider the two I'm most excited about this year: Ant-Man and the Wasp, featuring Michelle Pfeiffer returning to the comic-book movie genre, and Aquaman, which has a great pedigree behind it (including The Conjuring's James Wan, Willem Dafoe, Nicole Kidman, and Dolph Lundgren!)

[Silver Nemesis]

I'm afraid I'm still burned out on Kathleen Kennedy's Star Wars after The Last Jedi. I've seen every Star Wars theatrical release and rerelease issued in my life time on the big screen, including The Clone Wars (2008) animated film and the 3D re-release of The Phantom Menace. But the way I'm feeling right now, I think Solo might be the first Star Wars film I skip in theatres. Perhaps I'll feel differently nearer the release date, but right now I just can't muster any enthusiasm.

[Silver Nemesis]

I went to see this today. Here are some thoughts I've quickly thrown together.

First off, I should mention I was opposed to the concept of a Solo prequel when it was first announced and I'm not enthusiastic about Kathleen Kennedy's plans to produce further spinoff films starring other supporting characters (Lando, Boba Fett, Yoda, etc). The only film I think might have some potential is the Kenobi spinoff, but even then I'd rather they left old Ben in peace. I love these characters, but I love them within the context of their roles in the main saga. They're pieces in a mosaic. Remove them from their proper narrative context and you're left with diminished tesserae lacking in the splendour of the larger composition.

I was especially unenthusiastic about Solo because I was averse to the idea of anyone besides Ford playing the title character. I used to enjoy The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, but I never really bought into Sean Patrick Flanery as the same character from the movies. So I wasn't keen on seeing Han get the same treatment. Confounding my lack of enthusiasm was the fact The Last Jedi had almost killed my interest in the franchise entirely. Disney over saturating the market also didn't help. George Lucas released six Star Wars movies across the span of twenty-eight years, while Disney has belted out four in the span of two and a half years. If this film had been released at Christmas, allowing me more time to recover from the disappointment of Episode VIII, then I might have been more enthusiastic about its release. But as things stand, no one seems to care about Solo. Even the young bloke who sold me the ticket at the theatre said he had no interest in seeing it. The screening I attended was maybe half full, and most of the attendees were adults. There were a small number of kids, including one little boy with a Chewbacca teddy, but it mostly seems to be playing to an older crowd.

Anyway, despite my misgivings I decided to give Solo a chance. I've seen every other Star Wars theatrical release and rerelease (in my lifetime) on the big screen, and I didn't want to break that tradition now. I always try to give any movie a fair shot so I can have an informed opinion, and that's especially true when it comes to a franchise as dear to me as Star Wars. So what's my verdict? Honestly, I ended up enjoying Solo a lot more than I thought I would. Perhaps it's because I had such low expectations to begin with, but it was better than I was expecting. I still object to the film on a conceptual level – it didn't need to be made, and it doesn't add anything important to the mythology. But it succeeds at what it sets out to accomplish. You could argue that it's aiming low in the first place, but I'd say it hits most of its targets dead centre. It's a weak concept, but is executed surprisingly well.

I didn't pay too much attention to the behind-the-scenes troubles that plagued its production, but I'm aware the movie was almost entirely reshot by Ron Howard after the original directors departed from the project. Usually when a director is replaced midway through filming, the end product suffers from a disjointed tone arising from the conflict in creative visions (e.g. Justice League). But that's not the case with Solo. I couldn't tell which scenes were shot by Howard and which by his predecessors. The whole thing feels pleasingly cohesive. It helps that Howard is the most technically proficient director to helm a Star Wars movie since Kirshner, and he does an admirable job salvaging what should have been an absolute train wreck of a movie. Apparently some viewers have complained that the picture quality is too dark in certain scenes, but I can't say I noticed that myself. I actually liked the look of the film. The production design has that classic Star Wars aesthetic and there are some excellent practical creature effects. I particularly like the special effects on Lady Proxima.

We don't see practical creature effects like these very often nowadays, so they're a real treat when we get them. It was also nice to see Warwick Davis appearing in another Lucasfilm production directed by Ron Howard. If the rumours are to be believed, then they may be teaming up again to make the long-awaited Willow sequel.

One of my biggest problems with the recent Star Wars films has been their failure when it comes to world building. Surprisingly, this is one area where I felt Solo outperformed Episodes VII and VIII. Yes, the film features characters we've already seen before. But where I was expecting to see Jabba the Hutt, Greedo and Boba Fett, the movie instead delivers new characters and organisations such as Tobias Beckett, Enfys Nest and the Crimson Dawn. The character designs are generally creative. Rio Durant reminded me of Deadeye Duck from the old Bucky O'Hare cartoon.

The story takes the characters to a number of grim, industrialised locations not shown in the earlier films. These environments emphasise a seedier side of the Star Wars universe than fans are typically accustomed to seeing. I really liked the way Corellia was presented. I'd visited that planet in videogames before now, but the way it was depicted in Solo differed from any earlier portrayals I'd seen. The movie mercifully sidesteps around the Galactic Civil War to instead focus on the criminal underworld; an area of the Star Wars mythology that the films, for the most part, have so far only skimmed over. This felt more worthwhile than if they'd simply retreaded the Empire vs. Rebels or Jedi vs. Sith conflicts (which is essentially what they're doing with the main saga films). By focusing on an area of the Star Wars universe that has previously been underexposed, Solo is able to extract an impressive degree of originality from its seemingly unoriginal premise. Han's character arc also adheres to the classic hero's journey far more effectively than Rey's does in Episodes VII and VIII. One sequence where the monomythic influence is most strongly evidenced is the scene where the Falcon journeys through a maelstrom; a set piece that is strongly redolent of Odysseus' encounter with Scylla and Charybdis in Homer's Odyssey.

Moving on to some of the negatives, I though the film was slightly too long. It's crammed full of fan service, with shout outs to everything from Aurra Sing to the Playstation game Masters of Teräs Käsi. Thankfully most of the fan service is verbal, but there were one or two references that had me rolling my eyes. The film also employs the same strategy as the other recent Star Wars flicks where they feed the audience something familiar every ten minutes or so to elicit a pang of nostalgia. "Ah, so that's how Han got his surname/got the dice/met Chewie/got his blaster/met Lando/won the Falcon/performed the Kessel Run/gained Chewie as his co-pilot, etc." These references might give you a pleasant sensation the first time you watch the film, but I can't imagine they'll have the same impact on repeated viewings. Speaking of fan service, I'd like to revisit a prediction I made in another thread almost exactly one year ago.

Then there'll be a scene in the movie where Han is caught dead in the sights of a villain. He freezes. There's the sound of a blaster. Han flinches. Then the villain drops dead. Standing behind the villain is a good guy (either a tough female character or a cynical mentor), who says something like, "Next time, shoot first."

I was so close on this one. The whole plot point about Beckett SPOILERS betraying Han was painfully predictable. The moment I heard Woody's line about not trusting anyone in the trailer, I knew this was going to play out like the Indy-Donovan dynamic from The Last Crusade. END SPOILERS And that's exactly what happened. So there were no surprises there. Regarding the plot twist about the head of the Crimson Dawn organisation, I actually liked that one. Apropos of my earlier remark about not wanting to see characters from the main saga dragged into spinoffs, this may seem like a contradiction. SPOILERS But in the case of Darth Maul, I'd argue he never received a proper story arc in Episode 1 to begin with. Most fans agree he was short-changed by Lucas, so his reintroduction in Solo creates an opportunity to finally get the character right and develop him the way he ought to have been developed in the Prequel Trilogy. I found Maul far more menacing and intriguing during his one scene in Solo than he was in the whole of Episode 1. I like the idea of him building his own underworld empire to mirror the one created by Sidious and Vader, and I was pleased to see Ray Park's name on the end credits. I'm not up to date with the Rebels TV show, so I don't know how well Maul's role in Solo fits in with the established canon. But if Lucasfilm insist on making more of these spinoff films, then this is one story arc I wouldn't mind seeing continued. END SPOILERS

My favourite character in the movie was Chewie, and he seemed to be the one the audience I saw it with responded to most positively. I absolutely hated L3. She is the most loathsome character to infest the Star Wars universe since Jar Jar Binks and I couldn't help smiling when SPOILERS she got killed. Good riddance. END SPOILERS Whoever thought an angry, obnoxious 'woke' SJW droid was a good idea should be kept as far away from future Star Wars films as possible. I also didn't buy into the relationship between L3 and Lando. It might have worked if they'd played it purely for laughs, with the droid mistakenly thinking her master has a crush on her. But the script tries to derive genuine drama from the relationship, and it just didn't work for me.

Alden Ehrenreich was fine as Han. He doesn't look that much like Ford, but he's not so physically different that it's a major distraction. He did a decent job capturing some of Han's mannerisms from the earlier movies and overall he was acceptable in the role. He was fighting a losing battle from the moment he was cast, but he does as good a job following in Ford's footsteps as any young actor could be expected to do under the circumstances. Bettany also delivers a satisfying performance as the villain. He wasn't the most interesting character in the movie, but he was suitably menacing when the plot needed him to be. I thought the knife-vs.-blaster showdown at the end was a little silly, but I appreciate the fact they avoided constructing the finale around yet another big battle scene or lightsaber duel. Concerning the score, I was disappointed that Williams' Han Solo theme wasn't featured more prominently. It says on the end credits that it was used in the film, but I don't remember hearing it.

A part of me wonders if this movie might have benefitted from having an original character in the lead role. What if you had the exact same story, but with Ehrenreich playing someone other than Han? What if the main spaceship wasn't the Millennium Falcon and if Chewie and Lando were replaced with different characters? What if the movie was called Underworld: A Star Wars Story instead of Solo? Would it have been better received?

There are many more things to be said about Solo, but I'll leave it there for now. If you think the film looks pointless and have no interest in seeing it, then go with your instincts. You won't be missing anything important. But if you're an old school fan who's on the fence about seeing it, then you might enjoy Solo more than you'd expect. I know I did. If nothing else, I thought it was a lot better than The Last Jedi. And considering the hostility towards its premise, not to mention its troubled production, I'd say that's something of a triumph. I give it a marginal thumbs up.

[Silver Nemesis]

A few more observations.

Solo is one of only three Star Wars movies in which the main antagonists are not some variation of the Empire/First Order; the other two being The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. Obviously the Empire does feature in the movie – that's inevitable considering when this takes place in the timeline – but they're not the main antagonists. The Crimson Dawn crime syndicate is. And Crimson Dawn is the first fully original villainous faction to be introduced in a Star Wars movie since the Prequel Trilogy.

Solo is also one of only three live action Star Wars films not to feature a Death Star or Death Star cannon (I'm not counting the holographic Death Star schematics in Episode II).

Has anyone else seen it yet?

[thecolorsblend]

Solo is also one of only three live action Star Wars films not to feature a Death Star or Death Star cannon (I'm not counting the holographic Death Star schematics in Episode II).

Not so. The clone troopers sat in those little gun turrets on the attack helicopters during the Battle of Geonosis. Lucas said they were intended to foreshadow the Death Star.

That tends to get forgotten about because Lucas, like, showed the Death Star in the very next scene, which kinda sorta defeats the whole point of the visual foreshadowing from earlier. So hmm.

Has anyone else seen it yet?

Nah.

[Silver Nemesis]

Not so. The clone troopers sat in those little gun turrets on the attack helicopters during the Battle of Geonosis. Lucas said they were intended to foreshadow the Death Star.

Oh, George... Dear sweet misguided George...

[The Dark Knight]

Has anyone else seen it yet?

Nah.

My thoughts too.

I couldn't really care less about most movies these days. The studios have annoying agendas that I don't want a bar of, and the content itself is just blah. The magic is gone. The enthusiasm is gone. Studios have gone to the well too many times and it's now bone dry. Solo did a belly flop into that drought stricken well recently too, which was good. I like the concept of Star Wars, but to quote Poe, we are the spark that will light the fire that will burn Harveywood down. They ain't fooling me with Mickey Ears on Darth Vader's helmet anymore. My mouse trap is set.

Gonna keep preaching? Okay, that's cool. We're gonna keep cutting off your circulation. Which in turn means they slap out more and more remakes, reboots and gumboots to try and compensate for lower box-office hauls...which perpetuates their agony.

If they say they're sorry and want a reprieve, they won't be getting one. We have long memories and we won't be taking the foot off the throat. No forgiveness and no prisoners. What's done is done. I see that Ocean's 8 is getting average reviews. It's all women. Where's the funkin' diversity? Talk about having an A-GENDER.

Solo apparently has Lando as a pansexual. Huh? What an absolutely unnecessary gimmick, and revisionist. The robot talks about fighting for rights. Ugh. I want to watch a movie without virtue signalling polluting everything.

And back to comic book movies. Get this folks. DC has TWO...yes, TWO Joker movies in the pipeline. One with Leto and another with some other random sod who hasn't been cast yet. This is MORE unnecessary overkill of comic properties AND a confusion of the brand. They need to get a damn grip on reality and not of their bongs.

Movie studios are like the Good Ol' Boys from The Blues Brothers – a great movie we're not going to see these days. These studios have their gumboots gorilla glued to the accelerator, cruising to disaster. They can't slow down and are destined to crash. McDonald's is going to keep pumping out their product. We're going to keep wolfing it down if we keep entering the drive through. Send a message by doing nothing. Stay home.

[thecolorsblend]

Has anyone else seen it yet?

Nah.

My thoughts too.

I couldn't really care less about most movies these days. The studios have annoying agendas that I don't want a bar of, and the content itself is just blah. The magic is gone. The enthusiasm is gone. Studios have gone to the well too many times and it's now bone dry. Solo did a belly flop into that drought stricken well recently too, which was good. I like the concept of Star Wars, but to quote Poe, we are the spark that will light the fire that will burn Harveywood down. They ain't fooling me with Mickey Ears on Darth Vader's helmet anymore. My mouse trap is set.

Gonna keep preaching? Okay, that's cool. We're gonna keep cutting off your circulation. Which in turn means they slap out more and more remakes, reboots and gumboots to try and compensate for lower box-office hauls...which perpetuates their agony.

If they say they're sorry and want a reprieve, they won't be getting one. We have long memories and we won't be taking the foot off the throat. No forgiveness and no prisoners. What's done is done. I see that Ocean's 8 is getting average reviews. It's all women. Where's the funkin' diversity? Talk about having an A-GENDER.

Solo apparently has Lando as a pansexual. Huh? What an absolutely unnecessary gimmick, and revisionist. The robot talks about fighting for rights. Ugh. I want to watch a movie without virtue signalling polluting everything.

And back to comic book movies. Get this folks. DC has TWO...yes, TWO Joker movies in the pipeline. One with Leto and another with some other random sod who hasn't been cast yet. This is MORE unnecessary overkill of comic properties AND a confusion of the brand. They need to get a damn grip on reality and not of their bongs.

Movie studios are like the Good Ol' Boys from The Blues Brothers – a great movie we're not going to see these days. These studios have their gumboots gorilla glued to the accelerator, cruising to disaster. They can't slow down and are destined to crash. McDonald's is going to keep pumping out their product. We're going to keep wolfing it down if we keep entering the drive through. Send a message by doing nothing. Stay home.

Back in my more naive days, I thought Harveywood (and all big companies, really) weren't necessarily pushing an agenda so much as simply trying to appeal to potential customers however they can.

Obviously something like scales fell from my eyes. They had to. I don't think Harveywood even denies it anymore with silly libertarian arguments like "We're just trying to market to everybody, that's all".

Nope. Their preference is clear.

When I really think about it, Star Wars is a series consisting of three good movies and a neverending conveyor belt of everything from the truly crappy to the merely mediocre. Three good movies and everything else is an also-ran.

I have no in-grained loyalty to Star Wars anymore. But I will poison that well every chance I get. Scorched earth, burnt oil fields, salted ground, whatever metaphor you want to use, I'm perfectly content to deny Evil Empires like Disney my money. It's not about proving a point anymore either.

It's about pure, undiluted spite. Only this and nothing more.

From hell's heart I stab at thee.