"Finally saw Solo. Eh, meh." Topic

Got a copy of the DVD from my library. Watched it last night.
My reaction:

Donald Glover made a great Lando. Spot on with the character. He is truly a gifted comic actor.

The portrayal of Chewbacca was pretty seamless to all his appearances. Not sure who to credit for that, as, quite honestly, the face is a mask.

Woody Harrelson's character had maybe a bit too much drawl (kept flashing on Westerns and the "former Confederate raider" archetype), but otherwise good.

The Han actor… well, okay. Maybe a bit too kiddish, but some of that was the script. And there were moments when he pulled out a grin that was pure Harrison Ford's Solo.

And it's pretty much downhill after that.

Terrible opening sequence (despite the set up to a typical Han flight move) with a too-lame "remember this thing that happens (later) in another movie? We're making a joke about that. Isn't it great?" sequence. And it was DULL. And then pointless, with a big villain who is introduced… and never seen again. Huh?

Then Han plays his big escape, becoming the Imperial recruit we knew he was…and then that goes bust, too, because we never see him interact with the Imperial Navy structure; just as ridiculous WWI trenches foot soldier. We only know he's a pilot because he says he is. Over and over. And over.

I can go on and on with this, but I won't.

The action scenes were retreads of other movies, where they were done better, too. A train heist? (Heck, they did it better in Firefly, not to mention every other train heist movie ever made. And the train was ridiculous; you've got spaceships that can lift and transfer cargo anywhere. Why have a train?)

They at least gave a nod to the whole "less than 12 parsecs" line from the original, but the reason for it was ridiculous. And then somebody decided to replicate a bit from Galaxy Quest (or maybe 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), and I honestly think they didn't realize they were doing that.

Finally, the story was meh, as was the big reveal just before the big twist, which were both dull and not very believable, not to mention a big let down from the set up. And the various "twists" and "betrayals" were too obvious in their coming. At least they established quite definitively that Han would shoot first.

And then, they have a big bad guy reveal at the end to link it all to the Star Wars universe…of a character WHO IS ALREADY DEAD. Maybe they were writing off the prequels (fine by me), but really? Did nobody check the Star Wars timeline?

Sigh. What a waste of potential. What a ridiculous decision to ignore the already created mythos of Han Solo in the EU. No acknowledgment of the Correllian Blood Stripe, etc., etc.. One can still tell an original story while respecting those who have gone before.

Yes, there were good bits, and the transition of the Falcon from Lando's "playboy yacht" to the beloved battered freighter of Han Solo was a (mildly) fun touch. But those parts simply didn't lift it above the poor story crafting, dull action, and really weak and predictable plot. At least we were spared the irrational political speechifying of Episode VII. (We did get some, but it was so vague as to be meaningless and utterly uninspiring, too, even in the Star Wars setting.)

Yes, your actual undiscerning twelve year old probably will love it. But your inner twelve year old won't.

Time to quit before they get any further behind.

Memorable lines: Uhm…none really. I can't quote anything, and I just saw it last night. And I had such high hopes for a Lawrence Kasdan script.

I'll watch it when it's free On Demand or Netflix.
My son is turning into more of an old fogie on this than I usually am. "If it's not Harrison Ford…"
I'm so proud!

Yep, pretty much sums up my feelings on all counts.

Pretty much agree. Totally agree on the opening. They could have cut out the first 10-15 minutes and just started with Han and the girl arriving at the spaceport. The rest was not needed.

Parzival,

I said the EXACT same thing about the Bad Guy reveal. I exclaimed it to a friend of mine who is a big Star Wars fan and he explained to me that in either (I don't remember) the Clone Wars cartoon or Star Wars Rebels cartoon the villain never really died (to which I laughed out loud) and how he was able to appear in this film.

And those two cartoons are canon….I guess the lesson is you better start watching Cartoon Network if you wanna keep up.

So says The Mouse

On Darth Maul wasn't his survival lore before disney, I seem to remember that being mentioned in the old timeline.

starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Maul

Reading up, it seems he survives as a cyborg up until just before the beginnings of the rebellion.

On Solo, I'd say its an average movie for me, thankfully unlike LJ, it does have good points. To me I think it would have made a good tv series (similar to Firefly) rather than a film, seeing Solo become more and more jaded overtime.

I noticed there is a deleted scene which obviously was never fully animated of Solo disobeying orders and crashing his Tie (trainer, I assume since it looked to be a different design) and then trying to talk his way out of trouble at his court martial…..not sure why that was cut.

Parzival: "Woody Harrelson's character had maybe a bit too much drawl (kept flashing on Westerns and the "former Confederate raider" archetype), but otherwise good."

Hmm. From what I remember, Woody was born in Midland TX, but I'm not sure if he has live in one place long enough to have a defined accent of any kind.

Dan

Whenever it happened, bringing Maul back was a lame idea (but then, he was a lame villain to begin with— all style, no actual character). And as a reveal in Solo it's a huge misstep as most of the audience will have no idea about any non-film resurrection of the guy, and fans of the original trilogy won't care either.

On the deleted scene, yeah, that's significant. It would have been much better to see that than practically any of the opening sequence, especially if he had a "good guy" reason for crashing the trainer ship.

You know, a more satisfying movie would have been with a young, idealistic Han joining the Imperial Naval Academy because he's still buying into the notion that the Empire will bring "peace and order" to the galaxy, unaware of the corruption and evil at the core. Maybe he even has a unit commander who's just as idealistic, at least in appearance. And then it all gets crushed, with Han discovering that his mentor is thoroughly corrupt, even willing to sacrifice innocents or even his men (including his protégée Han) for his own ambitions and in the name of a now obviously evil Empire. Instead, Han sacrifices his own ship and his own career, and is cashiered from the service. Cue becoming the callous, self-interested smuggler (who still has a strong sense of justice and compassion that he's tried to squash).
The Sabacc games still work, as does a form of the Kessel run heist (but not the hokey thing this movie had). And yeah, Han gets wind of the nascent rebellion, but walks away, certain that altruism only gets you killed.
End it all on Tatooine, as Han waits to basically sell himself to Jabba— passing by a ten-year old kid and his friends pretending to be starpilots in the streets. As Han watches, a man comes out of a store and calls to the boy—"Time to go, Luke! You can play with your friends later!" Han gives this pleasant lost moment a sardonic, sad smile. Then the door opens, and Han steps into darkness and the sinister, welcoming voice of Jabba the Hutt.
End of film.

I've not seen them but he seems to have appeared in the animated series quite a lot so he's a least known to be still knocking around by some of the fanbase…..personally though, yeah I only vaguely remembered his survival at that point and as a reveal of the big bad guy at the end I was unmoved to say the least.

On the deleted scene I believe his ship was damaged saving a fellow pilot fighting a hammerhead or a headhunter (having been ordered to break off), so he disobeyed two sets of orders even before he annoyed the commodore. It ends with Han asking when he gets to fly again, which has the commodore replaying we will have you flying in no time. Which then cuts the mudtrooper flying through the air from the laser blast.

It was a grade C Firefly/Traveller scenario. I liked Emelia Clarke.

Well I never watch it.