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Author Topic: Solo a Star Wars Story (Alert SPOILERS discussion)  (Read 2099 times)

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Offline Yoda

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Solo a Star Wars Story (Alert SPOILERS discussion)
« on: May 25, 2018, 06:08:33 PM »
Okay everyone if you have seen the movie and want to talk, please post your opinions here in this topic so
those who haven't seen it can avoid it :cheesy:

Offline SharkyMcShark

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Re: Solo a Star Wars Story (Alert SPOILERS discussion)
« Reply #1 on: May 25, 2018, 10:35:36 PM »
I saw it on release night and was not particularly impressed. In my estimation, there are three main issues with this film.

1. They've not been able to properly patch over the trouble production.

The film essentially has one pace, being that stuff sort of happens at a middling speed. It's not really slow enough paced to be outright boring, it's not quick enough paced to be a rush.

In terms of tone at times the film was entirely schizophrenic. For example, the Kessel scenes literally juxtapose incredibly cruel treatment of Wookie slaves with slapstick humour droid uprising scenes shot by shot.

It comes across entirely as what it is - a film worked on by two different teams with two very different creative visions that was in the end cobbled together and rushed out the door when in an ideal world either a) more time and budget would have been given to Ron Howard, or even better b) Lucasfilm would have chosen the initial creative team better.


2. There's no real journey.

This probably relates to the troubled production mentioned above, but you don't ever see Han develop as a character through this film. He begins as a streetwise snarky criminal who yearns for bigger things and trusts no one except those close to him (Q'ira, at that time). He ends the film as a streetwise snarky criminal who yearns for bigger things and trusts no one except those close to him (Chewbacca).

The one character who does seem to have an interesting journey, being Q'ira who went from a seemingly wide eyed urchin to an organised crime lietenant, has any explanation of this journey hand waved away about 4 or 5 times throughout the film. All we hear is that she's done terrible things that she doesn't want to talk about. Then she betrays Han.

3. It was not a particularly ambitious film.

I don't want to come over all RedLetterMedia, but at times it did feel like a bit of a box ticking exercise for Han and Chewie background lore. Han meets Chewie, Han gets his DL-44, Han meets Lando, Han has some kind of falling out with Lando, Han gets the Falcon, Han makes the Kessel Run, Han ends up working for gangesters.

It doesn't push any envelopes - it doesn't present Star Wars in a way that we've never seen before on the big screen like Rogue One did, and it doesn't develop the core mythology of the franchise or have a strong message like The Last Jedi did.

In that way Solo is probably most comparable to The Force Awakens, which was by comparison an incredibly slick production, the release of which was in an entirely different context to the release of Solo.

=============================================

In conclusion, I thought it was the worst of the four films that have been released since the Disney takeover.

There were a lot of things about it that I did like, but compared to the above they're all superficial bits and bobs. I enjoyed the links to the Clone Wars and Rebels television shows, as well as the wider Canon and Legends lore. I continue to enjoy the commitment to using practical effects and real props and sets in the Disney era Star Wars films. I thought the actors were all actually decent, especially Alden Ehrenreich who I thought did a very very good job.

Oh, and as for THAT cameo - despite my above comments about enjoying the link to the lore, it felt needless and gratuitous. It was to me at about the level of Jyn/Cassian running into Dr Ezavan and Ponda Baba in Jedha City in Rogue One. Not a fan.

Offline Doaln

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Re: Solo a Star Wars Story (Alert SPOILERS discussion)
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2018, 06:56:34 PM »
Can we talk about the fact that it's now movie canon that Chewbacca has eaten people? And not some weird alien cow looking thing, but actual humans. I don't understand why it couldn't have been a gladiatorial execution instead of a "feeding" to make it so that Chewbacca has not eaten people.

Han knows his father worked on YT-1300s and always dreamed of being a pilot but does not know his own last name. I thought this was really dumb. The same scene worked okay in Spiderman 1 for Peter Parker and Bruce Campbell to make up a fake wrestler name, but I don't see why this movie decided he doesn't know his own last name.

There are obviously a ton of other things to talk about that the movie did well or did not do well, but what the heck is up with those two?

Offline The Force Is Strong

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Re: Solo a Star Wars Story (Alert SPOILERS discussion)
« Reply #3 on: May 29, 2018, 05:59:58 AM »
I personally like the film, not my favorite movie of all time, but I feel it did the trick. It is funny to read things online. Some people thought it was the best Star Wars movie yet. Some think it is the worst. I personally do not like May Star Wars release movies and think Disney will not release 2 movies close again.

Just the ability to see a Star Wars movie in the theater is something I did not think we would see after the prequel trilogy. None of the Star Wars movies since ESB have been perfect, but the chance for my 3 kids to grow up with Star Wars in this era is what I love most. I am interested to see how they develop the story line for Maul with a sperate movie or another Tv series. I like how this movie and Rebels left things open endsd for further stories.

Offline EXAR KUN

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Re: Solo a Star Wars Story (Alert SPOILERS discussion)
« Reply #4 on: May 29, 2018, 12:06:09 PM »
I'll say first off that I thought from the beginning that this movie should not be made.

There is no need for this movie at all other than if they had a MEGA idea for a MEGA story that had MEGA consequences that we could never have imagined!

But it really didn't.

It was kind of like what you thought may have happened... like for example Han meeting Chewy.... I'm not sure if I imagined it better or not... I never thought that much into it... figured Han somehow saved Chewy's life. That is basically what they did here really quick. And Chewy saves Han's life by not eating him.  A George R. R. type of treatment would have been better... perhaps more things at stake... and then Han ends up saving Chewy AND Chewy's whole family. But Han didn't. When it came time to save Chewy's group of Wookies, Han merely lets him go do it, rather than outright helping him. Although he does give him an electro-staff, and Han is in a mission at the time.


The first six or so lines Donald Glover gives as Lando REALLY SOUNDS like Billy D.! He had that down the first couple lines. Then it got a bit weaker (his performance), but it was strong to begin with so it turned out all right.

I wish there was more twists and crazy things we could not have anticipated... but overall I thought this movie was great.

Had a great time with this one.

I think I was more accepting of this overall because I disliked the new episodic serial movies.

Was worried a bit with the production problems and firing the directors, but I grew hopeful when I heard about Ron Howard coming on. I really like his movies and his feeling of speed in the movie 'Rush' had me very excited for what I thought I was going to see here. Although we did see some cool things, I did think this movie was going to focus more on speed.

However, I was happy when the movie started with a sort of slow chase scene. After all, that speeder Han hot-wired in the opening scene was not that fast. But it looked cool. And I was thinking this scene was an intro to the fast scenes we would see later as Han got access to better equipment and ships.

I just thought the whole Kessel Run was going to have a little more to it... I did enjoy this and think the effects were well-done. I don't often like CGI graphics but I thought they were used well here with the nebula storm or whatever that was.

To me, this was the best of the new movies even though it had problems.

I liked the soundtrack, and do want to purchase it as I purchase all Star Wars soundtracks and listen to them all jumbled up while reading Star Wars novels. Sometimes the song aligns to what is going on in the novel and it is pretty cool.

Anyway, back to Solo movie... bottom line is even though I thought we didn't need this I really liked it for all the background stuff like the space ship interiors,... the spaceship history, and expanding the universe a little bit by seeing Corellia and other places like Kessel.

And very cool to see a 'full-on Chewy' because it wasn't Peter Meyhew this time, it was the athletic new actor who really appeared to be strong when he jumped on screen and threw people and stuff. Very cool to see a full beast Chewy.

Darth Maul turning on his sabers... so unessessary and we all know he would never do that. Having in there was so ridiculous in the first place but actually it was fine because at least it ties together the Prequel Trilogy, Han Solo Story, and Clone Wars and everything but really it was too dramatic lolololol



 

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