SOLO - LET'S TALK (KEEP SPOILERS IN TAGS)

So my wife got to see her first movie in the theater since Hope was born. And it was Solo!


Anyhoo - I liked it. Unequivocally. Was a fun watch. Would actually like to see more of that actor in that role. Better than Rogue One, and I liked that, too. I'm pretty happy with Disney Star Wars so far.


Danny Glover was fun as Lando, Paul Bettany was solid, and Woody Harrelson was great as Yondu. The female lead was fine.

My only interest is in Lando, as he is the sole character that causes me to be a fan of Star Wars.

Spoiler tags annoy me so I'll talk in cryptic phrases instead

The hologram character, which absolutely floored me because I don't see how ANYONE who only followed the films would understand WFT was going on, is definitely going to be the big bad of any, and this is a big IF since the BO tracking of Solo seems soft, sequels or Boba Fett or Kenobi spin-offs. While the Solo actor wasn't much of a harrison Ford impersonator, I thought he did a decent Han Solo riff. If anyone was less convincing in this it was Chewie. Oh, and the robot. Not a fan of that level of humanization. I liked K2-SO in Rogue One but that is about as far as I like my droids to go.

TFA > Solo > R1 > TLJ

Putting aside all factions but scum and villany was a lot of fun. Can't wait to see more of it

I keep thinking that I'm going to hit a saturation point with Star Wars but it certainly hasn't happened yet. Walking away from the movie today got me thinking back to the days when the Zahn trilogy rolled out. Each year I got to enjoy an interesting new book in the Star Wars universe. Present day, each year I get to enjoy an interesting new movie. I'm 4 for 4 so far in enjoying these, and I would gladly watch any of them tomorrow.

I was interested in all the characters except perhaps the villian with vertical burn scars on his face. I thought Donald Glover did a phenomenal job and hope there ends up being more Lando down the road. Thandie Newton was great.

I think it was Legomancer who has expressed exhaustion with the incredibly self-important and continuity-heavy nature of every Star Wars movie since the original one. I love the Star Wars movies (including more controversial entries like the prequels and the Last Jedi) so that's not a bad thing to me. But there is this sense that they haven't really been just fun space movies since the original way back in 1977. True, it was a fun space movie that drew on a lot of universal themes to make it work, but it was in the end pretty great as a self-contained piece.

That's where Solo succeeds really well. It's kind of a slight movie, but I think this is the first time in a while that I think someone could watch a Star Wars movie and not have to worry about a ton of baggage. There's very little continuity to worry about, the stakes are pretty low, and the whole thing zips along really well. It's certainly better than Rogue One in that regard, since that movie definitely feels stitched together from competing visions. This is a lot more cohesive and human, and I really like that.

The only downside is the reveal of in the end, which I think will be baffling for anyone who isn't in neck-deep. It doesn't really sink the rest of the movie, but it does detract from the self-contained aspect that I liked.

I enjoyed it quite a bit and realized I appreciate these one-offs more than 7/8. I did not enjoy the main actor at all and I was kind of annoyed how he was used as loopy comic relief for his own film (acting stupid and being walked over multiple times), but Donald Glover was perfect. You could tell he put a lot of effort into impersonating Lando's voice pattern and mannerisms.

It was okay in a mindless fun sort of way, but I hated almost every specific incidence that had anything to do with how Han... got his name/met Chewbacca/nicknamed Chewie/got his blaster, etc. (Especially didn't like the name one. Phew.) Take away all of that junk and it's a pretty decent adventure movie, though still somewhat generic. And pretty darn humorless for a film about the origin of one of the galaxy's wittiest rogues. A few mild chuckles, but almost nothing that anybody in the theater really laughed at. The train heist was a really cool and exciting sequence, but kind of laughable in terms of why they'd be transporting that stuff on a train when they have spaceships. Well, in order for there to be a cool train heist sequence in a Star Wars film. Duh.

Anyone who thinks Solo is better than Last Jedi is fucking NUTS. TLJ wasn't perfect, and I preferred Force Awakens to that by a hair, but TLJ had a ton of invention, character, and some real challenge to its audience. Solo has almost no real panache to it and a lot of pretty dumb stuff to boot. TLJ said hey, let's move Star Wars forward into new and interesting places. Solo says hey, let's go back to stuff we already had, and while we're at it, make one of the coolest and most iconic characters in the history of film more generic and boring.

Grudunza wrote: Anyone who thinks Solo is better than Last Jedi is fucking NUTS. TLJ wasn't perfect, and I preferred Force Awakens to that by a hair, but TLJ had a ton of invention, character, and some real challenge to its audience. Solo has almost no real panache to it and a lot of pretty dumb stuff to boot. TLJ said hey, let's move Star Wars forward into new and interesting places. Solo says hey, let's go back to stuff we already had, and while we're at it, make one of the coolest and most iconic characters in the history of film more generic and boring.

I liked Solo better than you did, but I am pretty on board with this. I am still trying to figure out precisely why some people hated The Last Jedi so much. (That's not an invitation for discussion on the matter, because I can promise you I've probably heard most of the arguments at this point.)

I do think that both TLJ and Solo are good movies for Star Wars as a long term brand. TLJ really pushes the story and the epic aspects forward in ways that they series hasn't managed since Empire, and if it doesn't nail everything it still was needed to keep the franchise fresh. Solo is more self-contained and low-stakes, and while one could quibble that its execution is not perfect, I think that's a good look for these spin-off films especially.

lol, thank God for Grud bringing some sense to this. i can't believe some of the stuff I'm reading on FB on this movie, especially when people rank the series.

The least favorite part of Solo was the price paid to experience it in 3D IMAX.
Never again.
The first portion of the film is dark to begin with. Add 3D glass, which are essentially drunk google sun glasses, and it's a total mess. Never mind the ocular vision in these things is like a 5 degree arc. Ugh.

The film itself? Serviceable. About what I expected at this point in the franchise. I think my favorite bit was seeing Chewie get physical. For once, he wasn't just shooting or growling or occasionally shaking someone. He was tearing shit up. That was a fun to see.

My rating of solo being better than TLJ isn't because I didn't like TLJ. It's just that I enjoyed R1 and Solo more.

Nagajur wrote: My rating of solo being better than TLJ isn't because I didn't like TLJ. It's just that I enjoyed R1 and Solo more.

Totally agree. The tone felt more Star Wars to me (humor, setting, characterizations) than TLJ.

One thing that bothered me about Solo that I've seen no one mention - why does every new film have to change the TIE fighter? Is it because of toys? The TIE fighter remained the same for how many years throughout the OT, and now 10 years before A New Hope we have some different kind of TIEs. It's annoying that they never reincorporate stuff from the OT without modifying it to make it new.

that's why I do heart ratings and brain ratings.

I enjoyed Rogue One more than Force Awakens and TLJ. but I don't think Rogue One is a better movie than those two.

how did the TIE fighters in Solo look? I hope they were really old school

as long as that's the fighter you are talking about, the OT 'changed' TIE Fighters in the same way. Interceptors were introduced in ROTJ, Bombers in ESB.