Solo release thread (spoilers)

[Vympel]

Saw this last night.

A solid 3.5/5 movie. You should enjoy yourself.

A lot of reviews said the opening act was wobbly, which I didn't really get. I thought the movie was pretty even throughout.

Literally didn't care that Alden Ehreneich wasn't Harrison Ford. Something I just didn't pay attention to.

Loved Woody Harrelson in this. A highlight of the film.

Heart of the movie - very much Han and Chewie.

Random comments:

- The Mimban scenes were striking.
- Surprised how quickly they killed off Beckett's team. Good work, it made the work look dangerous, because it is.
- L3-37 was a lot of fun. Would've liked to see more of her. Sad to see her go.
- Darth Maul, holy shit. In his Rebels reincarnation and everything - voiced by Sam Witwer? It sounded like Sam Witwer.
- Han shot first!
- The Lando Calrissian chronciles -that got a big laugh

And holy shit - so many Easter Eggs / references. Very much a SW nerd's film.

What didn't I like? Not a lot. My biggest complaint is that man it was so dark a lot of the time. As in - hard to see. Would've liked some brighter scenery. Except Mimban, where it was perfect and thematically appropriate. The big train action sequence was well lit too. But the other parts? Jesus, turn up the lights.

Also, the least effective action sequence: Just before they left Kessel was pretty dull. They just stand around shooting people around the Falcon, it wasn't very interesting or well put together (in marked contrast to the train) and should've been cut for time.

[Agent Fisher]

I agree with pretty much everything. Mimban was really cool to see, with the Imperial Army fighting with the natives I guess, AT-STs getting combat dropped. Maul was awesome.

And yeah, the Kessel Prison Riot, meh...

[atg]

- Darth Maul, holy shit. In his Rebels reincarnation and everything - voiced by Sam Witwer? It sounded like Sam Witwer.

I believe it was and Ray Park was the actual actor.

[Anacronian]

Funny thing is that Alden Ehrenreich reminded me more of a young Dennis Quaid than a young Harrison Ford.

[Juubi Karakuchi]

I give it a 4 if not a 5 out of 5. I couldn't think of anything wrong with it; at least not at the time. Maybe I was just enjoying myself too much.

To me, this is Star Wars going back to its roots; aka Space Western. And it works.

With the Kessel prison riot, I honestly wasn't focussing on the action itself. I was either watching L3-37 enjoy herself in the control room, or I was feeling too good to notice. Movies have that effect on me sometimes.

I loved Mimban; it had a rather Somme-like vibe. My inner SW nerd was bouncing off the walls to see the mudtroopers; thinking the Imperial Army Troopers were back in canon. But having read around them a little, it seems like they're just a branch of the stormtrooper corps this time. That said, that does make sense in light of the current approach; that is, classic stormtrooper is the bog-standard trooper, everyone else is specialized for different environments and missions.

A minor titbit for map enthusiasts. Lando mentioned that the way to Kessel was via the Si-Klaata Cluster. So that part of the old map hasn't changed.

[Crazedwraith]

That was fine. Moved along a good pace, a lot of action. I didn't think the character work was anything special but Woody Harrelson and everyone sold it.

Maul is a bit of a wtf character though, does his role as a gang leader tally with his Rebels thing? His appearance is wide open for a Solo II but I can't see how they can make that satisfying and keep his Rebels show down with Kenobi in continuity.

Random thing I did like Harrelson's double blaster thing.

[Marko Dash]

i don't get all the fan love for Maul. i've always seen him as more of an attack dog, i can't mesh with him being the leader of a criminal organization.

the way i see it each of prequels had a villian that had a part of what would later make up Vader.

Maul, the attack dog. In ep.1 and his books he ruthlessly tracks down and eliminates targets, we've seen Vader do these kind of solo missions.

Dooku, the leader. while Vader doesn't have the charisma Dooku does he did command Death Squadron and held a high position in Imperial Command.

Grievous, the cyborg jedi killer. Not much needs explaining here.


EDIT: does Palpatine know about this?

[Knife]

i don't get all the fan love for Maul. i've always seen him as more of an attack dog, i can't mesh with him being the leader of a criminal organization.

the way i see it each of prequels had a villian that had a part of what would later make up Vader.

Maul, the attack dog. In ep.1 and his books he ruthlessly tracks down and eliminates targets, we've seen Vader do these kind of solo missions.

Dooku, the leader. while Vader doesn't have the charisma Dooku does he did command Death Squadron and held a high position in Imperial Command.

Grievous, the cyborg jedi killer. Not much needs explaining here.


EDIT: does Palpatine know about this?

It's a Clone War and Rebels thing. I have to admit when they brought Maul back I rolled my eyes and sighed but it turned out to be some of the best damn story telling in SW. And I didn't know he was part of Solo so that's cool.

[Ace Pace]

I pretty much agree with everything Vympel wrote, except I found Maul really unnecessary. The only bit of fan service/callout I didn't enjoy.

I think the interaction between Han and Lando really set things up properly for ESB, perfect opening for their relationship.ffvdfc

[MKSheppard]

Saw this on Thursday night.

Went in with pretty low expectations, but it turned out to be fucking WEG SW reborn on the big screen.

Imperial Army Lives!

There are only a few cringeworthy moments.

I would have modified the part about having to insert a drop of unrefined coaxium into the Falcon's engines; and just have them dump the whole can into the engine feed; and somehow made it canon that that was the start of the Falcon's legendary unreliability -- Han basically pushed her to 400% performance with the Kessel/Maw Run, and she was never quite right again after that.

This may be another reason Lando is with Han by ESB. Han basically took Lando's beautiful custom modded hotrod that he carefully cleaned up and made look nice....and basically ran her in a demolition derby.

[MKSheppard]

With the out of the way, there are some issues with it (same as Rogue One).

Both are pretty good SW films that feel more like SW than the ReyloFinn trilogy, but there are scenes that don't work; same as in Rogue One.

Solo's Maw Sequence could have been modified a bit to make it better.

1.) Imperial Pursuit should break off after an initial few minutes -- have the Imperials get a scene where they go "break off break off, not worth following. The Maw will get them." This is a major peeve with me. The Imperials should be SMART faceless evil, rather than DUMB faceless evil. There's no reason to waste TIE Pilots and Fighters in chasing a smuggler through the Kessel Run, particularly once the smuggler leaves the "safe" 20 parsec course, and goes for a completely unplotted course.

Yes, we have examples from the Original Trilogy of Imperial pilots doing suicidal things; but there are good reasons for them to do so -- either:

A.) Fear of Vader.

B.) Obvious need to do it -- the TIEs following the Falcon and Wedge into the DS2 in ROTJ -- it's obvious by then that the Rebels are attempting a snubfighter attack to exploit the Death Star II's weakness under construction, and do you want to be the guy standing before the Emperor (he's actually there in person) why you didn't follow the Falcon into the Death Star II? (this is also a tie back into (A) ).

This is a continuing "brain bug" of the Empire/New Order -- the idea that they should just expend lives/craft needlessly to show how Evil they are.

2.) The unrefined coaxium should have had 1/2 of a cylinder dropped into the Falcon's engines, instead of a drop or two. There should have been a line or so about how it'll either burn out the engines or explode them.

Delete the engine dying then relight sequence. That's cheese.

Just have it be like one huge massive afterburner from the start, and show the Falcon's engines literally burning up, with pieces glowing red and then melting away -- this loops back into the "never quite right again" feel for the Falcon post-Kessel Run.

[MKSheppard]

Also, L3's brain now being the Falcon's computer is a throwback to legends, where somewhere it's remarked that Han and Chewie spend as much time fighting the Falcon's computers as flying it; since it's semi sentinent. or somesuch.

[Vympel]

The thing with Maul would have been better if they hadn't been trying so damn hard. All you needed was the face reveal. You didn't need him using the Force to call his lightsaber to him and then activate it. It was way excessive.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Saw it this afternoon and thought it was a very good SW film, well paced, (mostly) good action scenes, some excellent performances and a lot of fun easter eggs thrown in to appease us geeks.

Honestly, the one thing I wasn't too fond of was the thing with Maul. Not because I have anything against the character, but more because I was hoping that, after nine preceding SW films we could finally have one that doesn't involve Force-users/mystics somehow. It's a big fucking galaxy and Force-users must make a vanishingly small part of the population. It's not even as if it were needed, you could have had anyone else be the mystery boss man. Even if you don't want to bring in a totally new character, the old EU offers up dozens of options. You could have used Prince Xizor, for instance.

[eMeM]

Very solid movie, obviously not perfect, but very enjoyable, with likeable character and some nice twists, and a lot of more or less obscure references and cameos. It's good to have anthologies to look forward to between the inevitable disasters of episode IX and Johnson Trillogy.

...I just hope they will continiue making them, because likely due to the backlash and boycott after TLJ and very light marketing campaign, the box office looks extremely pessimistic.

The thing with Maul would have been better if they hadn't been trying so damn hard. All you needed was the face reveal. You didn't need him using the Force to call his lightsaber to him and then activate it. It was way excessive.

In-universe I took it as him seeing trough Qira's bullshit and threatening her. Out-of, it was meant to confirm that this is indeed the cool red dude from Episode I, vast majority of the audience didn't watch the animated shows and would have doubts just seeing his face.

[Knife]

Just got back from it. Really good movie. I'm on board with the idea that the one offs are better than the main story crowd. Oh, read this thread last night, so made a point to watch the credits. Ray Park is credited for being Maul and Sam Witwer was his voice in the credits. So they did both.

Anyway, while I like the idea, I'm thinking they're either gearing up a Darth Maul movie or better yet.... an Obi Wan movie. (squeeeeeeeeeee)

That said, I'm pretty much agree on Vymple on this though a bit surprised about it since we a diametrically opposed on the Last Jedi.

[Rogue 9]

When the fuck was this supposed to be? Maul was stuck on Malachor until the Rebels crew provided him a way out; when did he have time to hang around Dathomir doing crime lord shit between then and getting killed off?

[eMeM]

When the fuck was this supposed to be? Maul was stuck on Malachor until the Rebels crew provided him a way out; when did he have time to hang around Dathomir doing crime lord shit between then and getting killed off?

Rebels found him on Malachor in 2 BBY, Solo takes place in 11 BBY.

[NecronLord]

Everyone who ever disagreed with me that droids are slaves and the restraining bolt is barbarism, I will now accept your concessions.

[Guardsman Bass]

Everyone who ever disagreed with me that droids are slaves and the restraining bolt is barbarism, I will now accept your concessions.

Conceded, although I predict that the Star Wars movies going forward will have zero interest in exploring this idea, and will treat L3-37 as a strange anomaly whose droid liberation sentiments are mostly treated as a gag before she gets killed to make Lando sad (and so she can be uploaded into the Falcon - man, Lando should be way more pissed off at Han for winning that ship from him).

As for the movie in general -

Meh, although it wasn't boring and parts of it were enjoyable. I'll second Vympel on the lighting - why was this movie so constantly underlit in scenes? It just made a lot of it look worse and unnecessarily grim, aside from the one sequence where that worked (the battle on Mimban).

Ahrenreich just didn't sell me on young Han Solo. Sometimes he came close, but he always felt rather stiff in the roll, which meant a lot of the jokes and bullshit bravado that Han has fell flat.

[Imperial528]

I liked it, although the callback/easter egg moments really should have been toned done. For a bunch of them I really just wanted to say "Yes, I saw the OT"

The droid liberation I found to be fairly consistent with smaller moments we see in the OT, such as Luke's disdain for the restraining bolts the Jawas put on C-3P0 and R2-D2. Not to mention the droid torture we see in Jabba's palace.

The impression I've always gotten, though, is that most droids are not self aware on the level of humans. A lot of them seem to behave more like well trained animals or just as straight automatons. Of course these droids don't speak and it's hard to tell whether they have restraining bolts or not.

Though if the speculation that routine memory wipes are used to prevent droids from becoming self aware is true, and Solo implies it is, then it really begs the question of why the manufacturers are building droids intended for servitude with hardware capable of spontaneously gaining sapience.

Lastly I feel like the script as written didn't really give Ehrenreich the chance to try for Han's style in ernest. Seemed to be written more as the story of "How Han became Han" than how Han got where he was.

[DesertFly]

Solo has the distinction of being one of the very few movies that turned out exactly as I was expecting when I walked into the theater. I was spoiled on the Maul appearance, and had heard the rumor that Han literally got his name in this movie (which my girlfriend rolled her eyes at hard, but I couldn't stop laughing), but other than that and trailers I was completely fresh on it. And it was still exactly what I imagined a Han origin story would be. I even called exactly each of the double-crosses at the end a few minutes before each was revealed.

I still liked it well enough though. It must have been quite a different experience for my girlfriend compared to me; she's a Star Wars fan, and has watched Clone Wars and Rebels, but she never got into the old EU. I was just sitting there grinning as they name-dropped one old reference after another, like Oseon.

Overall I think it was a fun popcorn-film, and I wouldn't mind if they made one more.

[Guardsman Bass]

The number of old Legends EU references they worked into it was pretty wild. Carida, Mimban, the Kessel Run - tons of them.

It was funny how how Han got his last name, although doesn't he say that he had a father who worked in one of the shipyards/ship-building plants before he lost his job? Did he forget his original last name?

[Imperial528]

I assumed he didn't want to give it lest they find out his presumably criminal past.

[Vympel]

That said, I'm pretty much agree on Vymple on this though a bit surprised about it since we a diametrically opposed on the Last Jedi.

I may just have catastrophically bad taste and I like everything without reservation

(but I doubt it though, I'll defend my taste to the death)