Movies: Solo: A Star Wars Story, 25 May 2018 Release (Early reviews are in)

[Natey]

I had the most fun watching Solo than any other Star Wars film. If people don’t see this film, than they are missing out. Best Disney SW film by far.

I loved it as much as Rogue One. Both awesome films.

I have fond memories of Episode VII just because the experience in the theatre will probably never be matched. But Rogue One and Solo are just great movies.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

I'm aware of that, but I think showing up in this particular movie was sort of silly. That character should have separate motivations than anything going on in this movie and I don't think belongs.

My thoughts on Crimson Dawn:

Spoiler

Qi'ra mentioned this crime syndicate in the same breath of the Hutts early in the film. So I was immediately curious as to who they were and how they could rival the Hutts. Then Qi'ra mentions how she never escaped and is now part of Crimson Dawn. Both Dryden and Qi'ra made mention as to how fearful their leader was, too. I was hoping it was Prince Xizor from Shadows of the Empire, but once the hologram came on I expected it to be Palpatine for some reason. And then the reveal happened and I was okay with it as it explains the terror and horrendous acts committed by the group.

Also, if you were "aware of that" [Maul's cartoon history], why'd you ask?

 

[Drytoast]

No clue how accurate those numbers are, but if they’re even close.....ouch.

Maybe The Last Jedi did more damage to the brand than haters like me even thought it would.

It would be much better for the fans and it's brand if these films tanked to shit and forced some firings up top...

Namely that Kennedy bitch needs to go.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

What does she do that supposedly is ruining Star Wars, anyway?

 

[Pilky01]

What does she do that supposedly is ruining Star Wars, anyway?

She isn’t Kevin Fiege. Also she seems to be smitten with Rian Johnson, a director who seems to resent Star Wars fans.

Fiege wasn’t tweeting snide comments like “your Thanos theory sucks” in the lead up to Infinity War.

 

[irunthepeg]

Solo was up against it for it coming off as a gigantic cash grab,issues behind the scenes, and early reviews being mixed at best. Not to mention it is directly competing with Deadpoool 2 and is competing indirectly with Infinity War. I know, TLJ is the most disappointing thing since my son and Kathleen Kennedy is awful and everyone's childhood is ruined, but come on.

As far as the movie is concerned, I was pleasantly surprised by the majority of it. The first hour and a half was great and a fun little romp into Han's past with new characters (L3 was great), a tasteful utilization of how most things came into place, and a simple plot that keeps things moving at a good speed. The last half hour or so really fell apart, though, and I don't know if this was because of the change in directing or what, but they could not tie up really anything all that well.

As far as the acting, I didn't have an issue with either Alden Ehrenreich or Donald Glover as Han and Lando. Were slight variations on the original characters but not enough to bother me in any way. Emilia Clarke was also surprisingly good.

And in one of the last scenes of the movie one of the strangest characters shows up out of the blue:

Spoiler

****ing Darth Maul is alive based on the EU and apparently runs the Crimson Tide or whoever. Whyyyyyyyyyyyy


Does he get killed between now and ANH? Does he experience memory loss and become a farmer somewhere? If they were going to have some sith apprentice or lord pulling the strings they should have had a younger Snoke, giving us a backstory of him sitting in the shadows waiting to make his move anticipating the end of the current empire. Could satisfy those who hated the fact he didn't have a backstory and open up the potential for more of him in other movies.

Yeah, the acting was actually fine. The characters could have used some work, like Dryden Vos and Enfys Nest (killer theme though!). Those two were definitely the weak points. I myself did not care for L3.

Response to your spoiler:

Spoiler

He's been alive since the Clone Wars CGI series, which is canon. In this series he becomes power hungry and eventually becomes the Mandalorian leader. He's also hellbent on getting revenge on Obi Wan. I suggest looking up his episodes in this series and watching them. He shows up in Rebels, too. If you want to find out what happens to him in that, read the next spoiler.

Spoiler

Thanks to a Sith artifact, he tracks down Obi Wan to Tatooine. The two fight and Obi Wan quickly kills him. This appears to be a year or so before A New Hope.

Spoiler

Maul is shown to be alive in The Clone Wars and survive even until Rebels where Obi Wan kills him in his time on Tattooine. So it does still line up. It's not based on EU anymore as that is dead but it does fit the Disney-approved canon.

 

[Oilslick941611]

I hope this movie BOMBS and Kathleen Kennedy is shown the door. This franchise needs a Kevin Feige. The guy who does the comics is who should be overseeing the creative aspects of this whole thing.

That is probably the best thing to happen for the franchise, its clear the suits don't care, or are trying to reinvent Star Wars in a way that is unstarwars.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

She isn’t Kevin Fiege. Also she seems to be smitten with Rian Johnson, a director who seems to resent Star Wars fans.

Fiege wasn’t tweeting snide comments like “your Thanos theory sucks” in the lead up to Infinity War.

She likes a director you don't like and said a thing you don't like.

Scathing. What does she do, again?

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Spoiler

Maul is shown to be alive in The Clone Wars and survive even until Rebels where Obi Wan kills him in his time on Tattooine. So it does still line up. It's not based on EU anymore as that is dead but it does fit the Disney-approved canon.

I'm aware of all that, like I said. I just don't think it fits at all.

 

[Pilky01]

She likes a director you don't like and said a thing you don't like.

Scathing. What does she do, again?

She steers the ship. She is the 'Kevin Fiege' of Star Wars but clearly it isn't going as well.

When your team is shitting the bed fans are gonna clamour for the coach and/or GM to get the axe.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Steers it how? Should she exert creative control over the directors? Let them do their thing?

She is just an easy target for angry Star Wars fans because they didn't like the movie. If Rian Johnson didn't come off as a bad choice before the movie came out you can't get mad at her for picking him based on hindsight.

 

[Pilky01]

Steers it how? Should she exert creative control over the directors? Let them do their thing?

She is just an easy target for angry Star Wars fans because they didn't like the movie. If Rian Johnson didn't come off as a bad choice before the movie came out you can't get mad at her for picking him based on hindsight.

"Steer it" like Kevin Feiege, her counterpart as President of Marvel Studios, "steers" the MCU; and yes, sometimes that means exerting creative control.

The issue is that Kennedy's "creative control" is not good like Fiege's is.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

"Steer it" like Kevin Feiege, her counterpart as President of Marvel Studios, "steers" the MCU; and yes, sometimes that means exerting creative control.

The issue is that Kennedy's "creative control" is not good like Fiege's is.

I would say they are bit apples and oranges (a universe with an extensive comic book collection with thousands of stories and characters to pick from against a universe that has to base the majority of its entire canon on the original trilogy and has to tip-toe around the EU). And without being able to accurately describe where her role went wrong I don't know how removing her helps restore Star Wars, a universe that according to some hasn't had a good movie come out since Empire.

 

[Pilky01]

I would say Marvel comic books have plenty of "extended universe" stuff that could complicate things if they let them.

And didn't Lucasfilm state that the Star Wars EU stuff was no longer canon anyway? So they already solved that problem, no need to tip-toe around it. The overwhelming majority of the audience have absolute no connection to any of that stuff anyways. All I know of the "EU" is what I remember from Star Wars on N64. Is Dash Rendar a thing still?

I never said she needed to be fired anyway. I just said she wasn't Kevin Fiege and that is why people complain about her.

 

[ThePhoenixx]

What does she do that supposedly is ruining Star Wars, anyway?

Did you watch the films? lol

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Then again, if we are basing their performance on the results, should we expect every figurehead in that position to be just like Fiege? The guy is able to print money because of the cinematic universe that has been established. People go crazy over simply competent movies that have Marvel plastered on them. Considering the cynicism that spawned from the PT, I'm not sure how easy that would be for someone to recreate in Star Wars without putting together a trilogy that rivals the most recent Mad Max.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Did you watch the films? lol

Oh, she did all that?

 

[ThePhoenixx]

Oh, she did all that?

Yes.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Okay.

Anyway. Solo movie? Fun times for all or trumpet of the apocalypse?

 

[Pilky01]

Then again, if we are basing their performance on the results, should we expect every figurehead in that position to be just like Fiege? The guy is able to print money because of the cinematic universe that has been established. People go crazy over simply competent movies that have Marvel plastered on them. Considering the cynicism that spawned from the PT, I'm not sure how easy that would be for someone to recreate in Star Wars without putting together a trilogy that rivals the most recent Mad Max.

People went ape shit over TFA and that movie was practically just a palette swap of A New Hope.

And TLJ made plenty of money too. It certainly got my money on opening night. It was in a "printing money" situation.

The creative decisions they made have really shot this franchise in the foot. I think it can absolutely recover, but it needs an entirely new creative team to helm the franchise. The "Your Snoke Theory Sucks" thing just tells me that these people'e heads are not in a good creative space. They are pre-occupied by the white noise of internet fandoms and Johnson made his film as a response to that. Which is why it was so terrible.

 

[ThePhoenixx]

Okay.

Anyway. Solo movie? Fun times for all or trumpet of the apocalypse?

It really bothers you when people critic Star Wars. Perhaps you should avoid such things. They are not good for your health.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

It really bothers you when people critic Star Wars. Perhaps you should avoid such things. They are not good for your health.

It doesn't bother me when people "critic" Star Wars. There isn't a lot of critiquing of the actual movie (you know, the movie I have had to direct people to talk about twice now), and more of the "they need to stop Kathleen Kennedy before she ruins more of my Star Wars."

 

[ArGarBarGar]

My thoughts on Crimson Dawn:

Spoiler

Qi'ra mentioned this crime syndicate in the same breath of the Hutts early in the film. So I was immediately curious as to who they were and how they could rival the Hutts. Then Qi'ra mentions how she never escaped and is now part of Crimson Dawn. Both Dryden and Qi'ra made mention as to how fearful their leader was, too. I was hoping it was Prince Xizor from Shadows of the Empire, but once the hologram came on I expected it to be Palpatine for some reason. And then the reveal happened and I was okay with it as it explains the terror and horrendous acts committed by the group.

Also, if you were "aware of that" [Maul's cartoon history], why'd you ask?

Spoiler

My whyy was with regards to him hanging out with the Crimson Avengers. I don't think it fits and would have preferred someone like Snoke in that role. Snoke fits and makes it clear he did have a hand as an authoritative figure before the OT even began, and the reason he wasn't heard of was because he was independent and likely would have been snuffed out by Palpatine in that case. Him consolidating power and waiting for Palpatine/Vader to kick the bucket (one was at least in his 70s and the other was half cyborg and needed a respirator to breath properly) would have been an interesting nod to the past people wanted out of him.

Am curious to see how that plays out if they do end up making a sequel. I am definitely willing to see another Han and Chewie adventure based on what they gave me in this one.

 

[Richard]

Spoiler

My whyy was with regards to him hanging out with the Crimson Avengers. I don't think it fits and would have preferred someone like Snoke in that role. Snoke fits and makes it clear he did have a hand as an authoritative figure before the OT even began, and the reason he wasn't heard of was because he was independent and likely would have been snuffed out by Palpatine in that case. Him consolidating power and waiting for Palpatine/Vader to kick the bucket (one was at least in his 70s and the other was half cyborg and needed a respirator to breath properly) would have been an interesting nod to the past people wanted out of him.

Am curious to see how that plays out if they do end up making a sequel. I am definitely willing to see another Han and Chewie adventure based on what they gave me in this one.

I think the movie ended in such a manner that either we will getting a sequel or it dovetails nicely into a Obi-Wan adventure. Wouldn't be surprised if Han and Chewie make an appearance.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

pretty sure new Star Wars movie will never appease the hardcore fanbase, no matter who is in charge

this movie is getting the exact rating I thought it would get...light, entertaining, but not much substance

still looking forward to it