Solo: a $tar War$ Movie

So..... I was a lot younger when the original SW hit the theaters, and even at that point I was not interested in a movie about human looking people fighting each other in space nor a "galaxy far far away....." for that matter.

BUT once I was convinced to go SEE the movie, on the big screen, 70 mike mike... at that time. Kapow.... I was hooked and Star Wars bananas :bowdown:! At least for the next six films.

Fast forward, current day, 21st Century and having viewed dinosaurs in 3D, missions to mars and other near home explorations on my personal 5.1 Dolby Digital THX and Surround with enhanced viewing via big screen LED, in the "comfort of my home"... these new releases just don't have the same pull on me :dunno:

I suppose... in my senior years, not so quick to jump and go, and would rather enjoy a rum and coke in the comfort of the home..? Things have changed and a new 2018 Han Solo, Star Wars release just ain't the motivator :no:

Besides.... the countdown to a "stream" or DVD release begins with the release of the film (sometimes earlier :naughty: )..

Just saying... I'll watch it eventually but likely at home :smoke:

I saw the original the day it opened first showing in '77. A friend & I ditched school to be there, there were ~40 people in the theater! Came back to see it again on the weekend and the line was around the block. That moment is impossible to replicate. I liked the next 2 installments too but they did not come close to that experience.

The prequels... I took my son as he was the right age. He liked them and like Christmas you enjoy it again through your children's eyes. But that little voice inside was going "Wow do these suck!" the entire time. Then The Force Awakens; really a remake? I liked Rogue One more but it is an aberration. Have not seen TLJ nor Solo*.

What I see gone entirely is real character development. There is too much built-in expectation that you will like the new/old characters and stories because "Hey, it's Star Wars and you're a fanboi!" plus CGI, woo hoo! It's lazy, sloppy, and ultimately disrespectful of the audience. It isn't that I've moved on, the originals remain great.

Disney could turn all this around and faced with the financial beating of Solo needs to if they are going to continue with SW. Were I king I'd put way more Rogue One sauce on it but also more hope, humor, and characters you are interested in as well as fewer of them. And, dump the management responsible for SW, they blow.

*A good friend and SW junkie saw it over the weekend. His reaction, "Eh, could have waited and seen it at home.". That's my plan too.
 
I think it ranks as my favorite of the new films. It feels the most "Star Wars" to me, along with Rogue One but I overall like the writing of Solo better.

Bettany was great as usual and I think Glover's performance was fantastic. He nailed the voice especially.

There were definitely eye roll moments. If you can't deal with that Star Wars is probably not your bag. :D

I really want to see more about the marauder girl. She stole every scene she was in. Great casting.

I dislike 7 for what it did to the original trilogy's victory and 8 has issues because it tried way too hard to fix the problems left over by 7. I liked both overall as films but I disliked much of what they did for the overarching story. I think 7 was a better standalone film but I respect 8 for trying to salvage JJ's dumb direction in 7, even though it gets a lot of the moment to moment notes wrong. I loved 8 the first time I watched it but after talking with friends about it and rewatching I understand why a lot of people don't like it.
 
Star Wars for me is the first three films, everything after that has been an uneven collection of films that I can live without ever seeing again..

I tend to agree - but I would add Rogue One to be the true prequel to Star Wars.
 
For me, these anthology films are really going down as the better movies being made by Disney.

The original trilogy created a universe which has been added to in the subsequent decades. It’s a rich and vibrant universe with a lot going on in it. If the prequels did one thing well it was world building. They showed you what the old republic looked liked and cast a huge shade of irony with the fact that the Empire must look pretty similar to the Republic, if not the same. The animated series,Clone Wars and Rebels, have added to this universe, even if they were cast as children’s shows. Rogue One, a war movie, and Solo, an adventure/heist movie do much the same in making the existing universe a larger and more exciting setting.

As time goes by I like the new trilogy films less and less. It’s not the dubious writing or existence of female leads. They lack scope. They lack world building. They don’t feel like they take place in the same universe. The baddies don’t feel like they’re a military and the existence of the good guys never feels fully fleshed out. To me it’s as if Disney has decided to make these movies as simplistic and as black and white as possible. The Force Awakens and The Last jedi feel to me as if they are children’s movies. It sucks.

The last thing I want to bash Disney on is the battle scene that opened TLJ. It was so unbelievably bad. How can that have been possible when the battle scene at the end of Rogue One was one of the best space battles I’ve ever seen? It topped anything from Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica and yet was still so authentically Star Wars.
 
Back
Top Bottom