Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

[starri]

I didn't really have any strong drive to see it in the theater (probably would have if the reviews had been better), and didn't rush to home media, but the rental was discounted Amazon today.  And it was fine.  Definitely better than 2/3rds of the prequels.

With the exception of "I hate you"/"I know", all of the continuity porn did make me groan a little.  No one needed Masters of Teras Kasi to be canon.  I know it probably went over the head of the vast majority of viewers, but my husband re-titled it I Understood That Reference: A Star Wars Story.

[ChromaKelly]

Saw it in the movies and watched it again tonight. I'm a casual Star Wars fan. I know the basics and I've seen all the movies, some more than once as my son likes Star Wars. If he were writing this post, he would give it an A+++ for lots of Chewbacca and zoomy space ships and all that. 
I thought it was fun. Maybe because I am a casual fan and wasn't expecting much. When the movie came out in theaters, I saw it before seeing any reviews and was then surprised at how negative they were. It wasn't a crime against Star Wars. Was it necessary? Not really. But whatever. The acting was fine. I thought Donald Glover was good and appreciated his take on Lando. 
 

On 10/7/2018 at 6:16 PM, starri said:

but my husband re-titled it I Understood That Reference: A Star Wars Story.

YES! Hahaha... that's perfect.

[Zuleikha]

I am super late to this party but I finally watched this and... I really liked it. It didn't need to exist, but it was a fun, lighthearted jaunt with some good moments. I thought Han Solo felt like a young Han. Despite all the bad press articles, Ehrenreich nailed the essence of the character IMHO. Q'ira was an interesting character. Again, I thought Emilia Clarke did a great job playing a character whose motivations and history had to be hinted at rather than shown. L3-37 was great for FINALLY acknowledging how cruel this universe's treatment of droids is.

I had a little trouble following the various twists in the beginning with the Beckett team up and the train heist going bad. Then the Enfys Nest reveal confused me because I thought I was supposed to recognize her. But apparently I was just supposed to be surprised that she was young? 

I'm surprised it got mediocre reviews. I think it did suffer from not being a significant story, from general fatigue of too many movies too frequently, and yes, from TLJ disappointment. I know I didn't go to see it in movies because of the latter two. But I actually would be interested in seeing more young Solo movies with future adventures with Calrissian and Q'ira as villain.

[Danny Franks]

I finally got around to watching this movie, and was pleasantly surprised. Yes, it was a bit generic in parts, but they nailed most of the nostalgia points that they needed to - Han meeting Chewie, introducing the Falcon, Chewie playing holochess for the first time, Han and Lando jousting with one another. It didn't feel overdone or forced. There were at least a dozen throwaway references that were just easter eggs for fans.

I was really happy with Aldon Ehrenreich's performance as Han. All that chatter about him being bad, but I thought he inhabited the character really well. The smug charm, the energy that Harrison Ford brought to Han, even the physical mannerisms. Everything from the way he stood with his hands on his hips, to the way he fired his blaster. He genuinely felt like a younger version of the man we meet in A New Hope. 

Donald Glover was just as good, and clearly spent a lot of time watching and listening to Billy Dee Williams, in Empire and Jedi. That louche charm and his ability to turn most things into something to laugh about. His holojournal, in particular, was a wonderful little encapsulation of his self-aggrandising personality.

But I was most pleased with Emilia Clarke. I've been wanting to see her in a role that differs from Daenerys for a while now, to actually figure out whether she has any range at all. And... she does. Qi'ra felt like a fully formed character, even though most of her backstory was skimmed over. At times tough, at others vulnerable and yearning for a different life. I'm glad that she got to be the femme fatale, rather than the damsel that Han needs to save, but I also liked the layers of it. She didn't hate Han for leaving her (an easy direction to take, when writing this sort of character), she hadn't turned evil with a lust for power. She was just in and knew there was no way out, so she gave up the chance at a life she had obviously dreamed of having, to save herself, and probably to save Han too.

The Darth Maul reveal was... eh. I have few fond memories of the prequels, so the fact that he's the man behind Crimson Dawn really didn't do anything for me. I knew that one of the cartoon shows brought him back, and that lots of fans inexplicably love him, but to me he was just a bland, one-note, throwaway villain.

Thandie Newton was wasted, and I can't help but feel her role was reduced in rewrites or edits. Because why cast her for that? I could happily have done with a lot more Phoebe Waller-Bridge as L3. The idea of droid rights was cool, and something that's overdue for exploration.

I guess they won't do a follow up, and I'm kind of alright with that. I don't need to know any more about Han (I didn't even need to know this backstory), and while Qi'ra was interesting, I can't imagine her story played out very well.

Oh, and the last, best easter egg? Han shot first.

Edited November 26, 2018 by Danny Franks

[Macbeth]

On November 10, 2018 at 9:08 PM, ChromaKelly said:

I thought it was fun. Maybe because I am a casual fan and wasn't expecting much. 

I am not a casual fan when it comes to Solo (major fan of Ford as a teenager, but casual fan to the rest of the story), and I really loved it.  I waited to see it as I had a hard a hard time seeing anyone but Harrison in the role. 

1.  I loved the droid rebellion. Watching the droid jumping on the console and destroying the console was fun. And it was nice to see the droids liberate the non-droid slaves as well. 

2.  Chewie and the Wookies had a really nice storyline.  Seeing how easily the Wookies easily and rightfully kill their human masters was a nice call back to Star Wars when Han warned C3PO to let Chewie win the game. And it showed that Chewie was holding back when he first confronted Han. 

3.  Liked how one of the Wookies pet Han on the head like he was a pet. Nice call back to when Han pet Chewie while the Falcon was on the Death Star. In a later interview Ford initially saw his relationship to Chewie as one to a dog. Given that wasn't shown in later movies, I feel that attitude was rightfully corrected. 

4. Alden looked enough like Harrison, and had enough of his facial expressions and physical mannerisms to pull it off, despite the lack of height. Unlike Carrie with Harrison, Emilia didn't need to stand on a box for some of her scenes with Alden. 

He doesnt have Ford's charisma but so few actors, even movie stars, have that type of charisma.   I read an interview Michelle Pfeiffer did after "What Lies Beneath"  and she had problems acting with someone who had that amount of charisma. 

5.   And as others had noted - Han shot first.