Solo: A Star Wars Story (Ron Howard, May 25, 2018) Movie • Page 69

Technically posting this before the Friday official release, so I'll still use spoilers

Overall, definitely enjoyed it. Disney is 4/4 as far as I'm concerned. Starts out pretty meh, but the first sabacc game is fun and then from Kessel onwards it's really good in my opinion. The whole Kessel sequence reminded me a lot of Temple of Doom. If nothing else, under Disney the third act has always been good. Then the "who's betraying who?" game at the end was genuinely great and kept me guessing. Really loved that. Han and Beckett meeting in the trenches felt like such a missed opportunity though. Show us how that battle played out! Take an 5 minutes to explain these characters through their actions, don't just cut to the next scene.

Performance wise it was basically the opposite of what I expected. Alden was actually my favorite. He did a doey-eyed version of Han that really worked for me. Donald was kind of uneven as Lando in my opinion. When we first met him, it was great. But in the middle, he kind of put on a voice that was trying to imitate Billy Dee. It was miles better when he was just being natural.

I was expecting far more eye-roll worthy moments, but the only one was the imperial officer giving him the name Solo. Like, I mean jesus christ that was dumb.

And finally... Maul?! I was not expecting that. When the hologram first came up and I saw those metal feet I was like "fuck me, no way!" But it also had the feel of obvious sequel set up. Plus with Clone Wars and Rebels, I feel like we got his story already. So I'm not sure how it's going to play out if they do some more movies with him. We'll see. If anything, it was a niec nod to the viewers who have paid attention to canon outside the films. There was a lot of nice little easter eggs throw in there. Shout out to Bossk and Aurra Sing.
I've got more thoughts, but it's getting late and I need to sleep.

 

This was a surprisingly fun movie, I really enjoyed it.

 

Yup it was Ray Park in costume and makeup and Witwer doing the voice. I was in complete shock when he showed up. My girlfriend shook me after it and I finally said holy shit out loud in the theater. I loved it. For a canon junkie like myself, it was soooooooooooooo rewarding.

 

How much is Donald actually in the movie? The ads all make it look like he's basically the co-lead but he's really blown up recently so I get the impression it's a marketing tactic, especially because they use the same like three scenes with him in all of them

 

I started whispering “No way” when Maul started talking because I recognized Witwer’s voice. I think it’s gonna be a really interesting data point because Clone Wars and Rebels fans know how important he’s been and that he lived, but if you haven’t watched those as much of the audience probably hasn’t, it’s a huge reveal/question. I think they might be setting up for the Kenobi movie and using this to introduce the idea to the general audience that he’s alive so Obi-Wan can fight him.

 

A good bit. But not the whole movie.

 

Oh yea! I thought it was funny to hear they killed Aurra Sing so randomly.

 

I also liked when Lando told Han he hated him and he responds with “I know”.

 

The issue with setting up an Obiwan movie with this is that we have already seen Maul and Obiwan’s final fight. It would be weird to recreate it in a movie. They could disregard Rebels, but that would be the biggest break in this new canon.

 

I’m guessing it will be Obi-Wan leaving to destroy Maul’s criminal empire if it is a set up which would give more reason for Maul to be consumed by revenge in Rebels. I think that would be the last bit of connective tissue needed in that story to bridge the two shows. To be fair though, I think it would also be ok to leave it as is and not to revisit Maul as head of the crime syndicates and leave the journey from now to Malacore more ambiguous.

 

That could work.

 

Yep! That was another great moment.

 

If they use Maul in another film (Solo Sequel, Obi-wan, Boba Fett) I need it now.

 

I was really relieved by the lack of eye roll moments, it was really just the one for me. When the imperial officer said, “alone?” or whatever to set it up, my wife was like “don’t do it” and of course he did it. But yea, a lot of fun moments interlacing canon.

-the Bossk reference
-Lando RotJ mask Beckett wore
-Chewie ripping arms off
-Qira mentioning Teras Kasi
-L3 mentioning her kind not being served
-Han’s “I know” moment
-My personal favorite, Lando mispronouncing Han’s name. So in line with the character we met and retcon or not I liked it.

Also, regarding Maul: it could serve as a set up for a sequel, Kenobi, or potentially this new Boba Fett film. Seems like a smart move to bring him to set up for a number of possible films. Glad both Park and Witwer are both back.

 

I liked it, but for having the biggest budget of any Star Wars movie why does it feel like the cheapest one? I know the answer is reshoots, but aside from the Kessel Run all of the setpieces seem pretty lackluster.

 

I reallyyyy liked the musical cues in this movie though. They brought back the classic scores at just the right moments, and they didn't overstay their welcome at all. (And I was relieved to not hear the "Force theme" and was glad they seem to be reserving it for the episodic saga.)

 

They used it in Rogue One I think. Isn’t that what plays awkwardly when they show Bail and he says and does nothing in that one scene?

 

Just bought my ticket for round 2 for a D-Box showing at noon.

 

yeah I LOVED that they brought back the asteroid field music for when they were escaping the maelstrom/maw

 

You might be right. I've tried to block most of Rogue One out of my mind so I can't quite remember :/

 

Okay, I’m not sure how to feel about the gravity well basically giving the Falcon a makeover to match the design we are used to. It made me think of Sith when Sheev electrocuted himself to magically look like he did in the OT.

 

I like Rogue One far less than most people, but it’s still a solid movie.

 

Going to see this at 12:30. So stoked.

Also, when I bought the tickets, they gave me a coupon for a "free" movie poster... If anyone wants to pay the $8 shipping, I'll give you my code. haha.

 

Seems to me everyone is heading to Tatooine. I could see the sequels just being side stories (Kenobi, Fett, etc...) that take place on Tatooine and have Han and Chewie be more of a cameo.

 

Yeah I don’t think we will get another specific Han movie, but they’ll show up here and there is my guess. I think the Tatooine reference was meant for you to surmise that the “big time gangster” is Jabba, and this is obviously how Han gets in deep with Jabba, leading to that story arc in the OT.