Solo: A Fanservice Story *Unmarked SP*

Fair warning, I'm not using any spoiler tags, as this thread has already been marked spoilers.

I just got home after seeing Solo: A Star Wars Story. I liked it! I liked it quite a bit, actually.

I am far from articulate enough to actually write up a good review, but I wanted to post up a few quick thoughts in case others have seen the film this weekend.

Let's start with my biggest disappointment:

The movie is exactly what I thought it was going to be. It's putting to film and explaining every reference Han has ever made. Saving Chewie? Check. Kessel Run? Check. Winning the Falcon? Check. Han shot first? Check. Starting the tradition of play-acting like he's angry when he meets Lando? Check. Chewie ripping arms off of things? Check. Bonus points for the absolutely asinine origin of his name: "Oh, you don't have a last name, and you're alone? Solo it is then!"

Despite the fact that I think they could have done something fundamentally more interesting with a Han Solo movie . . . I think it all worked. It was interesting and told a compelling story from start to finish. It has the modern Star Wars humor, so if the new movies aren't doing it for you from that perspective, this one isn't any different. I thought it worked, but I'm not exactly difficult to please.

I totally buy Alden Ehrenreich as young Han Solo. I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say he nailed it, but I think he was very good. Donald Glover was great as Lando. I find myself wishing he'd have had a bigger role, but his character is totally consistent with what we know of Lando.

I did love seeing the Falcon in new, pristine condition. That thing looked classy!

I'm not sure whether I love or hate the end of Emilia Clarke's plotline. On one hand, I hate that, once again, everything comes back around to the Jedi/Sith perspective--the universe is more than big enough to not need that shoved in there. On the other hand, I'm totally interested to see what happens there, because Darth Maul is awesome. I haven't seen the animated Rebels show (but loved The Clone Wars), but I knew Darth Maul was still alive, I just didn't expect them to really acknowledge that on the big screen.

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So I saw the movie.

I have read the various versions of the scripts for A New Hope since I’m a huge nerd I guess. Anyway, remember when Han tells Luke he made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs? It’s obvious reading the scripts that Han was just making up gibberish. He figured Luke a sucker, so he was just making shit up to try to sound impressive.

So it’s weird and stupid they would indulge this weird thing the fans obsessed over for years that was supposed to be nothing by taking it literally and making it a part of the film.

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So I saw the movie.

I have read the various versions of the scripts for A New Hope since I’m a huge nerd I guess. Anyway, remember when Han tells Luke he made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs? It’s obvious reading the scripts that Han was just making up gibberish. He figured Luke a sucker, so he was just making shit up to try to sound impressive.

I haven't read the scripts and don't care to, but that's the impression I always got from watching the actual film. It's much more interesting that way, too. It was more interesting when winning the Falcon in a game of cards was just code for "I stole it," too. Or, at the very least, he won it by cheating. But not anymore! They even made sure he loudly proclaimed "Fair and square!" as it fades to black.

Still, I found the movie quite enjoyable.

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So I saw the movie.

I have read the various versions of the scripts for A New Hope since I’m a huge nerd I guess. Anyway, remember when Han tells Luke he made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs? It’s obvious reading the scripts that Han was just making up gibberish. He figured Luke a sucker, so he was just making shit up to try to sound impressive.

I haven't read the scripts and don't care to, but that's the impression I always got from watching the actual film. It's much more interesting that way, too. It was more interesting when winning the Falcon in a game of cards was just code for "I stole it," too. Or, at the very least, he won it by cheating. But not anymore! They even made sure he loudly proclaimed "Fair and square!" as it fades to black.

If anything, Han being the cheat would be more in line with how he starts off in A New Hope.

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He did win it by cheating, though. And stealing.

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It's been canon for twenty years now. It's obvious in the script that he's bullshitting because the script literally said he's bullshitting.

The directions for Obi-Wan had him dismissing Solo's obvious attempt at misinformation.

However, Lucas has, through the word of God and through Star Wars books overseen by Lucasfilm, made it canon.

Lucas has said the biggest modification made to the shop was the navigational computer which plots much more efficient hyperspace routes, hence 12 parsecs.

The Maw and the Kessel Run were detailed in a trilogy of books that came out in 98.

It's old news. We've been stuck with this interpretation since the nineties.

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I’m on the fence about going to see it. With The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and The Last Jedi, they had me hooked and excited to see each movie. I have never felt that for Solo. I think it mostly comes down to at no point in the trailers did I felt like I’d seen Han Solo. And I’m not someone that needs a 100% exact carbon copy performance to accept a new actor in a role. Though the quality of the three new Star Trek movies vary a bit (a dirt bike... really? Did you learn nothing from the dune buggy scene in Nemesis??) I completely enjoyed the recasting of Kirk, Spock and McCoy.

Interestingly, you’re the third or fourth person to come out as liking Solo, so my resistance to going to see it is... wavering.

Thanks for the review.

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I think they did a terrible job with marketing this movie. I legitimately had forgotten about until I was looking to see if there was anything worth going to see today.

The trailers also do absolutely nothing to give the audience any sort of clue what this movie actually is. It's a heist movie, really.

I'm not an analytical movie watcher, so I can't really talk about films in that way. I can just say that I thought it was enjoyable, if overly reliant on fan service. I do think it does some good things with the Han/Chewie relationship (namely, giving Chewie a whole lot more agency than "I saved his life so he pledged a Life Debt to me". This movie made it clear Chewie is there by choice and not some sort of twisted sense of obligation, trading one form of slavery for another).

For whatever it's worth, I didn't really like Rogue One (even though I think it was well made), but really love both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.

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And did not really like it. The character of young Han Solo almost never worked for me and the movie felt like it believed it was far more clever than it ever was. Even the Kessel Run was boring. It wasn’t much more than Episode I’s “bigger fish” scene with murkier surroundings.

It wasn’t terrible. But it wasn’t good, either. If you ask me, this is Star Wars first modern miss.

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It wasn’t terrible. But it wasn’t good, either. If you ask me, this is Star Wars first modern miss.

That was Rogue One for me.

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It’s about halfway down my “Star Wars” ranking, but that’s more about the impressively high quality of those than anything else. I thought the main cast did great and it was beautifully shot. Like you, I would have preferred a slightly less cookie cutter story, but it was nice to get away from Rebels v Empire storyline. I’d totally be on board with another Solo film, although with the opening weekend as is, it’s probably be a stretch to see it green lit.

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It’s about halfway down my “Star Wars” ranking, but that’s more about the impressively high quality of those than anything else. I thought the main cast did great and it was beautifully shot. Like you, I would have preferred a slightly less cookie cutter story, but it was nice to get away from Rebels v Empire storyline. I’d totally be on board with another Solo film, although with the opening weekend as is, it’s probably be a stretch to see it green lit.

I'd actually be okay with another Solo movie, now that all the fan service stuff is dealt with. I'd love to see the adventures of Han and Chewie, with a blank slate to work from.

I was just looking at opening weekend stuff, and I'm surprised. Is it just backlash from folks not liking The Last Jedi? Poor marketing? All the talk about how much trouble the movie was in with extensive reshoots and such?

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It’s about halfway down my “Star Wars” ranking, but that’s more about the impressively high quality of those than anything else. I thought the main cast did great and it was beautifully shot. Like you, I would have preferred a slightly less cookie cutter story, but it was nice to get away from Rebels v Empire storyline. I’d totally be on board with another Solo film, although with the opening weekend as is, it’s probably be a stretch to see it green lit.

I'd actually be okay with another Solo movie, now that all the fan service stuff is dealt with. I'd love to see the adventures of Han and Chewie, with a blank slate to work from.

I was just looking at opening weekend stuff, and I'm surprised. Is it just backlash from folks not liking The Last Jedi? Poor marketing? All the talk about how much trouble the movie was in with extensive reshoots and such?

Probably a little of all of it. I know a number of people who think this film is unnecessary at best/a cash grab at worst, so they’re staying home. Additionally, it was a very competitive weekend, Infinity War and Deadpool are still going strong, eating up some of those dollars.

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Just read your first paragraph. I'm actually not that concerned about spoilers because guess what? Han Solo grows up to be Han Solo, Rebel hero.

Maybe because the stakes are lower, I don't judge these fan service films by as high a standard as the others. This is only the second one, mind you. I could grow weary of it all. I'm starting to, and I don't want a fictional universe where every aside in the first three inspires its own movie. This one, I'll take. My favorite thing about Firefly was that, for me, it took Han Solo a.k.a. Malcolm Reynolds out of the epic space opera narrative and made him (and his crew) the focus.

I have medium expectations, which I think will be met.

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Maybe because the stakes are lower, I don't judge these fan service films by as high a standard as the others. This is only the second one, mind you. I could grow weary of it all. I'm starting to, and I don't want a fictional universe where every aside in the first three inspires its own movie. This one, I'll take. My favorite thing about Firefly was that, for me, it took Han Solo a.k.a. Malcolm Reynolds out of the epic space opera narrative and made him (and his crew) the focus.

Fun Fact:

The ending to Serenity inspired Bungie to kill of Sgt. Johnson in Halo 3 to raise the stakes.

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Maybe because the stakes are lower, I don't judge these fan service films by as high a standard as the others. This is only the second one, mind you. I could grow weary of it all. I'm starting to, and I don't want a fictional universe where every aside in the first three inspires its own movie. This one, I'll take. My favorite thing about Firefly was that, for me, it took Han Solo a.k.a. Malcolm Reynolds out of the epic space opera narrative and made him (and his crew) the focus.

Fun Fact:

The ending to Serenity inspired Bungie to kill of Sgt. Johnson in Halo 3 to raise the stakes.

I seem to recall Marty saying that.

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7/10. I liked it a lot, but there were some issues, and the whole thing felt very lightweight and inconsequential in the scope of things.

Pros:
- It was a lot of fun.
- It told a relatively simple story about the largely unexplored underworld of the Star Wars universe, which is something I've wanted to see for quite a while.
- The guy who played Han, while never really capturing the essence of Harrison Ford IMO, was good in the role and made it his own.
- Lando was excellent.
- They finally got Chewbacca right, which was great to see especially after they gave him nothing to do in TLJ.
- I know I am in the minority here, at least among the denizens of the Internet, but I liked L-3 and even thought she had one of the funniest moments in the movie.

Cons:
- The pacing was all out of whack. The first act of the movie in particular was B O R I N G and structured oddly. I imagine that is a consequence of the behind-the-scenes drama.
- Darth Maul's return makes sense if you've kept up with the TV shows and side stories, but if you haven't been doing that, the film makes zero attempt to explain why the guy is still alive after being cut in half in The Phantom Menace.
- While I liked the Maul cameo itself, I'm not a huge fan of the impending Marvel-izaton of the series that it portends.
- Where was Boba Fett?

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Where was Boba Fett?

They’re holding on to him to be the villain for Duo, the 2022 sequel.

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- Where was Boba Fett?

He's getting how own spin off movie :-/

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- Where was Boba Fett?

He's getting how own spin off movie :-/

Of course he is. He's literally the worst Star Wars character.

This is exactly the sort of thing they need to get away from. Star Wars is a huge universe. Tell new stories about characters we haven't met yet!

They could tell completely new, unrelated stories. Set it in the far past, or the far future from "present" Star Wars. Not everything needs to connect back to some grand cinematic universe. I get that they want to Marvelize the Star Wars franchise, but it'd be far more interesting to do the exact opposite. Make a bunch of one-off movies that aren't connected at all, just use Star Wars as the backdrop.

I liked Solo, but I'd have liked it a lot more if it was some unnamed smuggler we've never met before doing some crazy heist that doesn't tie back into what we already know.

On the other hand, I'm a huge hypocrite, because I'd be first in line for an Obi-Wan movie with Ewan McGregor. There's a whole lot of room for some cool stories there, I think. I won't be mad if they never do it and instead focus on new things, either, though.

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He's literally the worst Star Wars character.

[image]

Oh, I wouldn't go that far...

I agree that he is overhyped and that there's not enough that's interesting about him to support an entire solo movie, but he's a great supporting character. I'd like to see him in the next Han Solo movie. (If there is a next one.)

Star Wars is a huge universe. Tell new stories about characters we haven't met yet!

I'm with you on this, though. I want to see new characters and new facets of the universe that haven't been explored before. That's actually a huge part of the reason why I liked this movie so much. I do think we can have our cake and eat it too by getting movies like Solo and Kenobi alongside more risky projects like... well, Rogue One is the riskiest thing they've done so far, but I would be excited for something along the lines of one of the animated shows. Dave Filoni really deserves to have a shot at doing one of these side movies.

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Dave Filoni really deserves to have a shot at doing one of these side movies.

Yes, he absolutely does. I've still never made time to watch Rebels, but I loved The Clone Wars, and there were tons of great stories in there. Hell, put Ahsoka on the big screen! I know that's me being hypocritical again, but she'd be a far better choice for a spin off movie than Boba Fett.

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While the fanservicing is what got me through the first act (because damn if it isn't just plain boring), I quite liked the plot and SW feel. Even after the first act, the name drops and details on screen were a treat. L3 being the potmouth AI within the Falcon C-3PO complains about was a hell of touch, for instance.

Thing I'm mostly confused about is the location. Is the train heist on the same planet as that war scene? How about the first time we see the yacht?

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Solo: A Fanservice Story Unmarked SP (Off-Topic)