So I’ve seen Solo. Really enjoyed it.
Pros:
- Alden is great. Probably the single best thing about the film. I love his performance and the way he was written - he’s not the Han Solo we know yet, not at the beginning of the film, and not at the end either.
- To that end, they did an “origin story” without most of the trappings of that (we didn’t have to suffer a child Han or seeing his parents die or whatever, and we didn’t end things off exactly where we pick up in ANH).
- Lando and L3. A fantastic pairing of two fantastically realized characters.
- Chewie. Of course.
- Woody Harrelson. Fit right in as a mentor figure without belaboring that fact. I love Woody, and if he was going to be in a SW film, this was the exact right spot.
- It’s technically superb. Bradford Young gives it that great nitty gritty 60s/70s crime drama look, while the production design shows you the Star Wars version of that. VFX is spot on.
- Really like the Johns’ work here. Excited to listen to the soundtrack.
- Some of the action scenes are really quite cool. Everything involving the Kessel Run is some of the funnest stuff SW has done.
- I really appreciated that the stakes were low. It’s a fun spin-off in the SW universe. Not everything has to be fate of the galaxy type stuff. This is actually something that bothers me about Rogue One… if you’re going to make a smaller scale spin-off disconnected from the saga, don’t basically make a saga sized film in all but name and characters.
- And a lot of other bits that I won’t list, for everyone’s sake (this post is already long).
Cons:
- The Darth Maul scene is probably the worst that the new Disney films has ever done. The second I heard his voice I rolled my eyes… little did I know they were going to reveal it in the worst possible way (with a way too long, irrelevant, and distracting scene that killed the climax completely).
- On the whole I didn’t mind a lot of the winks, but some were unnecessary and grating. I don’t mind that “Solo” isn’t his name, but did you really have to do it that way?
- Some aspects of the story are a bit of a mess. They definitely could have used some tightening and focusing in regards to the whole Crimson Dawn/Enfys Nest stuff. The conflict ultimately doesn’t have the weight it should.
- In general not as funny as it should have been. As in, not enough jokes, and some of the jokes that are there don’t land completely.
- Thandie Newton killed off too soon.
- Not enough Lando and L3, though I’ll qualify this by saying this is probably a good thing (it left me wanting more), I’m glad they weren’t overused and only integrated where the story called for them.
Will probably see again soon. Would certainly be interested in a sequel if they do that.