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Solo: A Star Wars Story — Official Review and Opinions Thread — SPOILERS — Page 10

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This movie was all just bland grey filler. It was watchable. Fans of Rogue One will like it. I’m not sure why they go to the trouble of showing Han being someone who lives in the worst slum, then gets thrown into the worst war zone, only for him to still just be a guy who helps out that tribe at the end. Needed to be a hardened cynic by the end. There are major structural problems that sap the dramatic pacing and they should have put the two heists into one finale to allow more characterisation in the first half. Darth Maul is pointless studio think tank material. Overall - Eh.

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I don’t understand this opinion that it’s all grey and bland and flat characters.

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TV’s Frink said:

I don’t understand this opinion that it’s all grey and bland and flat characters.

From my perspective it’s all about character growth, and how movie events affect the characters. For example Han was a soldier in the Imperial navy for three years, probably having inflicted/witnessed much pain and suffering, but this seemingly doesn’t affect the character at all, having the effect of making the character seem shallow, greatly reducing the potential drama of having such a character history. The story focusses on Han, a rather stagnant character, when Qi’Ra seems to have changed the most in the intervening years, changes which mostly happen off-screen. These changes don’t really affect our main character in this movie though, since he remains oblivious to it all. These changes may provide a setup for drama in future movies, but that in of itself doesn’t justify the existence of this one in a dramatic or story sense. To summarize, Solo seems like a low stakes setup for a much more interesting movie, which given the lukewarm reception and poor box office performance may never get made.

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It’s just feels sort of empty despite the running time. They skip over Corellia, then they skip over the war - these should have been half the movie where the deepest cuts are made. Beckett’s original crew all die before we get to know them. Then Lando’s robot dies. Who else was there? Qi’ra is there I guess. Apparently Chewbacca eats people. At the end there’s a dramatic reveal about Enfys Nest (?) but I didn’t know her before so there’s no impact.

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You mean like when they reveal Ben Kenobi is actually Obi Wan Kenobi, a Jedi Master who was friends with Luke’s father but we only just met him?

I get what you are saying but we are dealing with Ron Howard, a close friend of George’s (whom George asked to direct the PT) and Kasden, who gave most of our beloved characters their depth we now take for granted.

This has all the fun of ANH, in my opinion. ESB, ROTJ, TFA and TLJ all have been tied down (not a bad thing) with raising the stakes over and over again and resting the fate of the galaxy on the events of the film. This time, like ANH, there was no burden. Just make a fun, sci-fi flick.

The Jedi are all but extinct.......
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Hardcore Legend said:

You mean like when they reveal Ben Kenobi is actually Obi Wan Kenobi, a Jedi Master who was friends with Luke’s father but we only just met him?

Backstory for a supporting character that provides a link to our main character, who’s death actually had an impact on that main character.

I get what you are saying but we are dealing with Ron Howard, a close friend of George’s (whom George asked to direct the PT) and Kasden, who gave most of our beloved characters their depth we now take for granted.

I don’t get what you mean. Just because Howard is a friend of Lucas, and Kasdan has written some great movies that should exclude them from critical evaluation?

This has all the fun of ANH, in my opinion. ESB, ROTJ, TFA and TLJ all have been tied down (not a bad thing) with raising the stakes over and over again and resting the fate of the galaxy on the events of the film. This time, like ANH, there was no burden. Just make a fun, sci-fi flick.

Yes, the fun of ANH, but without the stakes and well crafted characters in my view.

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Why does every SW movie have to have the stakes of ANH? Or of any other SW movie that came before it?

This was the first SW movie with low stakes and I’m not sure why that’s a bad thing.

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Her story did have an impact on the main character. It also had a direct impact on all the characters. Qi’Ra betrays her master, Han risks his life and breaks up the crew to help Nest, Beckett is killed because of it.

They aren’t above criticism, however I personally believe they understand the original nature of Star Wars and treated the story, the characters and the franchise with care.

I dunno. I can’t remember leaving a Star Wars film not thinking “I wish they had done it differently” in over 30+ years. This one was the first one during that time. Hell, outside of TPM, this is the first one that gave some optimism.

The Jedi are all but extinct.......
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TV’s Frink said:

TPM gave you optimism?

The film ended much like ANH: they lost someone important but they won the battle, stopped the invasion, found Anakin Skywalker.

Not the quality of the film.

The next two featured a galactic war breaking out, the Jedi being murdered. TFA saw Han murdered, the entire galactic government dead and the First Order actually evacuated (unlike Tarkin). Rogue One everyone died. TLJ, there are like 7 rebels left and Luke is dead.

It’s been a run of increasingly serious Star Wars films. Good films but not the most uplifting subject material. I’d wager this is maybe the first one since TPM that kids could fully get behind, which is what launched Star Wars to begin with.

The Jedi are all but extinct.......
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Ah gotcha. I was about to offer my condolences on your misplaced optimism. 😉

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TV’s Frink said:

Why does every SW movie have to have the stakes of ANH? Or of any other SW movie that came before it?

This was the first SW movie with low stakes and I’m not sure why that’s a bad thing.

Because low stakes in an action adventure movie have little impact on the characters (which are generally not that well developed to begin with) and the viewer generally resulting in a pretty bland and uninteresting movie.

“Indiana and the Raiders of the Lost Typewriter” probably wouldn’t have been as memorable as the one we got back in the day.

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suspiciouscoffee said:

Ryan-SWI said:

Oh, okay.

Don’t get why them being women is relevant at all though.

It’s relevant to the history of the trope, as it’s typically women dying to advance the man plot/character arc. Val died so Woody could… punch Han I guess? And L3 died so they could cannibalize her for parts.

It was really shocking when Han Solo died.

The Person in Question

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rodneyfaile said:

Personal stakes are not low stakes.

Agreed, but the personal stakes in this movie are also pretty low, punctuated by Han’s meaningless three year stint as an Imperial soldier.

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To go back to the discussion on Han’s character arc, if he doesn’t get any closer at all to how we know him in the OT, and he goes through something that resembles nothing like the character we know, then what is the point of the movie? (Kind of what Mala said)

Why not have Han start out optimistic and then give him an arc where he becomes jaded? It’s a much better idea in my opinion. And also there is nothing wrong with Han being jaded at the end of this movie and then staying like that for another decade until A New Hope. That would make more sense since he is very resistant to moving from his opportunistic and cynical view on the world when he meets Luke/Leia.

That is why it’s a low stakes movie. It’s cause at no point did I ever feel invested in someone trying to become Han Solo. I wanted to see a natural arc of him going from optimistic and positive (Han resembles ANH Luke a lot in this movie) to the Han Solo we know and we did not see that. Instead he starts out like Luke in ANH, and ends the same way.

Return of the Jedi: Remastered

Lord of the Rings: The Darth Rush Definitives

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Han seemed fine to me. He learned a lot about the galaxy and everything. This is clearly setting it up for more movies, with that horrible cameo and all.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOUR FAAACE?!

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Once again I’m left wondering if we’ve all seen the same movie.

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I wish I had seen the same as others (the version which gets 8/10 and so on, the version I’ve seen deserves only 1 or 2/10).

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I think it’s because some went in thinking this would be more than a decent space movie, thought Han would be anything like in the others, thought there won’t be sequels.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOUR FAAACE?!

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TV’s Frink said:

Why does every SW movie have to have the stakes of ANH? Or of any other SW movie that came before it?

This was the first SW movie with low stakes and I’m not sure why that’s a bad thing.

The fact that the movie didn’t have a giant ball of death which shoots planet destroying laser beams was one of the best things about this movie

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Han hasn’t been fully double-crossed by Qi’ra, left to become the jaded and cynical smuggler we meet in the first Star Wars film. He was tough (war is hell) and had some moral center (deal with Enfys) but the ‘price on my head, and my best girl left me, you guys can’t be serious about this ~the force~ stuff’ Han Solo doesn’t exist quite yet.

so, this is like the prequels, but for Han Solo and not Anakin Skywalker.

He ends the movie literally seeking out jabba the hutt.

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a_o said:

so, this is like the prequels, but for Han Solo and not Anakin Skywalker.

Also it’s a good movie.

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a_o said:

Han hasn’t been fully double-crossed by Qi’ra, left to become the jaded and cynical smuggler we meet in the first Star Wars film. He was tough (war is hell) and had some moral center (deal with Enfys) but the ‘price on my head, and my best girl left me, you guys can’t be serious about this ~the force~ stuff’ Han Solo doesn’t exist quite yet.

so, this is like the prequels, but for Han Solo and not Anakin Skywalker.

He ends the movie literally seeking out jabba the hutt.

This presumes there is not the intention of more Solo films existing. If the point of this film was to get Han from youth to the guy we meet in ANH, it failed. But I don’t think that was the plan.

The Jedi are all but extinct.......