Solo: A Star Wars Story Spoiler Thread

The ranking for me goes (and I'm fucking pained to say this because I was deadset against the film from the beginning): The Force Awakens > Solo > The Last Jedi > Rogue One. This feels like a bit of humble pie.

Also I think they kept most of the original script when Howard reshot it? So like, that's probably not the reshoots to blame, that might just be a script thing.

edited 26th May '18 6:00:33 PM by AdricDePsycho

In a series with both space swordsmen and space gunmen, I feel like there ought to be a few more climactic high noon gun fuels. The one at the end of this one was fun.

When Han shot Woody Harrelson, I made a comment to my mom saying "Hey look, Han shot first". I heard a couple people behind me laughing at my comment.

That makes sense. Howard is a pretty good director, so he probably isn't to blame there anyway.

And yeah, I was the same way when I first heard they were making a Han Solo film. That it was unnecessary, that to do it about such a dick of a character wouldn't be a good idea, but it pleasantly surprised me.

Was anyone else a little disappointed that we didn't see Jabba or Greedo at all?

Why would we?

Han hasn't met them yet at this point in his life. He's not big time yet so of course they didn't show up.

Also yeah the Mexican Standoff was cool. Like the samurai showdown in he final Maul vs Obi-Wan duel.

edited 26th May '18 6:27:57 PM by slimcoder

Honestly I thought throwing Darth Maul in there was kinda dumb. I know nothing about him in Clone Wars and Rebels outside of basic details but it pulled me out of the film for a moment because I knew nothing about what had happened in the shows, and it didn't look like it'd be followed up on.

I think they're going to have to deal with Qi'ra at some point, if not in a movie, then at least in a show or comic and he'll probably show up then. We also don't know how he gets from where he is in Solo to where he is in Rebels.

Personally, I think a movie with Jabba hiring Han to participate in a gang war with Maul with the climax being Han and Qi'ra in a standoff might actually be pretty cool.

Make it a graphic novel with high spaghetti western and anime influence, all in black and white, and make it adult.

Well, uhhh .... if Darth Maul can survive getting cut in half and falling umpteen thousand feet, Han can survive getting stabbed by Kylo Ren, can't he? (Please?)

.... on second thought, that actually would be awful.

Because they're cool and strongly associated with Han. I did like how the movie ended, with Han and Chewie on their way to meet Jabba. I didn't feel so disappointed after that. Plus, we got Lando, who was amazing.

I thought it'd be funny if Han and Greedo had a kerfuffle in this movie, and Han shot first but missed. That way, no matter what they do in the special editions, Han retroactively always shot first.

Solo isn't Latin. Solo is Italian/Spanish.

Solo is Latin.

Look, does this or does this not mean that there are Mexicans in space?

Star Wars in general has a very Old West vibe going on, so it'd be weird if there weren't.

So far the only tally we have is one Diego Luna.

Oscar Isaac is Guatemalan. He's in the ballpark.

I did get a dark chuckle out of the fact that there’s apparently a planet of Space Africans now.

I saw this movie. I had a pretty good time.

In retrospect, the argument of "this movie is useless, why should we care if it won't add anything to the rest of the series" felt less compelling to me upon seeing all the new cool locales this film brought us too. It put something in perspective for me: the Star Wars-verse is a big place. Part of the appeal has always been that there's random stuff going on with lots of passing people that the heroes don't ever hear about. It's become detrimental to the series to have to bill each installment as a "massive event". It's bred too entitled a fanbase, and resulted in situations like The Force Awakens being too afraid to tred far on new ground and The Last Jedi having to tear a lot of stuff down for the story to have room in the future. So yeah, I think the series deserves more "useless" side-stories.

On Maul: his CG looked rather poor, though maybe that was the hologram effect. Who knows. Cameo aside, he serves a decent story effect by showing why Qira is still unwilling to break out for her freedom once she finally has the chance, because good-hearted or not she is never going to test her life against a Sith Lord.

On Han: Aiden as an actor was pretty enjoyable when he was trading lines with a charismatic cast, which served better in making him feel like a character inhabiting this universe rather than someone's impression of Han Solo lines. That said, it doesn't really feel like he grows into his cynical self of A New Hope. His risky gambles all pay off, he literally fuels several oppressed rebellions, all of which meet success, and at the end he's still looking to test his neck in a thrilling scheme. He really doesn't develop as a character and is seemingly always naturally gifted. He was fun to watch, but I feel very confident in betting that all the blokes who complained about Rey being an incredible pilot will be very mum about Han never being shown learning his skills...

On L337: I've seen some chatter that she's characterized as an "SJW droid", in the sense that her equal rights activism is portrayed negatively similar to Hermione's S.P.E.W. in Harry Potter. I disagree; she certainly has a belligerent temper, but her activism is never depicted as poor or misguided. The droid rebellion does have a comical tone, but it also aids the heroes and plays simultaneously with Chewie's Wookiee liberation. That said, the cat is now out of the bag when it comes to "are droids sapient" in the Star Wars series, and I'm not sure the series is equipped to deal with questions like "are the heroes slave owners, is Bail Organa a lobotomizer..."

Also, Han winning the Millennium Falcon from Lando at the end takes on a very different undertone when you realize Han took the last remnants of Lando's girlfriend away with him and then beat it up really badly over the years...

On Qira: It's weird, but I think I like Han and Qira more than like Han and Leia. Han the overconfident Indy Ploying cool boy feels way more appealing to me than Han the untrustworthy entitled-to-a-woman's-time unreasonable bloke. Qira's also got a lot of interesting setup as a crime lord who tricked and killed her way to the top just because she doesn't feel safe where she was happiest.

On the directing: I can see a number of scenes that could've easily dragged into "the Age of Ultron comedy improv hour" over and over again. As it is, the bantering in the film isn't exceptional, but it is amusing enough without dragging or feeling out of tone. I can't say I really the underlit look of most of the scenes, but at least it looks deliberate and not sloppily undergraded like some of the Marvel movies became.

Anyway, the Boba Fett movie will probably be fun.

Oh thank god, somebody said it, was nervous about bringing that up. Yeah, for any complaints people have (mostly illegitimate frankly) about Rey being "too perfect", Han has that cranked up way more for him and then some. Great scenes, don't get me wrong, but seeing him just kinda pull this out of his ass all the time made him come off as way too perfect. C'mon, even Rey had her failures.

No fair, it's my job to make fun of Joss Whedon!

Well he was in the academy for a while.

Wait was this before or after the academy?

...... Huh yeah I'll admit this movie had some good locales. The tropical moon looks like a fun place.

So how many Noodle Incidents were given context and backstory?

It was after the Academy but we never even saw him in it, so it's functionally the same as Rey mentioning "we've got a pilot", especially he was already an ace driver before and since I'm pretty certain the Academy doesn't train for escaping black holes while battling an Eldritch Abomination.

Re: Noodle Incidents:

The 12 parsec Kessel Run

Han meeting Chewie

Han getting the lucky dice

Han meeting Lando and winning the Millennium Falcon from him

Where he got his pistol from

Chewie becoming his co-pilot

The source of the Falcon's unruly AI that Threepio is shocked by

Him about to apply for work with Jabba

The Falcon becoming beat-up and trashed looking

What's implied to be an uprising group that will be aiding the Rebellion.

Han seeing Chewie rip off a guy's arms

edited 27th May '18 12:15:23 AM by Tuckerscreator

Some of those feel like givens but others feel somewhere between oddly specific and 'a LOT of stuff happened in that short time period.'

edited 27th May '18 12:17:44 AM by lalalei2001

I don't know why, but somehow the many Call Forwards felt less overdone than when Rogue One did many as well. Maybe because most of them are ultimately inconsequential to the story of the Original Trilogy, or because there was also a lot of new stuff to keep interest alongside the old.

edited 27th May '18 12:33:52 AM by Tuckerscreator

Ah got ya.

I have to say, I didn't like how they completly skipped over the academy with just an "Oh he got kicked out."

edited 27th May '18 12:32:45 AM by slimcoder