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My problem with Alden Ehrenreich (who I've also only seen in Hail, Caesar!) is that he seems to be too much of a nice guy (with a voice in too high a register to be Han Solo).
IMO, Han Solo before A New Hope needs to be a genuine scoundrel, not a good guy with a scoundrel façade. I don't mind a story of what made him become a scoundrel, but it ought to be a tragedy that leaves him nasty at heart.
Heck, it would be great if he wound up at the end of the story sitting in a Mos Eisley cantina nursing a drink with his grudge.
Well...
Spoiler
He's a good guy with a scoundrel facade, and it does end with a direct pointer to that Mos Eisley cantina.
Much to my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed SOLO. Granted, I went in with very low expectations, but it was a load of fun.
It wasn't perfect. The first half of the movie has some gaping plot holes and leaps in logic that still have me scratching my head. The film's McGuffin in particular is super weak, and Act 1's big action sequence makes no sense at all.
Dialogue in the first half is also REALLY bad. STAR WARS is infamous for bad dialogue, but considering this was written by Kasdan, I was a little stunned at how amateurish a lot of the first half's dialogue was. Characters constantly explained to each other things they both already knew simply so the audience gets the info. "Han, we have to get X so that we can get off this planet and live happily ever after!" "Yeah, but X is guarded by Y and if they catch us we're dead." Thank you, Darth Obvious.
The story's main villain isn't bad. He's just ... bland. No criticism of Paul Bettany, but it's really obvious this character came in and was thrown together last minute. Bettany is doing his best, but the script and design aren't giving him much to work with.
But the rest of the movie was good enough to make up for those weaknesses.
Alden Ehrenreich is good in the role. No, he isn't doing a Harrison Ford impression. Nor should he. He's playing young Han, and he does it well.
Chewbacca is great, and his entrance is fantastic. By far the highlight of Act 1.
The music is really, really good, much to my surprise. I was a little disappointed in ROGUE ONE's music, which was mostly serviceable if bland filler. SOLO's score has many memorable bits. Besides the usual STAR WARS themes we all know, there are moments of a children's choir and A LOT more percussion than has ever been in a SW movie.
Act 3 is where the movie finally takes off and shines. The last half hour in particular really nail the Western homage than a Han Solo movie should.
The movie LOOKS fantastic. Yeah, Corellia is an obvious BLADE RUNNER rip-off, but if you're gonna steal, at least steal from the best. Well done. The other planets are great too. There are many shots in this movie that are genuinely beautiful and reminded me of the more spectacular New Zealand scenes in The Fellowship of the Ring.
Other FYI ...
There is no after credits scene. You can get up and leave unless you enjoy reading credits.
Yes, there is a surprise appearance of a known character from previous movies that is pretty obviously setting up a sequel. But it's not the character the online rumor mill has been spouting. Granted, I saw this movie with a theater full of STAR WARS nerds, but there was an collective gasp and moments of applause when this character appeared.
I went in with very low expectations, and in fact only went because a friend organized a group that wanted to go see it. Maybe because of the holiday weekend but there was very little hype and the show wasn’t even sold out on a Friday night.
I thought it was enjoyable, but not memorable in any way. Actually really liked the young Han Solo actor, and Emilia Clarke (I think that’s her name, from Game of Thrones) was great. Chewie was also good and entertaining, but again, imo it was as vanilla of a movie/plot/back story as could be. You could skip this movie and it wouldn’t impact the Star Wars series in any way.
Well, I think it's silly to merge everything into one thread, but I just saw "Solo: A Star Wars Story." And, gee, isn't that a clever title? Just so you don't confuse it with "Solo: a Man From UNCLE Story" or "Solo: The Lindbergh Story."
I found it quite disappointing. If you added up all the basic elements of a movie - plot, dialogue, acting, characterization, etc., plus, since it's science fiction, general creativity - I'd give it about a C+. However, it does go all-out on special effects, so I suppose that would drag it up to maybe a B- for me. It's one of those stringing along plots where to achieve your goal #1, you have to do #2, and to do #2, you have to do #3 first... The action is rather relentless, without much effort expended on anything else. Which is sort of funny, because director Ron Howard is known, after all, for movies with a focus on characterization and "heart." But not here. (I later found out that the was apparently the third director attached.). There are no credits up front, which drive me crazy, but it was apparent that the music wasn't from John Williams, because it was rather generic. For me, there was exactly one clever line in the whole movie - and it comes from a robot.
I look forward to hearing what others think. You'll likely enjoy it more than I did.
I thought it was pretty good. Entertaining and pretty fun. After the disaster that was The Last Jedi, Solo was a good rebound.
I am going to guess (and hope) we get at least a sequel to this. I'd love for more movies that take place during the original timeline, specifically episode 3 to 6.
I thought it was pretty good. Entertaining and pretty fun. After the disaster that was The Last Jedi, Solo was a good rebound.
I am going to guess (and hope) we get at least a sequel to this. I'd love for more movies that take place during the original timeline, specifically episode 3 to 6.
My family, which includes three teenagers, loved the movie. My kids immediately started talking about what they hoped what might be in a sequel.
By the way, all of us were either disappointed in or actively loathed "The Last Jedi" and were almost reluctant to give "Solo" a chance, but we're glad we did.
'Solo' isn't Flying So High, Delivering Soft Memorial Day Weekend Debut
Disney and Lucasfilms's Solo: A Star Wars Story topped the Memorial Day holiday weekend box office, but the film fell well short of expectations, raising a few valid questions. Was it too soon to release another Star Wars movie five months after the last installment and was the competition just too stiff from the likes of Deadpool 2 and Disney's own Avengers: Infinity War?
With an estimated $83.3 million over the three-day weekend, Solo: A Star Wars Story is the weekend's #1 film and while Disney is currently anticipating a $101 million, the question remains as to whether it will be able to bring in enough to reach $100 million over the four-day holiday frame. Disney entered the weekend projecting a performance anywhere from $130-150 million for the four-day weekend and with a reported $300 million price tag before prints and advertising this weekend's performance is extremely disappointing.
While competition from Deadpool 2 and Avengers: Infinity War certainly played a role in Solo's struggles, the small, five month window between the December release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Solo didn't help matters. Disney released the previous three Star Wars films in December, giving each a year's worth of breathing room, this was the first attempt at a summer start and had the price tag and expectations not been so high perhaps the smaller performance wouldn't appear to be such an issue, but as it stands this would appear to be a failure from a theatrical standpoint.
One caveat to that point is the live-action blockbuster landscape is relatively wide open between now and June 22 when Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom hits theaters. While Solo, Avengers and Deadpool will continue to fight for holdover audiences, should Solo hold on well next weekend it could slightly improve its position domestically. At this time, however, a $205-230 million domestic performance looks likely and its international debut isn't helping matters.
Internationally, Solo brought in a meager $65 million from virtually the entire international marketplace with Japan left as the lone major market yet to see release. Leading the way was the UK with $10.3m followed by China ($10.1m), Australia ($5.0m), Germany ($4.3m), France ($3.9m), Russia ($3.6m), Spain ($2.6m), Mexico ($2.5m), Italy ($2.2m), Brazil ($1.3m), Sweden ($1.3m) and Korea ($1.1m). The film will open in Croatia and Trinidad next weekend before opening in Japan on June 29.
For some perspective, Solo's domestic three-day debut was just 54% of the $155 million opening for Rogue One, its international performance wasn't even half of Rogue's $134.9 million overseas opening and that was without opening in South Korea and China. The top three markets for Solo compared to Rogue One show the UK opening was 48% of Rogue's debut, China was a third and Australia's opening was 46% of Rogue's. It will be interesting to see where the film goes from here as a worldwide performance anywhere from $525-575 million might be where this one ends up.
If it were a relatively low budget movie that made 83 million over a weekend, that would be out of this world, but not so for a high budget, high profile movie like this. They might want to reconsider these stand alone movies for the future and release them on Netflix for a lower budget.
If it were a relatively low budget movie that made 83 million over a weekend, that would be out of this world, but not so for a high budget, high profile movie like this. They might want to reconsider these stand alone movies for the future and release them on Netflix for a lower budget.
Disney's Holy Mission of Market Saturation is what needs to be checked. They want to release something every quarter, between their animations, Marvel and Disney franchises. They blew this one by releasing it a month after Avengers: Infinity War, which is still selling. Deadpool 2 dropped sharply, but it's already quadrupled its production budget.
They thought the words Star Wars X'd out everything else. They needed to learn the hard way that that isn't so.
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