Solo: A Star Wars Story

JasonMa

Active member
Raiders112390 said:
I'll be honest and say TLJ (and the idea of the subsequent milking of the franchise every single year) has actually totally killed all interest I had in Star Wars. Not even going forward. I don't even bother watching the old movies anymore. Like, I feel almost...just turned off to them. And no, it wasn't simply because of any "SJW" stuff but...just you had three great films, three average to subpar films...And then three empty hollow vessels...It's just...I can't even really explain it. My interest at this point, I'm so fatigued and down because of all the nonsense that you couldn't even pay me to watch the original, un-messed with versions in HD.
I'm mostly with you here. I actually had a moment riding Hyperspace Mountain at Hong Kong Disneyland though which made me realize I still love the original trilogy and nothing will ever change that. The ride is themed during the original trilogy setting (even though it says you're fighting above Jakku, I wonder if the ISD you see is supposed to be the one Re\y is scavenging 20 years later). You get the standard original trilogy sound effects, images, and Ackbar giving you your orders and it still hits that little kid spot inside of me. Ackbar saying "May the force be with you" is still meaningful, even after all the crap that's come since the 80's.

That said, I think Star Wars Rebels and Rogue One still envelop that feeling and universe in a way nothing else since the original trilogy has (caveat, I still haven't finished watching Clone Wars but its good so far) on screen. The other 5 movies though are largely worthless and I likely won't see Solo in the theaters and probably not Episode XI.
 

emtiem

Well-known member
Moedred said:
Ford's face pasted into the trailer.

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/269521031?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>


It's not brilliantly done but it does kind of highlight how weird that trailer is: no trailer for a film starring Harrison Ford as the titular character would have him lurking in the back of shot and barely speaking like that! :)
 

Joe Brody

Well-known member
Moedred said:
Another story on the $250M journey.

Lawrence Kasdan: "No one was happy about it. It was agony."

Interesting that Woody Harrelson (whose talent and professionalism I respect) stuck with the Lego guys.

Early word for Solo's opening weekend box office is not good.


Walt Disney Co. slashed its opening-weekend forecast for "Solo: A Star Wars Story" as early returns from theaters signaled a deeply disappointing opening for the company's newest space adventure film.
Ticket sales at U.S. and Canadian theaters are likely to total $105 million to $115 million through the four-day Memorial Day weekend, Disney said Friday in an email. That's a sharp cut from prior company estimates that ran as high as $150 million.

International box office looks like an outright disaster.

I'll give it a week or two, and I may revisit my prognostication about Kennedy's fate. Problem is, with ESPN being a total sh*tsh*w and the Wall Street Journal running an article this week about female CEO's getting the axe, I'm not sure Disney has the heart to cut her loose now.
 

curmudgeon

Well-known member
Despite the rough situation behind it, in my opinion, it's actually the most consistently entertaining of the Disney Star Wars films.

Really, the only issue I had was a heavy handed cameo that was so unsubtle that they may as well put text on the screen saying "Look kids! It's ____ ____!" But even then, it's only 30 seconds of the movie.
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
It wasn't a bad film, but I agree with the heavy-handedness. It had the air of being forced, and not at the same time. My 11 year old son said it just didn't fit into the plug like it should have.

I'll have more later.
 

Forbidden Eye

Well-known member
Drones33 said:
Anybody else notice the Indy easter eggs in Solo?

Yup! Was waiting for someone like Moedred to come and post it. But I guess I?ll post the article. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.ci...na-jones-easter-egg-in-solo-a-star-wars-story

In Solo, when Han visits Dryden Vos, the gangster played by Paul Bettany, Vos' office is filled with tons of knick-knacks and various other trophies. One of these items is the fertility idol from Raiders, which is seen sitting on a table in Vos' office.

This easter egg was confirmed by director Ron Howard, who told Radio Times that the idea to include the Indiana Jones callback was Jonathan Kasdan's, who co-wrote Solo with his father, Lawrence Kasdan. The elder Kasdan also happened to write Raiders of the Lost Ark, so this a multi-layered callback we have here.

The idol isn't the only Indiana Jones reference that can be found in the movie either. Dryden Vos has items from the other Indiana Jones films as well, with fans spotting the Sankara Stones from Temple of Doom and the Holy Grail from The Last Crusade. None of the easter eggs are at the forefront of any shot, but merely fill out the background details, so it takes a little searching to actually spot them. Vos also has a crystal skull in his office, and while that is an easter egg of its own, it's not an Indiana Jones related one.

So is the crystal skull a nod to Indiana Jones or to that Han Solo novelization?
 

curmudgeon

Well-known member
Forbidden Eye said:
Yup! Was waiting for someone like Moedred to come and post it. But I guess I?ll post the article. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.ci...na-jones-easter-egg-in-solo-a-star-wars-story

So is the crystal skull a nod to Indiana Jones or to that Han Solo novelization?

It's a nod to one of the Han Solo novel covers.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/3rgApAIFtR">pic.twitter.com/3rgApAIFtR</a></p>— Matt Martin (@missingwords) <a href="https://twitter.com/missingwords/status/1000054484507049985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 25, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 

TheFedora

Active member
Forbidden Eye said:
Yup! Was waiting for someone like Moedred to come and post it. But I guess I?ll post the article. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.ci...na-jones-easter-egg-in-solo-a-star-wars-story



So is the crystal skull a nod to Indiana Jones or to that Han Solo novelization?


I was looking throughout the scene, but could not find the sankara stones or the grail. However seeing Solo sitting with the Idol behind him was a good callback/shout out to Indy. Anyway, I really enjoyed the movie, it was awesome, and wouldnt mind watching it again sometime in the future!
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Hey, Joe....

eMFIBTk.gifv
 
Last edited:

roundshort

Active member
Wife and I went and saw it. So much fun. All blasters and action. I loved that they didn?t let a story get in the way. And no Jedi crap. Can?t wait for the next one!
 

Raiders90

Well-known member
roundshort said:
Wife and I went and saw it. So much fun. All blasters and action. I loved that they didn?t let a story get in the way. And no Jedi crap. Can?t wait for the next one!

Spoiler alert: There won't be a next one.
 

IndyBuff

Well-known member
All those people saying the boycott wouldn't have any effect are looking a bit foolish this morning.
 

curmudgeon

Well-known member
IndyBuff said:
All those people saying the boycott wouldn't have any effect are looking a bit foolish this morning.

Yes, congratulations to those boycotting Solo because of Kathleen Kennedy ruining Star Wars with forced diversity and putting women in the lead of the films.

Sinking the the film with the white male lead will surely help your cause.

/Sarcasm
 

emtiem

Well-known member
Saw it today: thought it was cracking fun. A proper straightforward space adventure film- top stuff.

Great score too: really in the old Lucasfilm mould.
 

Joe Brody

Well-known member
I agree with many that Solo is better than Last Jedi -- which isn't saying much.

Bottom line for me is that Solo makes the FIFTH prequel film to New Hope. Frankly, as an at-best casual Star Wars fan, I just do not care enough to watch more. Strategically, I think this is yet another area where Kennedy let herself get led astray. Too much emphasis on prequels. With Rogue One, she got lucky and got a great film but to give notice that she intends to green light scores of new prequel movies (with Boba Fett, Lando, Han and Ben Kenobi) reveals that she has no vision. Coming up with marginal stories set before New Hope just isn't going to cut it. Hardly anyone cares.

A lot has been made about how Solo was snakebite by scheduling (coming just months after Last Jedi) but what I'm not seeing commentators call out is that Solo came hard on the heels of Infinity Wars, which took folks to places they haven't been before (an action film where the bad guy wins outright). Hell, Solo came hard on the heels of Deadpool 2 that (while an inferior copy of the first) still had me laughing uncontrollably in at least one scene. Compared to these two films, Solo was just a whole bunch of average and below average. Did I enjoy it more than I thought I would? Yes. Do I care to see it again? Hell no.

I subscribe to Sick Boy's unifying theory of life. When you get old, you can't hack it anymore. And for the Kasden clan, I'm adding a 'family corollary' to the theory: when you get old and collaborate with family, what you got is not very good. I think I see now what happened during Solo's production. The Kasden's came up with this rambling misshapen mess and the Lego guys tried to bring the story telling pace into this century. The Kasden's freaked out and got Kennedy freaked out and she ran and hired Richie Cunningham -- who, like the good kid he is, stuck to the script. Now we see the results. The pacing was awful. There was too much dead air. Hell, I think Paul Bettany's character offered everyone snacks at one point. WTF????

[Minor spoilers ahead]There are some aspect of Solo that I suspect survived from the original shoot: the Han/Chewie shower scene and the Lando diaries scene. It would have been interesting to see a version of Solo with the Lego guy's footage. If nothing else, I'm sure the pace is a lot zippier.

Notably, Solo still did well with males (56% opening weekend?), and commentators are noting that there is no real competition for a couple of weeks. Accordingly, it will be interesting to see the US hold. I still think Kennedy gets canned -- she has failed strategically (destroying the international fanbase and alienating many) and tactically (see the carnage of fired directors). She has more slack than anyone I have seen in corporate America at that level. But since I posted last, Disney's ABC just had to can Roseanne Barr -- so I still question if Disney has the resolution to fire Kennedy now or in a year or two. I think Disney knows that they have to shut down Rian Johnson, so it'll be interesting to see.

From a licensing perspective, Star Wars and Rey are selling tons of consumer goods, even Dole salad mix.

I defer to other's marketing expertise, but I suspect licensee's are NOT getting a good return on their investment. If the Disney licensing well starts to dry quickly, I think that will be another factor in the termination decision.
 

Grizzlor

Well-known member
Watched it today. Mehhh. Alden does a great job as Solo, but beyond that, it's a terrible script. The story is not quality, and several times I nearly fell asleep. The Voss dude was incredibly toothless, and what was with Lando and the droid? Come on. It's strange that I went in expecting a tight story with Alden being the loose end, but left with the opposite.
 

JasonMa

Active member
Joe Brody said:
that Solo came hard on the heels of Infinity Wars, which took folks to places they haven't been before (an action film where the bad guy wins outright).
Couldn't you say this about Empire Strikes Back. Even Two Towers arguably? The bad guy generally wins in the middle of the story, that's what sets up the final act. Infinity War is just Part 1 of the story.
 
Top