I should have waited 24 hours and just posted a link to this Washington
Post article. This is the type of article that the Disney Board and Iger will read and realize they are on the verge of a very, VERY large mistake if they let the franchise continue on its current trajectory.
In my last post, I mentioned licensing revenue. Toy sales have already
tanked and once the current crop of Ren/Last Jedi licensing deals come to term, then the licensing revenue shortfall becomes all the more glaring since Solo has signaled that the Star Wars brand isn't what it once was. I wouldn't want to be the Lucasfilm segment CFO reporting on those numbers in coming quarters.
Again, I'll wait to see how well the Solo hold is at the box office over the next two weekends but I think if it is low (below forty million for the second weekend of release) then I think Disney will move quickly to get rid of Kennedy. No matter what though, I don't think she lasts more than a year or two if they decide to let her finish the trilogy and Indy (though there is media out there saying that Solo's poor performance doesn't bode well for Indy).
Back to the film.
There are few aspects of the story that annoyed me.
First, Solo's youthful dreams of being a pilot. These ambitions too closely mirror Luke's in New Hope. Too me, Solo is a scoundrel first and the fact that he is a great pilot is incidental. Repeatedly having to listen to someone not named Ford playing Solo and talking nonstop about wanting to be pilot was jarringly wrong. What makes it worse, is not just that we've heard this all before from whining Luke but that we have a younger generation (the presumed intended audience for this film) that has no interest in driving or flying. Hell, most flight is automated now anyway. Dreaming of growing up to be a pilot belongs to Kasden's crusty generation. Trust me, my son and his buddies wracking up kills on Fortnight (SP?) are not dreaming of being pilots. Give it up Kasdens -- you are hopelessly out of touch.
Second, I noted above that I'm at best a casual Star Wars fan. There's one area where that's not quite true. I love Star Wars design and as a kid my most treasured possession was the Star Wars Sketch book (right now I've got the Rogue One sketch book out in my living room -- a gift from my wife). The reason why I bring this up is that the Star Wars Sketch book said which ships were from Corellia -- and I imagined this sophisticated land as a kind of German-like design nirvana. So in Solo, I finally get to see Corellia and what do I get? The Kasden's version of a space Detroit. Again, give it up Kasdens.
I don't want to give away a minor spoiler but the reason given for why Solo is familiar with the Falcon is laughably amateurish. If I had proposed what the Kasden's foist on us in Solo in an introduction to screenwriting class at the local Community College, I would have gotten bounced from the reading. Again, give it up Kasdens.
Reading the fallout press I see how Ron Howard lobbyied hard for the Cameo villain and the Kasdens talking about how they lobbied hard for this and that aspect of the story. While none of these articles say who was being lobbied, it is clear that they were lobbying Kennedy. We all see the end product and the lack of vision. It will be interesting to see what Disney chooses to do.