Deck Rickard
Eyes Up Here.
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2017
- Messages
- 17,794
- Reaction score
- 21,717
- Points
- 103
Okay, so here's my full review. Let me preface this by saying that I'm not trying to be a contrarian here. And I'll even admit that my perceptions of this movie may have been a result of going in with lowered expectations after some of the reviews and the box office.
But honestly? I loved it. I liked it better than all of the new Star Wars films that Disney has put out, and it's about a MILLION times better than any of George Lucas' **** prequels.
Now, I don't want to go too much into the other Disney SW films, but what I think made this one work was that it had all the fun of The Force Awakens, with better characters and visuals like we had in Rogue One. TFA, for as much as I enjoyed it, does feel really derivative of A New Hope in many spots. I know that's intentional but I didn't think they had to go SO far in their homages. And while I loved Rogue One, it's a very dark and somewhat depressing film, given how it ends. Again, I know that's intentional but there is a part of me that wants to just have fun when I go to see a Star Wars film. And that, I think, was one of my biggest problems with The Last Jedi... aside from some stunning scenes (the opening battle, the fight with the Praetorian Guard) it just felt like kind of a dark, ugly movie to me. And maybe that was the intention. But I didn't love it the way I was expecting to. I also feel like it lacked focus and went on for too long, like Rian Johnson was trying to cram too much in and yet somehow still crafted a movie with a pretty thin story. I don't hate TLJ by any means and I feel the complaints that it "ruined" Star Wars are overblown but it definitely left me with some conflicted feelings about the series going forward.
But back to Solo. This movie was just a fun thrill ride from start to finish. Alden Ehrenreich does a fine job as the charming scoundrel; he looks and acts enough like Ford that it truly feels like he'll evolve into the man we first met at the Mos Eisley Cantina, but he also doesn't try to just do a Ford impersonation, which is probably what we would have gotten with Anthony Hansgruber or whatever his name is. I know the box office for this film has been disappointing but I truly hope this isn't the last we've seen of Alden's Han. Even if they don't want to do another Solo film, I hope he pops up in the Boba Fett movie or the Obi-Wan movie. Speaking of which, THOSE are two movies I've never felt a need to see, because Boba Fett is still a nothing character in my eyes and we've already gotten a backstory on him (and it sucked), and we've already had three films of young Obi-Wan. Do we really need more? However, after Solo, that Obi-Wan film may hold new interest for me... more on that later.
Emilia Clarke is also great as the morally complex and conflicted Qi'Ra. [BLACKOUT]I had heard that she may be a villain in this, and though that ultimately turned out not to be true, her character may ultimately go that route if we see her again. And it would make sense. But I'm glad that things weren't predictable in that regard. I kept waiting for her to betray Han because her true loyalty is to Dryden or because she ended up resenting Han for leaving her on Corellia, but luckily that wasn't what happened and it made her character all the better. I loved that she truly cared for him but unfortunately made a deal with the devil (literally! Well, almost).[/BLACKOUT] I also liked that she was very strong and capable (even more so than Han)... I wasn't sure if Clarke could pull off that type of badass character after that (awful) Terminator movie, but what do you know? In the hands of a capable director, she does just fine. Imagine that. #AlanTaylorShouldNeverWorkAgain #JustKidding #Kinda
Donald Glover's Lando is perfect. I was worried that people were overrating him a bit because the Internet is in love with the guy, but the praise he's received is well earned. He's cocky, funny and you can really see the bromance between Lando and Han begin to form here. I especially loved their exchange towards the end after crash landing the Falcon ("I hate you." "I know."). Again, I hope we see this Lando pop up again somewhere down the line.
Most of the other characters are great too. Chewie was Chewie as we love and know him, though his initial meeting with Han was nothing like I expected it to be. Great scene. Woody Harrelson is perfect as always; [BLACKOUT]I honestly didn't expect him to betray Han towards the end and it set up a good showdown between the two (and an obvious FU to George Lucas' misguided attempts to "improve" the original trilogy).[/BLACKOUT] L3-37 was also fantastic; I loved the idea of a droid civil rights activist. Paul Bettany's role was small, but he was effective as Dryden Vos and his ship was REALLY cool. It reminded me a lot of Starship Titanic, for those that remember that classic computer game. Actually many parts of the film felt like they had some influence by Douglas Adams, like the evil maggot queen character on Corellia. My only character complaint was the little alien pilot (Rio), who TOTALLY felt like a knockoff of Rocket Raccoon. [BLACKOUT]I was glad they killed him off quickly because that's the only part of the movie that felt really derivative to me.[/BLACKOUT]
Enfys Nest was also a pleasant surprise. [BLACKOUT]I didn't see the twist with her being a freedom fighter coming at all, and it worked perfectly. Again, this is a character I'd like to see show up in future installments in some capacity. It's funny because I heard some people claiming that perhaps the reason Solo hasn't been doing well at the box office is because it's the only new SW film to feature a male protagonist, and perhaps people are simply tired of that trope. While that may be true, those people are missing out on some truly kickass female characters by skipping this movie.[BLACKOUT]
And then there's that [BLACKOUT]Darth Maul cameo. I've never really gotten the love for this character before; he barely felt like a character to me in The Phantom Menace because he had like, one line of dialogue (although, when George Lucas is writing your lines, maybe that's a good thing). Yeah, his lightsaber was cool and he looked awesome but he really didn't DO very much at all. But after this scene? Oh yeah, I want more of him. THAT'S what I wanted to see from him in TPM. Real presence. Real intensity. Real POWER over other characters. No one will ever top Vader but Maul could be a close second if we see him again and they continue this plot thread. Now, this scene confused me (and it might confuse other people), because his appearance made me think that this movie took place before TPM. And if so, then that would mean Han is older than Darth Vader and Luke would be young enough to be his son. But then I did some research and found out that Maul actually survived TPM and was outfitted with robot legs (which apparently you could see in Solo but I missed them). Anyway, bring on that Obi-Wan movie if it means we'll see more of Maul (and Qi'Ra).[/BLACKOUT]
As for the story... I honestly felt it was the best of the new SW films, other than maybe Rogue One. It's very well paced and a lot of fun without going too jokey or silly. I heard some people say that it tried too hard to be Guardians of the Galaxy, but aside from the Rio character, it didn't really have that feel to me at all. GOTG was more action comedy than drama (which is why it works so well), whereas this is still an action drama but with a lot of comedy in it. And that's where SW works best. I watched some of Grace Randolph's review and she said they should fire Lawrence Kasdan... nonsense. The guy is a legend, and he's still writing great stuff. He gets SW a lot more than many of the uptight fans.
And as for the direction...I don't know how much of this film was Lord and Miller and how much of it was Howard, but that's a good thing. Instead of a bizarre Frankenstein's monster like Justice League, this felt like one film with one vision. So kudos to Howard for pulling it all together. He finally redeemed himself for The Da Vinci Code!
All in all, I highly recommend this film and I'm sad that it's not doing well at the box office. But hey, at least we got another great Star Wars film.
9/10
But honestly? I loved it. I liked it better than all of the new Star Wars films that Disney has put out, and it's about a MILLION times better than any of George Lucas' **** prequels.
Now, I don't want to go too much into the other Disney SW films, but what I think made this one work was that it had all the fun of The Force Awakens, with better characters and visuals like we had in Rogue One. TFA, for as much as I enjoyed it, does feel really derivative of A New Hope in many spots. I know that's intentional but I didn't think they had to go SO far in their homages. And while I loved Rogue One, it's a very dark and somewhat depressing film, given how it ends. Again, I know that's intentional but there is a part of me that wants to just have fun when I go to see a Star Wars film. And that, I think, was one of my biggest problems with The Last Jedi... aside from some stunning scenes (the opening battle, the fight with the Praetorian Guard) it just felt like kind of a dark, ugly movie to me. And maybe that was the intention. But I didn't love it the way I was expecting to. I also feel like it lacked focus and went on for too long, like Rian Johnson was trying to cram too much in and yet somehow still crafted a movie with a pretty thin story. I don't hate TLJ by any means and I feel the complaints that it "ruined" Star Wars are overblown but it definitely left me with some conflicted feelings about the series going forward.
But back to Solo. This movie was just a fun thrill ride from start to finish. Alden Ehrenreich does a fine job as the charming scoundrel; he looks and acts enough like Ford that it truly feels like he'll evolve into the man we first met at the Mos Eisley Cantina, but he also doesn't try to just do a Ford impersonation, which is probably what we would have gotten with Anthony Hansgruber or whatever his name is. I know the box office for this film has been disappointing but I truly hope this isn't the last we've seen of Alden's Han. Even if they don't want to do another Solo film, I hope he pops up in the Boba Fett movie or the Obi-Wan movie. Speaking of which, THOSE are two movies I've never felt a need to see, because Boba Fett is still a nothing character in my eyes and we've already gotten a backstory on him (and it sucked), and we've already had three films of young Obi-Wan. Do we really need more? However, after Solo, that Obi-Wan film may hold new interest for me... more on that later.
Emilia Clarke is also great as the morally complex and conflicted Qi'Ra. [BLACKOUT]I had heard that she may be a villain in this, and though that ultimately turned out not to be true, her character may ultimately go that route if we see her again. And it would make sense. But I'm glad that things weren't predictable in that regard. I kept waiting for her to betray Han because her true loyalty is to Dryden or because she ended up resenting Han for leaving her on Corellia, but luckily that wasn't what happened and it made her character all the better. I loved that she truly cared for him but unfortunately made a deal with the devil (literally! Well, almost).[/BLACKOUT] I also liked that she was very strong and capable (even more so than Han)... I wasn't sure if Clarke could pull off that type of badass character after that (awful) Terminator movie, but what do you know? In the hands of a capable director, she does just fine. Imagine that. #AlanTaylorShouldNeverWorkAgain #JustKidding #Kinda
Donald Glover's Lando is perfect. I was worried that people were overrating him a bit because the Internet is in love with the guy, but the praise he's received is well earned. He's cocky, funny and you can really see the bromance between Lando and Han begin to form here. I especially loved their exchange towards the end after crash landing the Falcon ("I hate you." "I know."). Again, I hope we see this Lando pop up again somewhere down the line.
Most of the other characters are great too. Chewie was Chewie as we love and know him, though his initial meeting with Han was nothing like I expected it to be. Great scene. Woody Harrelson is perfect as always; [BLACKOUT]I honestly didn't expect him to betray Han towards the end and it set up a good showdown between the two (and an obvious FU to George Lucas' misguided attempts to "improve" the original trilogy).[/BLACKOUT] L3-37 was also fantastic; I loved the idea of a droid civil rights activist. Paul Bettany's role was small, but he was effective as Dryden Vos and his ship was REALLY cool. It reminded me a lot of Starship Titanic, for those that remember that classic computer game. Actually many parts of the film felt like they had some influence by Douglas Adams, like the evil maggot queen character on Corellia. My only character complaint was the little alien pilot (Rio), who TOTALLY felt like a knockoff of Rocket Raccoon. [BLACKOUT]I was glad they killed him off quickly because that's the only part of the movie that felt really derivative to me.[/BLACKOUT]
Enfys Nest was also a pleasant surprise. [BLACKOUT]I didn't see the twist with her being a freedom fighter coming at all, and it worked perfectly. Again, this is a character I'd like to see show up in future installments in some capacity. It's funny because I heard some people claiming that perhaps the reason Solo hasn't been doing well at the box office is because it's the only new SW film to feature a male protagonist, and perhaps people are simply tired of that trope. While that may be true, those people are missing out on some truly kickass female characters by skipping this movie.[BLACKOUT]
And then there's that [BLACKOUT]Darth Maul cameo. I've never really gotten the love for this character before; he barely felt like a character to me in The Phantom Menace because he had like, one line of dialogue (although, when George Lucas is writing your lines, maybe that's a good thing). Yeah, his lightsaber was cool and he looked awesome but he really didn't DO very much at all. But after this scene? Oh yeah, I want more of him. THAT'S what I wanted to see from him in TPM. Real presence. Real intensity. Real POWER over other characters. No one will ever top Vader but Maul could be a close second if we see him again and they continue this plot thread. Now, this scene confused me (and it might confuse other people), because his appearance made me think that this movie took place before TPM. And if so, then that would mean Han is older than Darth Vader and Luke would be young enough to be his son. But then I did some research and found out that Maul actually survived TPM and was outfitted with robot legs (which apparently you could see in Solo but I missed them). Anyway, bring on that Obi-Wan movie if it means we'll see more of Maul (and Qi'Ra).[/BLACKOUT]
As for the story... I honestly felt it was the best of the new SW films, other than maybe Rogue One. It's very well paced and a lot of fun without going too jokey or silly. I heard some people say that it tried too hard to be Guardians of the Galaxy, but aside from the Rio character, it didn't really have that feel to me at all. GOTG was more action comedy than drama (which is why it works so well), whereas this is still an action drama but with a lot of comedy in it. And that's where SW works best. I watched some of Grace Randolph's review and she said they should fire Lawrence Kasdan... nonsense. The guy is a legend, and he's still writing great stuff. He gets SW a lot more than many of the uptight fans.
And as for the direction...I don't know how much of this film was Lord and Miller and how much of it was Howard, but that's a good thing. Instead of a bizarre Frankenstein's monster like Justice League, this felt like one film with one vision. So kudos to Howard for pulling it all together. He finally redeemed himself for The Da Vinci Code!
All in all, I highly recommend this film and I'm sad that it's not doing well at the box office. But hey, at least we got another great Star Wars film.
9/10
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I know he's a little hit-and-miss, but no way that guy's career should go out with a whimper like a lower-budget Narnia sequel nobody's going to see. And he has the longtime relationship with Kennedy, sounds like he was the other potential choice to take over Solo - sure if she made the call and asked, he'd probably accept.
