Went into Solo expecting to be disappointed. Turned out much better than I expected. Great story, lots of twists & turns. Gets thumbs up from me. And I am a huge fan who became severely jaded after TLJ & how they disgraced Luke Skywalker. I think Kathleen Kennedy is ruining the franchise, and people should yell “you suck” whenever they spot Rain Johnson on the street.
**Spoilers***
I think they did a great job explaining the Solo backstory lore. The way Han met Chewy was great, the games of Sabacc, the “fair-and-square way” Lando lost the falcon, the dice, the Kessle run in 12 parsecs, how the new shiny falcon got trashed, Solo’s iconic blaster, how he finds his way to Tatooine, Chewy making exact same wrong move on Falcon’s video chess, the way Lando mispronouces Hans name, etc. Even included “The Maw” & the Black holes around Kessle from the expanded universe. Even spotted Manolorian armor & a reference to a fan favorite bounty hunter from clone wars. Cool new stormtroopers. And obviously the super cool unexpected reveal of THAT character at the end. There was no mention of the force & that was refreshing in a Star Wars movie. These types of gritty films can work. Damn, writing this makes me want to go see it again.
That said, Erenreich was not the best. Did not portray the essence of Harrison Ford at all. He is the main flaw of the whole movie. I suppose I will grow to accept him over time, but I wish they would have cast Anthony Ingruber instead. What a missed opportunity. Glover on the other hand nailed Lando. Voice was spot on. I thought he would be terrible. Glad I was wrong. Woody & Clark had great performances, and held the movie together throughout.
The bad? Lando’s robot was grating, annoying, and a device to push agendas that don’t belong in Star Wars movies. Jar-Jar Binks level bad. The scene suggesting Lando wants relations with a robot should have been cut completely. Of course there was an unexpected role gender swap in the film. This is what you get with Disney Star Wars, but the degree of SJW influence on Solo was overhyped IMO. Thankfully Lando did not grab Han’s ass.
I love these “A Star Wars Story” movies, because they scratch the itch for super fans. They focus on the things we want to see, and fill in backstory of beloved characters & historic events. I’m looking forward to seeing the Obiwan & Boba Fett movies. Boba delivering Solo to Jabba the Hutt? Maul hunting down Old man Kenobi to get revenge? Yes please!
The low grosses on Solo are clearly backlash from fans for the backstabbing we got from TLJ. For the first time, we didn’t show up in masses for a Star Wars movie opening. It’s not “Star Wars fatigue”. There is no such thing to superfans. This is a clear message to Disney, and specifically Kathleen Kennedy & her bullshit agenda. Fans don’t want it.
Money talks. I think Solo will do better at the box office over the coming weeks, as word of mouth will generally be positive. But the damage is done. Solo will not hit its expectations. Kennedy is to blame for the troubled production, and the general backlash of the new films. Hopefully Kennedy gets fired after Episode 9 gets released.