Nitpick: When Disney bought Lucasfilm/Star Wars, they actually turfed the “expanded universe”, except for Clone Wars and Rebels. They expressly said all of that (and everything that followed) would be canon now.
Clearly, this was one of the reasons why.
Beckett knew Vos wasn’t top dog. Maybe he figured Crimson Dawn would be less likely to hunt him down if he didn’t try to murder Vos.
Honestly, I was just happy not to see the same SW plot for the tenth time. (Okay, Empire Strikes Back and Rebel One broke the mold somewhat, and not coincidentally were the best ones so far.)
Stand-alone-ish stories I want to see: Obi-Wan between episode III and IV. Leia getting involved with the Rebellion. Boba Fett between episode III and IV (tips hat to @Mister44). Darth Sidious’s origin story. What ever happened to Ahsoka?
I’m not a Star Wars nerd, though I’ve seen all the movies. This is my favorite of any outside of the initial trilogy, simply because it was original and carried the spirit of the originals. The last two (Force Awakens, Last Jedi) felt like they were trying way too hard to be taken seriously. Also, Force Awakens was just a reboot of A New Hope…but everybody knows that.
I think people are missing out by not seeing this one. Lots of fun. I’d put Ron Howard in charge of the others if I were the Star Wars god.
I thought it was pretty solid. A couple of the shout-outs to other things in the franchise were a little telegraphed and I think making L3’s brain solve the Kessel Run, instead of Han, seemed mixed. A want Han to have been the guy to have done it, but at the same time, he’s exactly the sort of guy who would take credit to advance and/or protect himself.
Also, the Woke Robot Rebellion was freaking awesome, and I’m the most conservative regular here at BB.
Solo was really good, although I didn’t have the same issues David had.
Different issues, but while I haven’t seen 8 yet, I think it was better than any of the rest of the new ones.
…making the Kessel Run in a record-breaking twelve parsecs…
That seems odd. Isn’t a parsec a measure of distance, not time? Maybe it comes out differently in the movie – haven’t seen it, can’t say.
I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. And I liked the darkness – it provided a gritty atmosphere that gave the locations a more genuine feel.
However I just assumed the Darth Maul looking guy that appeared at the end was just one of his species. Never even occurred to me to wonder how he survived.
I’m pretty sure Han always gave credit to the Falcon: “It’s the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs”. So seems consistent.
At times it felt like this movie was made just to address that old observation. Apparently finding a shorter path through the Kessel Run is a real navigational challenge that few ships are capable of.
Solo was tons of fun. Lots of deep-cut references for hard-core fans but pretty much anyone who knows who Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Lando are will have a good time. At the end of the day it’s a rollicking Star Wars heist movie that I’d think any casual fan would enjoy and any long-time fan will love. Holy crap, it has references to the Lando Calrissian Adventures and KOTOR.
I think it suffers from two big problems:
Releasing it so close to Last Jedi meant that Disney didn’t want to promote two movies at once, so its marketing lead-time got eaten away. With no trailer or teaser or anything, the press picked up on the “backstage drama” story and created a lot of really bad buzz that never went away.
Alden Ehrenreich doesn’t look much like a young Harrison Ford. When casual people see posters for this with his face, and SOLO below it, they’re going to think “bah, he doesn’t look like Han Solo.” He does a great job of capturing Han Solo’s cocky personality and totally sells the character, but you’re not going to get that from a poster.
Eh, Ehrenreich looks more like a young Ford than Hayden Christensen looks like a young James Earl Jones.
I’m glad you enjoyed this film. From your description, I strongly suspect that the things you liked best about it would be the things that I wouldn’t like at all. The “gripes” you seemed to consider forgivable – too long, extraneous scenes, lighting was too dark – are unfortunately just the sort of things that make me feel like I’ve wasted my money and would like to leave the film halfway through. You hinted that you also enjoyed “Rogue One,” which I found excruciatingly dull, so I will certainly take a pass on “Solo.” Popular films have moved beyond things I always valued, such as good storytelling, tight pacing, and quality cinematography. I guess I just got too old for the movies.
It suffered because Last Jedi had to compete with Avengers & Deadpool
But another one was that the fans felt like Force Awakens was played too safe and Last Jedi didn’t feel like a Star Wars film
I was fine with Force Awakens but Last Jedi felt like I was watching a friend rant about things I already agreed with politically WHILE watching a film I wanted to get into the story that was periodically interrupted by air dropped jokes that blew up the mood, and the dialogue toke me out of it too, Poe’s Yo Mamma joke Yoda’s page turner remark about the text books
But anyway, I’m glad J.J is back for IX
I had the same experience. Lore is fun, but when we see the reality in hi-def it loses some mystery, or romance.
I’ll even add that I feel like the green screen effect has the actors totally withdrawn at moments. The opening car chase just felt low budget. That then made me feel like the train heist was low budget-easy to animate as well. I was sad.
I also need to add that I made a mistake and saw it with my first experience with the MX4D seat things too, that was a tragedy in and of itself, and surely contributed. But, I like solo so little that I’m not sure I can sit through it again with a blank slate. Maybe wait until before the sequal?
Even though the political and social commentary was roughly jammed into the movie, I still appreciated it. I know what themes Star Wars impacted in my life, and I’m hoping today’s generation that likes Solo will carry those themes through their adult life as well.
I’ve heard those Last Jedi criticisms from other message-board commenters as well, and feel like its critiques are sort of self perpetuating. I have no idea why people think it doesn’t feel like a Star Wars movie or why it’s so hated by a small subset of “fans”. But Solo is as fan-centric as a Star Wars film can be.
Box office flops need not be bad films. I have a feeling this will be a future classic even if it bombs now.
I thought it was just me, but I agree with this 100%.
Yeah, fuck that. If major plot points can only be explained by being plugged into the entire multimedia universe, then that’s just lazy storytelling (MCU suffers from this as well).
You are entirely right! I withdraw my comment.
HAN
Han Solo. I’m captain of the
Millennium Falcon. Chewie here
tells me you’re looking for passage
to the Alderaan system.
BEN
Yes, indeed. If it’s a fast ship.
HAN
Fast ship? You’ve never heard of
the Millennium Falcon?
BEN
Should I have?
HAN
It’s the ship that made the Kessel
run in less than twelve parsecs!
Maybe too dang judgemental, yowza. You’re not the sole arbiter of taste you know.
I AM.
I miss the old canon 
One last critique of Solo (which again, I really did enjoy overall):
The Imperial recruiting station was playing the Imperial March music from the original trilogy as part of a propaganda recording, so apparently John Williams’ musical score now canonically exists within the Star Wars universe. This felt kind of like having Indiana Jones turn on a radio and hear his own theme music.
It also brings up some interesting questions, like “when Vader and the Emperor were walking past all those troops was there actually supposed to be an Imperial orchestra just off camera?”
