fujishig

I did watch Clone Wars and Rebels, but he still uses the Force, right? I assume we'll end up with Han facing him eventually.

Wait, does this movie happen before Rebels?

Also, the last few episodes of Rebels introduced some wonky stuff.

Azor Ahai

"Wait, does this movie happen before Rebels?"

Yes.

--

Timber

I would think it does. There is really only the one hint of the Rebellion starting in this one.

dex14

Yes, it is before Rebels. It started 5 years before ANH. The final Maul / Kenobi fight is 2 years before ANH, I believe.

fujishig

Ah, okay, that's what JTH182 was saying, I misunderstood. So he didn't escape yet again or anything.

jpcamb

I was actually wondering where he gave them the fuel if he actually was the one that funded the start of the rebellion...

MBoyd

I have read some complaints about the cinematography in this thread. I didn't think it looked so great either. Sounds like a projection problem at many theaters.

http://www.slashfilm.com/solo-projection-problems/

Mabuse

I saw Solo in a 4K Dolby Atmos auditorium. I’d like to think that a place like that would be up to spec.

In the age of celluloid these kinds of problems were common; bad projectors, dim bulbs, theaters that reduced the lumens to save money, scratched prints, etc.

What pisses me off is when we went from celluloid to digital we were told that digital would eliminate all of these problems. I guess not.

So this guy shot this thing like The Godfather? I guess I’ll take his word for it. It looked like shit.

Abob Teff

OK, finally caught a second showing ... or at least I think I did. Referencing the post above, the movie was horribly dark. Even the scenes in the snow during the train heist were grey and lacking in detail. All in all, it was just a terrible presentation from a theater that usually does right by me.

Random thoughts ...

After my second viewing, I have concluded that I didn't nod off the first time near as much as I thought. The movie simply was not very memorable. It had beats that should have been so much more, but failed to deliver on any of them. Instead it was focused on hitting checkboxes that did not need to be checked.

While I did laugh during the droid revolution scene, I am going to land on the side of not enjoying the whole #R2Me-too movement. L3 was just obnoxious, not funny or meaningful.

I will give it this ... it did feel like it was in the Star Wars universe. They captured the vibe of the world, it's just too bad they didn't give the characters more "life" inside that world.

Rio was an awesome character. I did like what they did with Chewbacca ... although the whole scene with Han saying "Martha" in Wookie dialect was stupid.

We mentioned the idol and the crystal skull from Indiana Jones ... was the big diamond that Qi'ra was eyeballing supposed to be the diamond from the opening of Temple of Doom?

tanman

That's interesting. I didn't notice it at all. I did see it in a dolby digital theater though so maybe they put more thought into it.

Ky-Fi

That pretty much sums it up for me. The look of the movie tamped down my enthusiasm for the few bits that I liked, and it amped up my dislike for the rest of it.

I'm generally not a Star Wars nitpicker--loved the OT, loved the last three, and am not even a big prequel hater. But I did not care for this movie at all. I don't go to Star Wars movies to be immersed in a gloomy, small, oppressive and depressing looking universe. Rogue one was filmed a bit dark, but it totally meshed with the story and characters. This one did not at all, IMO. Even considering the projector at my theater might not have been ideal, I can't believe that was the whole issue.

Dang, even an iconic scene like Han first seeing the Falcon, and it's dark and gloomy and the Falcon is half obscured in smoke and fog.

bluetoast

Can someone tell me why in Star Wars, just by looking at it, Luke thinks the Falcon is a piece of junk? Whereas just a few years prior, Han is impressed? And both of them know how to fly. Do new models come that fast in the Star Wars universe or what.

Ky-Fi

That makes sense, but from that :

"But here’s the thing: when projected right, Solo looks amazing. The cinematography from Bradford Young is unlike anything else in the Star Wars universe. Young’s cinematography is full of murky blues, muddy browns, and ever-present fogs. He embraces darkness in his visuals, and brings a realism that other Star Wars films are lacking."

I can appreciate that that approach might be very effective for certain kinds of films, but that's just not the visual vibe I want from Star Wars movies.

Ky-Fi

And not to beat this to death, but one other thing.

I have no experience with film, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. But I have been involved in music production. The standard advice and practice among both pros and amateurs is that when you're mixing a song, you have to take into account that mixes can sound very different when played on different sources--and your potential audience is going to hear your song on all of them. So when you're coming up with your final mix, you listen to it on your high quality studio monitors, you listen to it on a good home stereo, you listen to it in the car, you listen to it on a crappy boombox, an mp3 player, etc., and you adjust things accordingly so that your mix will sound at least okay on all of them.

So for the cinematographer/director to apparently not take into account how this might look when played on less-than-perfect projectors--that seems like a pretty major oversight to me.

Draven

The ship got extremely beat up in this movie. It started pretty nice and new and by the end had literally crashed landed. By the time Luke saw it, I’m sure it had been repaired multiple times.

Obi-Wanma

Also, Lando seemed to take much better care of it than Han did. It had been thru some hard years.

JeremyM

That's a good point and comparison. I know in hip hop, Dr. Dre is known for listening to his stuff on the worst speakers he can find to make sure it still sounds good.

These days, people watch movies on their phone and so on, so wouldn't be a bad idea for creators to keep that in mind.

Trevor

It was fun, but ultimately fits my pattern of liking each new SW slightly less than the previous one. The first two are near annual re-watches. All the rest are like C+ to C- diversions. Maybe on re-watches of the more recent films I’ll change my mind, but so far they’re all sorta meh.

Abob Teff

Not just the exterior ... the difference on the interior is astounding. Han and Chewie are a couple of P-I-G pigs.

Mabuse

By the time Luke sees it Han has beat the shit out of it.

johnnysd

Agree with this. I think they went a horrible direction with movies 7,8 and 9 IMO though I enjoyed TFA, but Rogue One and Solo are just so dull and disposable. And TLJ is just an abomination with one of the dumbest plots ever.

Sad, really I like the universe for the most part. Solo is bombing super hard this weekend. Fire Kennedy and Johnson now.

stvn1974

I hope they remove Kathleen Kennedy as the head of Lucasfilm and replace her with Hillary Clinton just to piss off the whiners who keep going on and on about SJW issues in the new films.

Jason

Joe Schmoe

Maybe it's all relative... Han sees a freighter good for smuggling and is impressed, but perhaps Luke is more impressed when he sees a ship good for blasting wombats back home? Maybe he's used to a smaller ship and thinks it would be more maneuverable than a bulky freighter?

milo bloom

Also, Luke's plan was to go to the Academy. The Imperial Academy. So all the ships he's grown up looking at are the sleek, military-industrial complex fighters and warships. So, yeah, a freighter isn't going to impress him much.