Josh-da-man

Not really. There’s still a lot of room. The Sith “rule of two” wasn’t always in effect. It was started by Darth Bane approximately one thousand years before the saga. That still leaves the “Tales of the Jedi” and “Knights of the Old Republic” eras in play for dozens or hundreds of Sith running around at once.

They could easily make a trilogies about the Hundred Year Darkness, Knights of the Old Republic, and Tales of the Jedi, all taking place well before the Rule of Two was established. There’s nine movies right there filled with Jedi and Sith. They could canonize characters like Exar Kun and Darth Revan.

Timber

As Josh said the "rule of two" was not always in effect. I mean we can see how they reach that point but thinking back to the games I'm not sure there was a bunch of Sith running around. They had their foot soldiers and guys they were grooming for the apprentice role but weren't Revan and Malek it in the game?

Josh-da-man

...and these three from KOTORII.

If they do put a KOTR film project into production, I would expect it be a loose adaption of the games, basing it on the Jedi Civil War and using some of the characters, but it likely be its own story.

Mabuse

I guess I agree.

I don’t know much about the EU, but if something that happens 1,000 years before the OT is like a planet where people ride winged creatures and their war vehicles are transparent spheres of energy, then that won’t be Star Wars. It’s got to be Samurai/western with battles that look like 20th century mechanized war.

Jason

If they do this, I hope they take the Marvel approach and pick and chose the story elements that work in a movie while jettisoning the rest, as opposed to the Lucas approach of trying to use every single thing mentioned in the original first draft of The Adventures of Luke Starkiller, As Taken From the Journal of the Whills, Saga 1: The Star Wars.

Ranger

Many Bothans Died: A Star Wars Story is inevitable.

But interesting thing is that the Bothans might not be aliens like they were in the EU books.

Dash from Shadows of the Empire was a pretty cool character.

stvn1974

I thought Manny Bothans was one guy and the lover of Mon Mothma, that is the reason she was so sad in Return Of The Jedi.

Mike86

I mean Rogue One essentially is that. Only it’s a group of Rebels stealing the plans for the first Death Star instead of Bothans stealing plans for Death Star II.

brayzie

As 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' Flops, Are Movies About White Men Box Office Poison?

It's funny how, for so long, people were arguing against Hollywood's rationale that female and/or black superhero movies don't sell, only for someone who seems to be against this line of thinking, to suggest that Solo: A Star Wars Story did poorly because the leads gender and race.

RichC2

Dumb article is dumb

Mike86

What a stupid ass article.

melasnus

FINALLY!


A post-George Lucas SW movie that felt like a George Lucas SW movie.

I was ready to give up on the whole Disney effort to make this franchise work.
As it turned out, my wife wasn't.
She talked me into a NF rental and I'm glad I took the bait.

GREAT job by Howard to capture the Spirit of Adventure that is mandatory for any real SW film.
In spite of the kid looking nothing like a young HF, his performance ultimately won me over.
Same applies to the Lando guy.

Disney needs to hire experienced (old) Directors who have lived with and understand cinematically GL's SW Universe, not young guns who work cheap.
Remember who directed The Empire Strikes Back....

OldBoy

yeah, but even GL doesn't know GL and how to tell a good SW story, as was evidenced by the prequels...

brayzie

I took you're advice and saw Solo: A Star Wars Story

You're right, overall it was a fun movie. Not great, but fun.

The Good

-Han being in the imperial army was great for the brief time we saw it onscreen. I liked the world building done here. The Empire as the British Empire...nice touch. Imperial soldiers actually talking like regular soldiers was also nice to see/hear.

-I warmed up to the character of Beckett. At first all I could see was Woody Harrelson, and not Beckett, but he made a good villain, as he was nuanced.

-I was surprised by Donald Glover. He sounded just like Billy Dee Williams, and yet it didn't come across as an impersonation. He was great as Lando. The most interesting character in the film.

-The old Star Wars feeling didn't really occur until they were all in the Millennium Falcon. Han, Qu'ra, Chewy, Beckett, and L3 were a good team. Another reason why the prequels weren't good, because we had our trio (Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padme) but they were always separated. Maybe the original Star Wars works is because of the group dynamic. Without it, it falls apart.

-The Millennium Falcon in the maelstrom was the best part of the movie for me. Normally the space battles bore me in all SW films kind of bore me, but this one was great. It felt creepy, the great unknown out there. The effects here were great. Han looking out the window, and you can see the condensation on the window, nice touch.

The Not-So-Good

-I didn't like the street-urchins-forced-to-be-criminals angle. I remember last seeing this trope in the Neverland mini-series.

-The female Jabba-the-Hut-like character felt unnecessary, but I guess it was necessary to make Han seem familiar. You can't have Han without showing him working for a large, bug-like Crime Boss. Proxima felt like something from the prequels.

-The city and the tunnel hang out felt like some low budget sound sound stage on the SyFy channel.

-"It's their planet, we're the hostiles." For a shades-of-gray character, he's unusually enlightened from the very start.

-Does every Star Wars film have to have a Darth Vader-like character with the deep voice? General Grievous, Kylo Ren, and now Enfys Nest.

-Holy shit, L3 was annoying. I get their trying to make this old property more relevant to modern movie goers, but it just felt out of place, considering we never see droid equality an issue, before or after this.

-Qu'ra talking about Lando. "He's attractive too, sophisticated, with impeccable tastes, and charisma..."
Isn't the first rule of writing, show don't tell? You can SHOW all these things just the way Glover acts, and his dialogue.
This just felt like bad writing right here.

-"...and not to mention his prodigious..." and Qu'ra gestures a large measurement.
Really? Disney's Star Wars is both lauded and criticized for being more progressive and diverse, but here the producers go backwards and use the old stereotype of black male hyper sexuality.

-The hentai monster in the maelstrom. It was lazy creature design when they used it for Prometheus, for The Force Awakens, and here as well.

-Enfys Nest is really fighting Crimson Dawn who is actually working WITH the Empire. I feel like shoehorning the rebellion, and the offer to Han was unnecessary. But it's like they have to tick off all the boxes of what's makes a SW movie. Masked villain with altered voice? Check. Rebels? Check. Lightsaber fight...

-We had to get lightsabers, in the form of lightdaggers that the bad guy wields. Makes the actual lightsabers a little less unique. Qu'ra and Scarface have the obligatory sword fight.

-Han shoots first, for the first time! Because he did that in the original, and it's iconic, so he had to have that in this film too!

-Darth Maul had a decent cameo. There's no mistaking him. But they HAD to have him ignite his lightsaber...to hit you over the head, that this is Darth Maul, remember him, from the Phantom Menace, he had the dual-lightsaber, see he has it right there...this is him!




I know I mentioned more negatives than positives, but it was still a fun film. Even though I think Disney plays it way too safe at times, their SW films are closer in spirit to the OT than Lucas's own prequels. They have the right mix of humor and adventure.

coli

Glad you enjoyed it! I love this movie, but that doesn't mean I think it's a great movie as they are 2 different things. It's sort of my guilty pleasure Star Wars movie I have been waiting for since 1983, simply cause the movie is just pure fun and doesn't try to be anything more than that.


There is a one deleted scene they should have kept in the movie that pertains to this part. The movie cuts right into him in the imperial army on the ground and sort of comes out of nowhere, but the deleted scenes sets it up nice. There is a scene before that where Han starts out as an Imperial Pilot, but is too cocky/brash, sort of like Maverick in Top Gun and crashes his tie fighter. He is reprimanded by his Superior and he sort of does the classic Han of laughing it off and that is why he sent to the ground war as a soldier. It gives more context that he joined to be a pilot and is now stuck as infantry soldier, and just wants out desperately and Beckett is his only chance.

Jason

The Bothans didn't steal plans fro DSII. They learned of it's existence, and more importantly that the Emperor would be onboard, and passed that on to the rebellion. Doesn't seem like the kind of info that would cost many lives, but whatever.

brayzie

I'm pretty jaded these days, but when I was a kid, I would have loved to see something like this. I was only able to watch ROTJ on VHS, and I missed out on the Droids and Ewoks cartoons, so this would have been crazy to see.



I just watched that scene. Very cool.
The movie felt like it was missing something. We never got to see evidence of Han's piloting skills prior to flying the Millennium Falcon. I think the deleted scene would have helped sell the audience the idea that this guy has what it takes.
I also liked seeing more of the Imperial command, and his response to the punishment was funny.

I'm going to find out more about this movie. I'd like to know what parts are Lord & Miller, and what parts Howard did.

And I think that the reason why this film suffered is because of the hype for Infinity War and Deadpool 2.
You had the entire MCU in Infinity War: RD Jr., kid Spider-man, Chris Evans, Black Panther, Thor, the guy from No Country for Old Men...
And Deadpool 2 was dominating the marketing and advertising realm.
It was probably hard to keep the public's interest in another in a franchise that was 30/40 years older than the others, starring some guy that's not well-known.

coli

I just bought the novel as it got good reviews. I thought the TFA and TLJ novels were pretty weak (ironically the PT novels were great, but the movies were terrible). The Solo Novel reviews says they really expanded the story and makes the movie better. TFA and TLJ really don't expand the story as much as I would have liked, but Solo supposedly adds alot of character development. I don't want to give too much away but they do delve into what happened to Qui'ra after she gets seperated from Han at the beginning of the movie. Supposedly she went though alot (they said it gets very graphic) to work her way up to where she is at when he meets her later in the movie, but she is more jaded then he is.

I think that is where the movie suffers in that it doesn't really delve into the characters enough and plays more like a summer blockbuster. But sometimes the movie and the novel are a good compliment to each other. The movies gives you the juicy/fun parts and the novel fleshes out all of the little details.

coli

I talked to a few co-workers who either bought/received Solo BluRay for Christmas, and they all they said they really liked the movie (after not seeing it in the theater). The phrase I continue to hear is, 'pleasantly surprised.' Most of my co-workers are not true diehards like me, but they aren't casual fans either, as they tend to fall in between. They sort of take their cues from the diehards on whether to see a SW movie, and that is why they sat out Solo.

I'm definitely seeing a trend among them (it is not scientific so take it with a grain of salt) in that they ended up liking the standalones more then the Saga movies at this point. Nobody I know is really hyped for Episode 9 (obviously some will see it and some won't), but the standalones seem to be less-controversial simply because they stand on their own.

Mike86

It makes a person wonder if this would have done better had it been released later. It seems like the film’s problem was that people didn’t see it and not so much that they didn’t like it. I think the combination of The Last Jedi leaving a sour taste in the mouths of some fans, other hot movies releasing, and not even giving a six month break between Star Wars films led to some fatigue for the franchise and led to this film underperforming.

Not exactly the same but the basic gist of it is overall fairly similar.

coli

Most people I know who didn't see it last May fall into one of those categories. The ironic thing is word of mouth is just starting to get around on the film and more and more people I know are giving it a shot on BluRay/Digital because of that. I think the Saga movies benefit from the nostalgia in trailers to get more people to the theater, even if they are unhappy with the previous installment. Lucas loaded up every PT trailer with Vader breathing in the backround, and that alone would get people juiced back then. Even though many of my friends did not like TLJ and really don't care about Episode 9, there will be some that will get sucked back in when they show Luke (in some form), Lando, Leia footage in the trailer. Solo Trailers didn't have that luxury as all they could show is Chewy and The Falcon, but Alden Ehrenreich was a deal breaker for many fans.

TomOpus

When Solo drops on Netflix on January 9th, more can check it out.

slop101

Thing with this movie, while entertaining and not at all bad, it is entirely forgettable, and leaves no lasting impression, good or bad. If you've only seen it once, I challenge you to come up with a character's name (besides those you already know from previous movies). I sure as shit can't - there's Daenerys, the Paul Bettany character, Woody Harrison... I'm honestly drawing a blank.

coli

I thought Disney streaming service was starting up soon, as I'm surprised this is dropping on Netflix? I know they were trying to buy back the cable TV rights to Episodes 1-7 from TBS, but TBS wasn't interested.

Mike86

I can kinda understand what you’re saying, but I’ve only watched it a couple times and at least remember Beckett and Qi’ra (not sure if that’s spelled right).