Orbi-Wan Techno

The animated shorts , Forces of Destiny, are also considered canon, as well, and they've done some interesting and weird things.

Bluelitespecial

I have no problem with the source, I would consider this video a good opinion too. I don't like Grace Randolph and her channel most of the time, but she's done several good videos on Star Wars heading in the wrong direction.

RichC2

You can do good movies with those aspects. The fact the current movies are missing the classic magic is no surprise. My neighbors are huge Star Wars geeks but hate the action heavy, character-less, charmless, plot recycled direction of the sequels. And I can agree with that.

Save for Solo, they liked that one.

I do think Kennedy is doing a poor job organizing the franchise though. But you're going to see countless reasons "why" for a while, but I don't buy SJW. Mostly though, is they're movies by committee and checklist.

TGM

I'm as right wing as they come and I don't buy the SJW spin being put on the new Star Wars regime. I didn't feel like they were pushing feminism down anybody's throats with TFA, Rogue One, or the putrid (for other reasons) TLJ. Even tho Jyn Erso was "the lead" that movie really felt like an ensemble piece, and the "daddy-daughter" dynamic was a wiser choice than yet another Star Wars "father-son" tale. As for Rey, a slight female, being the focus of the sequel trilogies, that doesn't bother me either. It's just a new spin... and I'm sure if Luke was a female in the OT, to mix it up the hero in the ST would've been male.

I have yet to see Solo, but I will next weekend and am eagerly looking forward to it. It looks light, fun, and dumb. It's not Star War fatigue, it's the fact that Han Solo IS Harrison Ford and even someone who could impersonate him (yes, even my beloved Anthony Ingruber) was going to be a piss-poor copy at best. Rogue One worked because it didn't recast beloved favorites out of convenience (or necessity).

This should be a warning shot to those in preproduction of Fett: A Star Wars Story and some new bullshit Indiana Jones movie. These stand-alone Star Wars movies need to stick be fresh new takes with minimal (human) original character involvement. You want to pepper in a CGI cameo here or there, by all means, but that's the absolute limit.

Troy Stiffler

The SJW or woke-enness don’t matter. That’s just internet people attaching to political shit. Politics are an easy target for those unable to think critically.

Solo simply doesn’t elicit a strong visceral response from its viewers. Next to Deadpool 2 or Infinity Wars there is no question which films are stronger (and left me sinking in my seat and weeping). Marketing, themes, and even plot is secondary to being emotionally involved in what’s on screen for two hours.

It’s an enjoyable movie for a couple hours. But don’t expect to leave the theater emotionally exhausted. This isn’t one of those movies.

gmanca

Just saw this, really enjoyed it as a different take of the Star Wars Universe; this is what Lucas should have done instead of the prequels.

Groucho

Even if Solo was SJW propaganda (it isn’t), that’s not the reason it’s failing. People would have to SEE the movie to know that content was there.

The real reason it’s not performing? Lack of Harrison Ford. Same reason nobody watched “Young Indiana Jones”.

milo bloom

Since May 25, 1977, Star Wars has been about freedom fighting terrorists going up against a Nazi coded empire of fascists. The concept of "social justice warriors" is encoded into it's very DNA. Even the Jedi order of the Prequels are stand ins for neo-liberals - they give lip service to honor and justice, but still allow themselves to be under the thumb of a hulking, inflexible government bureaucracy.

The fact that the majority of the cast was white in the OT is unfortunate side effect of the studio system that George was still (despite his best efforts) working around and with.

Seeing more women and more people of color in the modern films is simply the storyline catching up to real life.

Double_Oh_7

So wait, this movie takes place before Phantom Menace, which means Han Solo is older than Darth Vader? WTF??

BuddyRevell

Yes. It reminded me of that shitty video game.

Joe Schmoe

No, it takes place about 10 years before Han meets Luke.

milo bloom

No, it's after Revenge of the Sith, but before Rogue One. That's 19 years, so the best guess is about 10 years before we see Han and Chewie in the cantina on Tatooine.

Maul survived his fall and showed up again in The Clone Wars and Rebels. They actually make it work pretty well, and he turns out to be an interesting character.

Here's a bit on the timeline:

https://www.cnet.com/news/solo-a-sta...-the-timeline/

gmanca

No it’s after.

Ranger

SW Celebration would have helped this movie, IMO.

Even Rogue One had it - London, though not as big event as LA or Orlando.

mphtrilogy

Just saw this with two of my daughters, we all thought it was good fun. I get the feeling this is going to have some decent word of mouth and might do better over the next few weeks than anticipated. I do agree harrison ford's version is so iconic it takes a bit to get past that, but overall I thought it was worth a watch at the theater.

All chewie scenes are worth the price of admission.

Spiderbite

Saw this today and like others, thought it was good but not great.

They just tried to shoehorn too much origin shit in there. No reason to give a scene where Han gets his blaster. The Kessel Run was nothing special and didn't really need to be showed (but as someone else mentioned...maybe that works to Han's inflated ego...but everyone made a big deal out of it before they attempted it so I guess that doesn't really work). Save that for a future movie. I liked the way Han met Chewie. I enjoyed the way he got his last name but then got confused when he suddenly knows all about his Dad. Huh?

The robot was crap. Not funny or interesting. They already perfected the robot with an attitude in Rogue One. This was just stale. They should have switched the robot first mate with the four armed creature in the beginning. He was much more fun and interesting. The robot revolution could have been interesting but bombed in my opinion. And Lando loves a robot that looks like that and can have sex with it? Uh...okay. Watch me milk this alien's tits for a minute. Odd choices Disney is making on these sometimes.

Lando was good and I thought the guy playing Han did a better job than expected. He did his own thing with the character and didn't just try to imitate Harrison Ford which was smart. The Darth Maul scene was confusing for someone who doesn't reach into the extended universe.

The humor fell flat for the most part. Only a couple of mild chuckles in the movie which I believe hurt it as a whole. I will say it moved at a decent pace for a 2+ hour movie but I would have trimmed 15 minutes off of it. I liked all the actors in the movie (save for the robot voice).

I wouldn't mind a sequel. I wouldn't care if they didn't do one either. But it was better than TFA or TLJ at least. I would rather watch this again than either one of those movies.

My rating: ***1/2 out of *****

Josh-da-man

Just a theory here, but maybe one reason Solo is eating shit at the box office is because The Force Awakens ruined the character?

Think about it... in TFA Han Solo is an old man who lost the Millennium Falcon, he's separated from Leia, and his estranged son eventually stabs him through the chest with a lightsaber.

Han Solo used to be the coolest son of a bitch in the galaxy, but in TFA he went out like a fucking bitch.

Eve though I generally enjoyed TFA, it kind of soured me on the character. Even now when I'm watching the OT, all I can think about is how he's going to lose the Falcon and get killed by his shit lord son.

karoomba

Han. Shoots. First!

Troy Stiffler

It’s not performing because it’s not that great. GTFO if you think people are walking out of Solo feeling as good as they felt leaving Black Panther. Or any other movie that does absurdly high numbers.

Still enjoyable. Still wish we could see the Lord Miller version. And you should still check it out. Like the MCU and Middle Earth, I’m committed to keeping up with anything new.

fujishig

I actually thought this would be confusing for people, despite the fact that there are storm troopers around clearly shows this is post episode 3. They better explain it in the next movie and not rely on people watching the Clone Wars cartoon.

Spiderbite

I was totally confused until I came here and did some reading in this thread. After he appeared, I sat there trying to do the math in my head and was thinking either they made a mistake or I made a mistake.

Shannon Nutt

The movie is just fine, but it's not great and it's not the film people who hated TLJ (which I was not one of) needed or wanted.

Looks like JJ Abrams needs to straighten the ship once again. Of the four "new" Star Wars movies, his is still the best, most fun, and best paced.

Mr. Flix

My opinion on why this is not doing well is 1) The Last Jedi turned off a good chunk of the fan base, b) brand oversaturation, and III) it's a decent-but-not-exciting movie that no one was begging for.

I don't think competition is a major factor. It's Star Wars. It should be plowing over Avengers and Deadpool 2 (two movies people actually WANTED), and would be doing so if it wasn't for the three factors I mentioned above.

RoboDad

Well, I did. And so did the people who were with me.

DJariya

Don't worry. When Solo comes out on Digital, UHD and BD around September, everywhere here will be buying it and looking for deals on it. Star Wars OCD won't let it get ignored. It will make money on home video.