A/V SOLO: A Star Wars Story (untagged spoilers allowed)

Of course, this also means we're probably going to see Jabba again too. And maybe a certain bounty hunter.....

 

Greedo!!!!

 

Well....

Huh.

....good point.

 

Hey, maybe we'll actually get a past enmity between him and Han to explain that "I've been looking forward to this for a long time" line. The absence of that always bugged me for some reason - like, they explained Han's freaking pants, but they couldn't follow up on actual implied backstory?

 

I feel like putting too many characters we know in the movie would feel awkward, but I could still get behind one last named character and Greedo is as good a choice as any.

 

It was in Greedo's Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina short story. Back on Nar Shaddaa, Han had humiliated him and taken his rancor-skin jacket after a young Greedo tried to steal parts for his ship from Han in Shug's space barn.

 

Huh.

 

Me before they cast Donald Glover as Lando: 'This movie is so unnecessary'
Me after they cast Donald Glover as Lando: 'Give me a trilogy'

 

Happy to address a couple of those things!

1) Peter was running from his past. He was emotionally and physically on the run, avoiding Earth the same way he was avoiding opening his mother's last gift to him.
2) Ronan wanted to destroy the heart of one of the few intergalactic powers that was capable of standing in his way. The Nova Corps was basically the space cops, and that world was their HQ.
3) They weren't really supposed to be nice characters. They were all about themselves. That's what made them being put into a position where they were the only ones who could stop this massive threat so endearing to many... misfits and selfish bastards becoming selfless heroes. Character arc!

 

I think I got numbers 1 and 2 (although number 2 probably didn't really resonate until I reread a wikipedia article or something after the movie), but number 3 is what really brought the whole movie down for me. I'm not a fan of modern movies making heroes into complete jerks (Compare James T. Kirk in original Star Trek tv show to James T. Kirk in rebooted 2009+ movies, although he got better in the last movie).

Anakin Skywalker was in danger of falling into this territory sometimes (i.e. "Excuse me, I'm in charge of security" in Attack of the Clones, charging Dooku on Geonosis when ordered not to, etc), but he had just enough sympathetic reasons for his actions that saved his character for me (and the Clone Wars cartoon helped a lot). Part of what made the original Star Wars a hit was that Luke was basically a decent guy (same for the original Kirk in Star Trek).

When you have an anti-hero type, their path to being a hero needs to feel earned through character development and interactions (Wolverine coming to care for Rogue's problems in the first X-Men movie, bringing him into the mutant struggle he previously avoided, Bilbo in The Hobbit films coming to care for the dwarves' struggle even though Thorin treats him like dirt, Geralt finding his humanity despite his Witcher mutations through connecting with Ciri in the Witcher books/games).

I know Guardians of the Galaxy tried to tell us Peter had this same type of connection with the others (Gamora, Raccoon etc), but I just wasn't feeling it. And I think a big part of the reason why is because Gamora, Raccoon, etc were also such unlikable characters that Peter connecting with them felt forced to me.

 

I'm excited for this film, I have always been and I don't care what anyone else says

 

It might be nice to finally have addressed on screen what exactly spice is in Star Wars, since all these years that had been the territory of the novels (spice was mentioned quite a bit in ANH, then strangely enough not really discussed in-depth in any other film or cartoon, unless I missed something).

EDIT: Oh, I remember now it was confirmed as an illicit drug in TCW episode 'The Lost One'

 

Just out of curiosity, how far back does the whole "spice-as-drug" trope go? I know Dune did it, but is that where it came from, or was Dune referencing something else?

TC

 

Out of all the ideas we get this....."sigh". A movie about Republic Commandos....or ToR era would have been preferred.

 

Likewise. While we're apparently in the minority on this, I really like the HST, it ranks very well on my list of highlights of the old EU. That'll always be the Han Solo origin story to me (and kid/YA Han Solo will always be River Phoenix to me. Because Han is Indy and Indy is Han), so I wasn't really clamoring for this story. But I'll still go see it and it could be plenty good.

 

If I may quibble with 1 and 2;

1) Definitely what you said, but also, it's implied but seems fairly obvious that he was basically kidnapped, and it probably would've been very difficult for him to just walk away from the pirates who took him. By the time he was a grown up and starting to do his own thing, he'd spent half his life in the galaxy and all the skills he'd learned were meant for that context. Even if he could go home, what would he even do there?

(Also, the basic concept of Star-Lord is "child of the Star Wars generation who gets a chance to live out his life in a Star Wars movie," so there's that. For all the terrible things out there, beginning with the Ravagers, I'd be shocked if there wasn't some small part of him going "THIS. IS. AWESOME!" when discovering the galaxy).

2) I think Nova Corps are space cops in the actual comics, but I'm not sure that's the case in the movie. The vibe I got was that they were the Xandarian government's police and military arm - jurisdiction was probably limited to that. As for Ronan? The movie explains that the Xandarians and the Kree have been at war for generations and that a treaty's just put an end to that. Ronan is a Kree commander who doesn't accept the treaty, who thinks the war should've gone up until Xandar was crushed, and since his government is no longer willing to do that, he'll do it himself.

(With a little help from Thanos).

 

Trilogy-wise in the old EU, it is second only to the Thrawn trilogy imo. How everything just tied together.
Muurgh is just as awesome as Chewie was imo.
The Kessel Run, Smuggler's Run, Shug Ninx's Barn, Jarik Solo. Xaverri, Nar Shaddaa, Nal Hutta, Ylesia. Seeing Alderaan, the Battle of Nar Shaddaa, Vader's cameo, how Han won the Falcon, how Han met Chewie. Don't care what anyone says about it being bad because they became friends because of a life-debt. Rocky beginnings made for a wonderful friendship spanning decades, Garris Shrike, the Trader's Luck or whatever the ship was, that ship helping free Ylesia, Boba Fett killing that priest, The Corellian Treaty, Winter, Bria, her family, Hutts being able to switch genders to have a baby, etc. So much fun.

I'm expecting the movie to be fun but won't stick with me like the HST did.

 

Thrawn trilogy, X-wing series, and Han Solo trilogy are probably the holy trinity for me.

Don't forget taking Xizor and Durga and turning them into much more interesting characters than they were in their original stories. And really, the entire exploration of the underworld of the GFFA, especially in books two and three.

I think your last sentence about sums it up for me, too.

 

Ahem

http://boards.theforce.net/threads/...han-solo-movie-thread-as-well.50031996/page-3

 

Hey look everyone, a Han Solo movie thread!

 

The tree frog thing. Durga's and Jabba's Aunt/Uncle's battle.
The Underworld was so amazing in that series.

And the X months and Y Bounty Hunters later thing.

 

Let's make this a tradition, posting new Han Solo Movie Threads with smartass titles every year.

 

Just what I've always dreamed of!