Solo The Kessel Run

No.

 

Slightly off topic but as much as I loved the Falcon-highlights-remix during the Kessel run I would’ve loved an entirely new/unique track for that.

I love most of the album but I feel this section is just a bit too referential and when it’s not it’s a bit bland.

I think the track would’ve better served as a credits/Finale track with something entirely new for the Kessel Run/Maw. The whole sequence is spectacular and I want a music piece that links to it. I don’t want to think of the asteroid chase or DSII run. Is it weird that I feel that the musical motifs and cues etc should also be held to the canon time line? Weird.

In saying that the music when Han first sees the Falcon is amazing.

 

Dumbest scene in the movie, IMO. What, exactly, was that landing gear maneuver, and why did they have to fly through a tiny space between two colliding planetoids? That said, there are some nice visual bits in it.

 

Because it was the only way out.

 

Yeah, and given that they were in...space, I found that really contrived. I mean, they already had to escape from a black hole that was sucking them in. On top of that, they need an Indiana Jones-style escape?

 

I just thought the whole sequence involving the Kessel Run was too short. This is supposed to be something of legend in the galaxy that lasts well through the ST era, right? So something that Rey knows about five decades into the future on the isolated planet of Jakku was an event that lasted all of about 5 to 10 minutes?

 

I thought it went on too long, personally. I couldn't wait to get back to the underworld/ heist stuff, which was far more interesting.

Also, events that last just moments can leave a lasting legacy. Olympic sports records, for instance. I don't think the length of the Kessel Run sequence works against its historical significant at all.

 

But who was it that spread the word about the Kessel Run in the first place? Did Lando talk about it while gambling away at some cantina and that's how it spread?

 

Han wrote several books about it under his pen name, Timothy Zahn.

 

Well, immediately after the Kessel Run scene, Han brags to one of those refinery guy extras on Savareen about the 12 parsecs. So it looks like Han spreads the rumor himself. At least initially. Though Lando might yap about it too.

 

This is another one of my favorite scenes, the music, the look on Han's face- just makes me a sentimental pile of mush.

 

"[12 parsecs], If you round down"

 

I enjoyed this sequence quite a bit, but I need to see it again for a better assessment. It did look pretty and including the music from empire was cool.

 

Enjoyed the scene a bit more the last time I saw it. Though during the "drop some coaxium in the whatever" part, I start hoping for it to end soon so we can get to the Enfys stuff on Savareen.

 

OK I'll say it:

I think Solo was a blast, but a little too filled up with Han's greatest hits. We already got how Han got his name and his trusty blaster, how he met Chewie, how he met Lando and how he ended up with the Falcon, and on top of that, hints at how he connected with Jabba.

I don't think we needed the Kessel Run in this movie. A reference to it would have been fine (maybe its a famous race Han is aware of and dreams of competing in), but stealing the coaxium could have happened on any other planet or mining moon or whatever.

It would have been better to have the Kessel Run as an actual race/event, and save it for a sequel, along with Jabba and a Fett cameo.

Starting a sequel with the Kessel Run and Han & Chewie setting the galactic record (making the Falcon a famous ship which draws the attention of Han's enemies and the Empire) would have been a cool opening action scene and shown how Han grows more cocky and how he really got on the Empire's radar (eventually getting boarded with Jabba's cargo, etc., prior to ANH).

Didn't need Kessel in this movie.

Just my two cents.

 

I used to think that the Kessel rain was a ‘race track’ or some competence where he cheated or did something unorthodox to win, but this was... interesting.

 

I agree and think the Kessel Run was the most out of place scene in the movie. Felt like it was tacked onto an otherwise coherent story.

 

Star Wars VFX Breakdown - Making The Kessel Run
by ILM head Rob Bredow

Kessel Run is the major content of this video.

(saw this on fleet junkies thread)

 

I think it was done to emphasise this was basically a ‘one and done’ feat. Something good dust rare that was only achieved because of favorable circumstances mixed in with luck and good piloting. That way is now shut and will remain shut via the rocks.

 

One can find a nice reference (probably unintentional) to the Greek mythology in the Kessel Run scene: the Scylla and Charybdis myth.
In the Odyssey, Ulysses tries desperately to go back home and find his wife Penelope. On his ship, he and his fellows are trapped between Charybdis (who is bound by the gods to swallow everything around her - water, boats, sailors) and Scylla (a monstrous creature with six heads, surrounded by snakes and howling dogs). Those monsters live in the sea near a strait called "the clashing rocks", where cliffs and rocks are perpetually colliding and crashes any ships trying to go through it.
In another myth, Jason is also sailing near this place. He manages to go through the clashing rocks on his ship, the Argo, which is the fastest ship and gifted with incredible navigation skills.
This is quite similar with the Han Solo adventure in the maelstrom where carbonbergs are perpetually colliding, with Suma and the maw.

Ron Howard has talked about Jules Vernes influence, who himself was maybe influenced by mythology in 20 000 leagues under the sea. In this story the Nautlilus crew is also struggling with a giant octopus and a great whirlpool.

Han Solo is definitely a mythological hero !

 

I thought the scene was fitting since earlier in the film he tries to squeeze the speeder through that tight space on Corellia and fails.

 

Fair enough. He even references that during the scene. I just found it to be the least believable scene in the movie. But I’ve liked it more on later viewings.

 

I think it just adds to his recklessness. He already tried it once, failed, didn't seem to learn his lesson and he's rash enough to try it again. A totally Han thing to do.

 

Yup, completely in character. It’s just the one scene that almost feels Marvelish to me, while the rest of the movie looks and plays realistically. So it strikes me as out of place. That said, it’s really fun and Han at his most classic.