Solo User Reviews/Reactions for Solo: A Star Wars Story

Just saw it and for the most part I enjoyed it, though there were a few clunky moments. Alden and Glover were great as Han and Lando, was especially pleased with Alden, as I was expecting Glover to give a good performance. Lots of nice nods to Star Wars lore; Aurra Sing, Bossk and Teras Kasi all get mentioned.
Was not a fan of that droid though, and was glad she bit the dust fairly early. Some great scenes on Mimban during Hans battle as part of the Empire, had a very WW1 trench warfare thing going on. The Maul appearance was a genuine surprise, (including a Duel of the Fates motif) but most casual viewers will be left scratching their heads as to how the hell hes alive.
Overall, a pretty solid flick that I’d go see again.

 

Solo: A Star Wars Story filled me with many positive emotions!
One of my favorite aspects of the movie is how well it handles all of it's references to various parts of the Star Wars franchise. I mean, Teräs Käsi! How weird and cool is that?!
I thought the story was quite good. It had it's fair share of surprises, but also some unfortunate developments that were easy to predict.
I'll probably have more to say in the next days, but right now I'll leave it with a solid rating of 4 s out of 5.

 

Its a great Adventure Movie with a lot of cool Easter Eggs .
Really enjoyed it

 

So far fan word at least seems to be pretty good.

 

I liked it better than I thought I would, but I didn't have high expectations. So I'd rate it 3 out of 5. Alden Eherenreich made a reasonable good Han, and there were moments throughout the film where I thought "yep, that's Han", but I did struggle with accepting him as Han because of the lack of physical similarity. The plot was OK, no more , no less but it created a good background for "the Kessel run" - which was one of the most enjoyable parts of the movie for me. It was both the race you would expect from Han and 'Falcon' and very beautiful at the same time. I also liked the characther Enfys Nest, who actually surprised me a bit mid-way in the movie.

I was less impressed by the cameo appearance, though. To me it felt out of place in this particular story.

 

Question:

Do we see who the Empire is fighting on Mimban?

 

The “Mimbanese.” Natives.

 

Are they shown in the actual battle? Like we see them physically?

 

In pieces - they get blown up. You do see a very nice shot of exactly how awful the Empirebajd the war is - the entire planet is flames with iSD above.

Together with a. RO, you really do get a sense of how oppressive the Empire was in a GFFA.

 

OK. Cool. But do you see the Mimbanese before they’re blown to pieces?

 

Well, that was great - I mean, don't get me wrong, it's my least favourite of the Disney era but that's only because it's an 8 rather than a 9 or 10 - yeah, I'm a huge fan of the new movies, unapologetically.

There were problems for sure - it takes a damn while to get going, and it's a little bit heavy on scoring the easy nostalgia points, oh and the cameo? Not for me. Great to see him again after all these years but totally the wrong movie for it and will surely baffle all but the hardcore fans.

Theres also unfortunately a general "something" missing at times - although I think it's silly to ask a film to justify itself I do get the point of the reviewers who've said that the film feels unnecessary - nothing is contributed really in the first half.

However, once it gets going it's fun and I mean reaaaaaaally fun. Alden, Donald and Emilia are all an absolute joy and really make the most of the opportunity. Chewie also really stands out in his biggest role he's ever had in a movie, props to Joonas for really nailing it.

The middle act is where everything really comes together and the central action sequence there (won't spoil exactly what it is) is absolutely sublime, just riotously entertaining stuff. Theres more than enough stuff here to get me back in for another few viewings.

Very impressed considering all the trouble and bad press - a feel-good adventure that doesn't pretend to be anything else.

 

So very pleasantly surprised by this film. I am one of those that really disliked TLJ, so I was extremely anxious about the direction they would take in Solo and what they would do with Han's character. Honestly this was somewhat of a "make it or break it" moment for me with the new Star Wars - and I am so relieved.

My views are pretty much summed up by the other posts here. One thing I'd like to add, I got some major Firefly vibes from this film which was awesome. I'd love to see Whedon direct a future "Solo" film.

 

You had me until you said Whedon.

 

Same. Lol except I liked Firefly and a fair bit of his earlier stuff.

Edited: Removed a question about the camio after seeing there is now a dedicated threat about it.

 

Just think of him as a new mob boss, then. No need to dwell on his Maul-ness.

 

Have not posted here for a while as I am more of a lurker but I will share my thoughts.

Enjoyed Solo quite a bit. For reference, when Solo was announced I was not looking forward to it. Seemed like a very uninspired idea for a Star Wars film. So My expectations have been kept fairly low, but I always thought they would make a competent film at least.

Alden kills it as Han. From the very first scenes I was on board with his portrayal and at no point was I put off by his performance. The film kept me engaged throughout, there is a nice mixture of lighthearted fun, solid action and world building for those of us who keep up with non-movie star wars.

The plot is fairly simple but there are some nice surprises in there.

The aesthetics of the film surprised me the most. At one point the film evokes a WW1 trenches vibe which was incredibly cool. IMO, this out of all the new Star Wars films nails the aesthetics the most. The film does a great job at giving us a look at areas of the galaxy we haven't seen before. The 'used univerive' is in full effects and the costume and aliens are excellent.

Overall I am pleasantly surprised and would probably put Solo along side RO.

For reference to see if your opinion might line up with mine: I enjoyed TFA but thought SK base was very derivative, enjoyed RO for the most part with a great third act and absolutely loved TLJ. The last Jedi to me was the first new SW film that feels like it was made with a real vision for its themes and characters.

That's it from me.

 

No (I think). It was a very chaotic scene tbh and it took me a couple of beats to realize that "the good guys" incl Han, were Imperial stormtroopers...

EDIT as I can't double post - more thoughts on the film in general..

Spoiler

Han/Qi'ra - I didn't get the sense that it was undermining Han's subsequent relationship with Leia in any way, shape or form. They have a history together .. as teenagers and though Han may not have moved on, Qi'ra very clearly has (and is shown to be a very different person at the end, to who Han remembered). Han is "a good person". Qi'ra implies that she's not of the same ilk and we also have Han sympathizing with Enfy and friends, laying the seeds of his subsequent decision to help Luke and the rebellion in ANH (this film actually make's Han's last minute contribution to the fight make more sense).

Secondly, I really, really appreciated that they didn't explain EVERYTHING about Han - we still have no idea who his parents are, what the circumstances of his birth or childhood are or were, beyond "street kid" or what his "real" name might be. The best part is that there is no song and dance mystery about this as it really doesn't matter. The other best part (in universe) is that "Ben Solo" was named by a random imperial officer No wonder he embraces his Vader heritage more than his "homeless no name" side of the family.

 

Oh, silly me for not following the show then.

 

People here seem to like the film, which is great.

Four hours until my screening. Keep an eye out for my reaction sometime afterwards!

 

I just watched it. It is not slow, it in fact is very fast.

I loved every second of it. It seems like conceptual art finally made into a movie.

Solid acting all around. Alden is Han, Lando is great and everyone else delivered strong performances.

The story is interesting and smaller scale compared to R1 or Saga... of course!

I would rewatch this movie easily about 10 times without being bored.

It will not win any Oscars, but the movie is a great Star Wars adventure.

And what can I say about the background characters, places and designs? The amount of lore condensed in this movie is huge.

Score from 1 to 10 is a solid 8.5/10, only because higher scores would require the mystical aspect of the Force, which as expected is not present in this movie.

 

So I just got back from seeing the movie.
It's probably not gonna be anyone's favorite Star Wars movie, but it's a very well made and fun adventure.
I enjoyed most of the movie and did not dislike anything in particular, but there are a few things that I think could have been done better.
Minor spoilers ahead:
There's no opening crawl, but there is an opening text, nothing too fancy, does it's job just fine.
The acting was good all around, Alden did great, Glover did great (but there's not as much of Lando as I would like to), all the rest also gave good performances. Most of the characters are great, a few of them are out of the way too quickly for us to care, but that's fine, more space for Han and Chewie.
Action sequences are pretty good, as we know there's two major ones:"train" heist and the Kessel Run, and some minor ones thrown in the mix. The major ones are great, the others are good enough to keep the fun coming.
World building is nice, I wish we could have spent a few more time in some planets, mostly Mimban, the great designs from stuff in that planet are kind of wasted here, including the Mimbanese natives, I think I just saw one of them, very quickly. Sequences in there are great regardless of that.
Soundtrack I can't really say much about it, I think it was fine, but I'll have to hear it again to form an opinion. The same happened with the Rogue One soundtrack, wich I now love.
By the way, just as Rogue One is a great war movie, Solo is a good adventure film. Rogue one is better, but Solo is not far behind.
The movie delievered what I wanted: fun, good characters, more world building, the beginning of Han (and I do think the movie does give us a fine story of how Han got to be the way he is in A New Hope).
Han Solo has always been my favorite character, and while the movie didn't deepen my love for him, it expanded the legend of the character in a good way, nothing was ruined, and now I have one more cool Han adventure to watch. That's all I could have asked for.
For me, it's something between 7,5-8/10, a honest movie with heart that is not perfect but very enjoyable.

 

Spin-offs like R1 or Solo will certainly be the less divisive movies of this new era. They dont have the "burden" to be the follow-up to the iconic original movies. Less pressure on them and more based on world-building (mostly EU stuff) and fan-pleasing. The ST tells a new story that cant pleased everyone and its goal is to tell this story and devellop its themes rather than focus on lore trivia or fleshing out background stuff, something the fans are cravin for -but that doesnt make a movie, only a RPG guidebook if there's nothing more-.

In the end R1 and Solo will be seen as good SW movies, and very entertaining ones. Little controversy but not considered the best or the worst.

On the contrary the ST, just like the PT, will be praised by some and loathed by others. No consensus possible here.

So far i've loved these 4 new SW movies -despite their flaws - so i guess im quite lucky.

 

So, I have a bunch of questions related to Han’s dice. I’m hoping some of you can enlighten.

1) I know that Han doesn’t use the golden dice in a game which makes sense since they’re already on a chain and more of a lucky charm than actual playing dice when he puts them up on the mirror in the trailer. However, do we see Correlian spike dice rolls in the Sabacc scenes? I know promotional materials showed the silver dice on the playing table but I’m curious if dice rolling was shown on screen.

2) Does he ever talk about the dice or where he got them or how they’re lucky?

3) Does he ever look at them in a way that suggests they mean something to him during an emotional, tense or sigh of relief scene?

4) There were old reports that they were always Qui’ra’s and that she was the one who first gave them to him as a present. I feel like that was debunked and was pieced together from my next point but can one of you confirm that he starts the movie with them?

5) I did hear though that when Han and Qui’ra are separated she somehow gets hold of them and holds them for years and then gives them back to him because she knows they matter to him. Is that true and can you elaborate on the context? How did she get them and does she say anything to him when she returns them?

6) I’ve heard the final shot of the film is a camera move to the dice. Is that true?

 

Han just has the dice in the beginning, there's nothing said about then. Han gives the dice to Qi'ra for luck during the opening segment before they get separated. She gives them back to him when they reunite. They didn't really seem to mean much to Han. Last shot before iris out was the dice.

 

Overall I enjoyed it. Heres a brain dump of my random thoughts, (there may be spoilers you don't want to read)

First of all I had no issue with the performances and I thought they easily carried the film. More importantly I bought into the 2 recasts. Lets face it replacing Harrison Ford is a virtually impossible task. This will probably be the main sticking point and preconception that people will have before seeing it. But I thought he did well. At times you can see mannerisms that we saw in the originals and he convinced me that he was Han Solo. Donald Glover was a good Lando too, in fact I saw enough to convince me that they can make the characters their own with more films under their belts. People just need to be open minded and accept them. Lando isn’t in this as I thought he would be though.

Kasdan(s) nail the Han / Chewie dynamic, for me this was a strong point of the OT and TFA and Solo is no different, in fact Chewie may even steal the show. I loved him. Their meeting was unexpected, and it worked well despite it threatening to become ridiculous with Han speaking to Chewie in his native tongue. But they pulled it off. Emilia Clark was better than I thought she’d be, her initial accent made her come across as really stilted and wooden when we first meet her, but I felt that evaporated in the space of one scene after the embrace. Woody Harrelson is himself and I think hes effortless in everything hes in and this is no different. I really enjoyed Paul Bettany too, charming yet unpredictable. Rio and Val are hardly in the film really, but I didn’t think Rio was as annoying as some seem to on here. L3 is another matter, I didn’t really enjoy how they played her, quite an odd character. Maybe she’ll grow on me but she wasn’t as immediate as K2 for example. Nest and the marauders look good and they get spun on their head in the final showdown as to what they stand for. But they are not really in it that much. But I suppose their purpose was to sow the seeds of the rebellion to Han in the end.

Its a different kind of SW film though. I a strange way I thought they do some good world building with the planets but it seems done on a smaller scale in terms of its sets and than we’ve seen before. Which is fine, but I thought that although we may visit a lot of planets we don’t necessarily see a lot of them and its not as expansive in that regard.

Corellia reminded me a bit of the Jedha scenes with Imperial ships in the sky, but they’re being built here instead of keeping order. This initial opening scene with Han and Qira is a bit like an Oliver Twist / Fagan introduction. Corellia is the one we probably see the most of and I’m going to take a flyer and guess that Corellia is the one that was least changed, the rest of the film with the seemingly smaller more enclosed or sparser sets is what I suspect was reshot the most.

We get a sense of the oppression of the Empire on Corellia at the checkpoint as Han and Qira try to escape and we also see their brutality on Mimban, but although they pop up later around Kessel, they aren’t that prominent in this film at all. Incidentally in the maelstrom I’m sure we get a reprise of one of the Death Star themes from the original, as well as some of the asteroid chase music in the Kessel Run.

I don’t think the Mimban scene is anything to get too excited about. It was like a brief adventure out of Starship Troopers crossed with a world war 1 trench movie and we don’t see much of the planet or its inhabitants. It’s a means to an end of how Han met Chewie and fell into Becketts gang, and it allows us to see Hans morals are in the right place too.

The train heist to steal the fuel is well done, this is our introduction to Enfys Nest and his gang of pirates, and the train job has repercussions that lead them to become further in Dryden Vos’s debt. As an aside I think I’d have liked to have seen the planet names pop up on screen like they did in RO. Vos’s yacht is like a more sophisticated version of Jabas sailbarge. Lots of interesting aliens and I liked Vos’s ruthless introduction. When I mentioned earlier about smaller scale sets, compare this set to the early still we saw of Han and Chewie with the original Vos when they were on a platform in the middle of the room. From memory that seemed a bit more elaborate than the one they built for the reshoots. This is where we see some of Hans banter and ability to talk his way out of situations, I liked that. They were on the verge of being offed and he talked Vos around in to allowing them to go to Kessel for another job to steal what Vos needs.

Theres a stop off to get a fast ship for the job, we know what that means. The Sabacc card game doesn’t go as we think, yet it still allows them to meet up with Lando and get us introduced to the Falcon, which is pristine. Off we go to Kessel and we get a Temple of Doom type escape lead by L3, not sure I liked this aspect of the film. Again the sets for this seemed a bit small scale in comparison to the other films. Knowing Kessel from the EU this to me this was another example of them turning things on their heads, they weren’t there for the spice, we don’t see the spiders, it’s a relatively quick in and out job and maybe the EU fans don’t get to see what they wanted to? Another box is ticked with the escape from Kessel and the subsequent Kessel run, although I’m not sure we needed another huge tentacled monster, but we got one, in space this time. The scene from the trailer is missing where Han makes a joke and he has to turn around quickly to pilot the ship as they nearly crash in to the tentacled beast.

The finale is on another planet, whos name I forget, to get their stash refined, meet Vos and pay their debts. Nest pops up again, and it turns out he and his crew are not what we think they are.

Really the final showdown is a series of double crosses. At one point I thought that Vos was actually

Spoiler

Darth Maul because he seems to change as he gets angrier and his facial scars and eyes become more red, plus he was very adept with those laser knife things.

Theres a point in that final fight where Qira looked like her from Serenity.

Speaking of the finale, I already had

Spoiler

the Maul appearance spoilt for me. I’m not really a fan of him coming back to life in the cartoons, but I must admit I liked seeing him again, such an under used character in TPM. We get a reference to Dathomir from him too. Other than fan service did he really need to ignite his new lightsaber?

Speaking of nerdy references there are tonnes in this, I picked up on mentions of the trade federation, Aurra Sing, Bossk, Teras Kasi and I’m sure there were more.

Han shoots first, he needed to and it shows again hes learning the smugglers ways of trusting no one.

We see how Solo got his name too. That surprised me.

I like the expansion of the criminal underwolrd with Crimson Sun and the sort of underbelly of the galaxy, lead by

Spoiler

Maul it seeems

The background aliens looked good to me, nice to see a 2 tubes who was one of my favourite designs from RO. Overall it looked like a SW film aesthetically, they got that right.

We get to see how the Falcon came to look like she did with the damage from the Kessel run and the jettisoning of the forward escape pod.

Theres lots to talk about and probably lots I’ve forgotten, but the whole thing rattles by very quickly. Its not deep by any means and is just a fun adventure. I’ve read reviews talking about problems with the script, theres nothing that jumped out as bad to me and it does what it needs to and is nowhere near as cringe inducing as say some of the PT dialogue. Time will tell about it being re-watchable or not. Right now I feel like it was a film I’d see again and in a way was a nice antidote to maybe what we expect of a usual SW film. It will probably do less business than the last 3 films, which would be a shame because this is an enjoyable fun film IMO. Plus it leaves it open for more adventures.

A quick note about my screening, there was nowhere near as many people in the cinemas as previous SW midnight showings, it was only on 3 screens. Mine, the biggest was only half full. There were also no people in costumes in attendance, which is usually the norm for these events. It really was poorly attended in comparison to previous films. Oh and the cinema turned the lights on for the last ten minutes so the finale of Han shooting first and the Sabaac game was washed out a bit due to the light and I'm sure I missed some details of what planet they were on too.