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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

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

Discussion in 'Literature' started by CooperTFN, Jul 9, 2015.

  1. Dr. Steve Brule

    Dr. Steve Brule Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 7, 2012
  2. wobbits

    wobbits Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 12, 2017
    Yes. She explains to Han that Dryden got her out of a really bad situation with the people Proxima sold her to and after she killed some of his men trying to escape he had her trained to fight/kill.
     
  3. BigAl6ft6

    BigAl6ft6 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Nov 12, 2012
    So was doing some 6 days before Christmas shopping, fully intending to pick up Solo Blu Ray as a gift. In my neck of the woods locally, basically the only places for Blu Ray releases are Best Buy and Walmart at this point (sigh, I miss, y'know, stores). But I figured, big box chain stores, easy peasy.

    All Solo blu rays sold out at Best buy. Even asked the guy, said there was one in the computer but couldn't find it. buncha UHD discs (that comes with a blu ray) but nobody really has UHD players. So I trek out to Wal-Mart ... again, empty racks, no Solo blu rays. Until I found a off centre rack, in a corner, at the bottom corner, hanging sideways, the last Solo: A Star Wars Story Blu Ray. In the entire town.

    Really, what box office bomb, c'mon now. But I do think that Solo definitely will have a much longer post-box office secondary shelf life that most noxious under performers. I mean, there's a whole lotta Rampage blu rays available everywhere, y'know what I mean?
     
  4. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    We're in a world where Black Ops IV makes $500m in just over three days, but is deemed by investors as performing below expectations because a previous series entry got a few million more.

    On that basis, I wouldn't be surprised if some investors now expect every SW film to mimic TFA's crazy $2bn and if it doesn't? They go full Vader on failure. And it's not just investors, it is the companies too - Disney likely had some very high expectations for it given the financial success of its predecessors, but were they realistic? Probably not.
     
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  5. Soontir-Fel

    Soontir-Fel Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Dec 18, 2001
  6. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    Solo

    Wow, did this get ****ed over unfairly at the box office. Let’s deal with that first - was it due to the sheer controversy and schism that TLJ created in SW fandom? Maybe to a minor degree, you can only tell fans to be less fans and more consumers before some take the hint. Equally for some, TLJ would have been the last straw and SW was just burnt. The greater part though? Marketing. LFL and Disney look to have had some sky high expectations for this film but crippled it at every turn.

    Han Solo is one of those characters who does not need an origin, he works best with a mysterious past and just enough hints as to what went on. They decided to do a Solo origin film regardless, even though the idea wasn’t all that. Marketing this as anything other than a Solo origin would have probably worked better and there was no shortage of angles they could have taken, especially given some of the sequences in the film.

    I’m not talking about the local bulk cruisers, I’m talking about the big Corellian vessels

    On the face of it, dropping the name Corellia into any marketing shouldn’t work. It’s a planet name that only the major fans will pick up on right? Wrong. One of the things that surprised LFl when they did Rogue One was the way people responded to the inclusion of Mon Mothma. A female character with only one minor appearance in one film, but one that was clearly remembered. Therefore, it’s possible making a bigger deal of Corellia would have drawn attention, especially with what the film does with the setting.

    The chase through a Star Destroyer shipyard is foreshadowed perfectly at the start, with the shot of an under construction destroyer in orbit. If you pay attention to the background details, you can see shield domes and TIE fighter parts being assembled or winched into place. It’s a version of SW that has never been seen on the big screen and, due to the marketing mishaps, one of the biggest and best surprises.

    Talking of which, the sequence in the Imperial space port. This is a vision of totalitarianism to chill the soul. Cold, harsh, cruel and utterly corrupt then, just when you think you’ve seen it all - up pops the Empire’s recruiting propaganda. That the entire place is cold, hard grey angle and concrete - basically Canary Wharf tube station - tells you it’s Imperial to the core.

    Is it a fast ship?

    For some the re-imagining of the key relationships in Han’s life doesn’t work, but for me they did. The way they engineer the meeting of Han and Chewie works, with the mentioning that Chewie is seeking his family being particularly effective. The reason for that is the liberation of Kashyyyk and Chewie’s family union happens in Aftermath: Life Debt.

    Similarly the Lando and Han link. This has been viewed as being more adversarial and, if you take the words they exchange at surface value, that reading isn’t unreasonable. Except, these two characters are never really going to come right out with the fact that each respects and values the other. Han is someone new to Lando, who clearly has a problem getting bored quickly. For Lando, Han can match him, keep him on his toes and outplayed him at cards. Lando sees everything as a game, even if others like Han, or Hera, don’t.

    You killed Aurra Sing

    Ah, I loved this line and Beckett. Aurra Sing was a blink and miss her character in TPM. She was a blatant attempt at manufacturing a cool character like Boba Fett. Now, there was a cool character break out star of TPM, but that was Darth Maul. LFL didn’t give up though, they kept trying to push the character in comics, even had her turn up decades later in the late post-Jedi era being a pain in the arse to Luke Skywalker. So, that in this film, Beckett has a rep due to shoving her off a cliff which then probably killed her, all bets are off but let’s go with probably, is very satisfying.

    L-337 - Have we had a droid wanting more rights for their fellow droids? I don’t think so. Just as K-250 was a whole lot of fun in Rogue One, so too is L-337 here. Turns out there was a reason for the Falcon’s nav computer being so erratic too.

    I’m not in this for your revolution Princess

    Where the film does fall down on is in the sense that it is working its way through a hit list of pints to cover. Name? Check. Chewie? Check. Falcon and Lando? Check. While it does have a diverse set of characters, I can see why some would view the female characters as being hard done by. Val? Gets offed very fast. Enfys? Survives but is still a minor role. Qi’Ra? Doesn’t work at all. I felt more when Val and Rio died. About the only way the Han-Qi’Ra relationship works is that each is in denial as to what they are - Han thinks he’s a bad guy and that Qi’Ra is good, she sees it the other round and, like Beckett, thinks the criminal life is forever.

    The Enfys revelation of the true nature of Crimson Dawn and the other criminal syndicates, who more than likely operate with Imperial sponsorship, in turn leads to the hint of rebellion. That things are moving quietly, that the Empire won’t last forever. Han denies giving a crap, yet still agrees to help them, while Lando legs it.

    It’s still a bit too abbreviated, a bit too shopping list where, if it had spent a bit more time on some of its weaker elements, they might have worked better.

    We’ll be sent to the spice mines of Kessel

    For all that the Kessel Run is indeed a shopping list item, the way it showed the entire thing was a highlight of the film, as was the train robbery earlier. Kessel was shown as a nightmarish **** pit, but even better was the route in and out, the maelstrom, the Maw - the shot of the Imperial blockade was a brilliantly realised bit of SFX work.

    Punch it

    Ehrenreich does a remarkably good impression, far better than I expected. He’s not quite lanky enough to pass for the beanpole that Ford was in Star Wars, but he does the best job with what he has. The new Chewie also works well, as does Glover as Lando. And I’d be remiss not to mention Dryden or his boss. You can tell Bettany enjoyed himself - and those light knives - which have to be of Sith origin, right? - are a neat addition to light weaponry. So, Maul - people forget about the success of TCW and Rebels. Lots of kids will have watched and enjoyed them. Now say one of those kids sees this and sees Maul turn up? Cue a little mind being blown, it’d look so damn cool. They know how Maul’s story ends, but seeing him turn up somewhere else? Yeah, that’s cool. And for all the confused adults? Take the hint - go and watch the 'toons.

    It’s going to be very interesting how the perception of this film changes over the years. I think time will be kinder to it than 2018 was - and Disney’s quite criminal lack of nerve in response to it not doing as well as they wanted deserves far more flak. As it is now, this will continue to be a diamond in the rough, a film frequently slagged off, but one that, given a fair chance, is surprisingly good fun and very entertaining.
     
  7. Barriss_Coffee

    Barriss_Coffee Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 29, 2003
    Oh yay! So glad you liked it. It's not a perfect movie by any means, but its got its bright spots. Like...

    This! You described exactly why I loved this scene. There are a few moments in this movie that really stand out. Scenes that add to the the overall GFFA as a whole. We saw Imperial control on Tatooine in ANH, but Tatooine is sort of off the beaten path and not particularly representative of the galaxy at large. Imperial control in the other films was mainly on a battlefield (Hoth, Endor, even Jedha to some degree). But here we see normal people in an average city in an eerily distopian space port. The efficacy of the soul-crushing machine is way more apparent here than in other films, because we see how it affects the masses. It's this type of scene that we need to understand the First Order. It's how the system really operates, not just the brass screaming orders at the top.

    I dunno, there were a lot of little scenes like that in Solo that seemed special. Sort of like Dark Forces -- they're not the best games ever, but they've got some great Star Warzy moments that make you feel like you're really in the GFFA. Even without the EU references, it still carried itself like an EU story. One of the books that was filling in areas of the timeline, not trying to breach new ground like the NJO.

    Which is probably why it failed -- it would have made a great couple of episodes on a TV show, but it's no grandiose trilogy film.
     
  8. Jid123Sheeve

    Jid123Sheeve Guest

    @Jedi Ben

    Glad you liked it, I think something that me and my friend @vncredleader did during our Star Wars Yearly Roundup (Plug for that video) was how much impact Solo will have on the wider universe moving forward. Such as if Qi'ra's story will continue, will we see more Enfyst Nest....I mean with Rogue One those characters are dead but I still feel there impact on the wide universe (I mean we are getting a Cassian show) but how much that was introduced from Solo will be put into future Star Wars projects...That to me wlil be the big tell.

    This is one of the reasons why I'm okay it failed, I feel like now they'll put these types of stories on the streaming service (Like the Cassian show) which honestly I feel is more at home with than the movies.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 30, 2018
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  9. BigAl6ft6

    BigAl6ft6 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Nov 12, 2012
    Qi'Ra/Maul and Han dangling plot could be solved on the Cassian Andor TV series, which right now seems like if anything the most logical place those plot threads could be followed up on, even if it is a weeee bit of a stretch that those folks would be involved with a Rebel agent but not that much.

    going to try for another Solo viewing tonight, maybe the last one in a little while as for OCD viewing purposes, it may go back on the shelf until the run up until episode IX (in personal viewing order, I put this after TFA and before TLJ sort of a cliffhanger/breather/Han memorial/dice setup). Or maybe not, it is hitting Netflix in a few weeks!
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2018
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  10. Dr. Steve Brule

    Dr. Steve Brule Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 7, 2012
    The confusing thing to me about this is how in all the ancillary material, everyone involved in the spaceport scene except for the recruiters were Corellians, CorSec and the Corellian emigration service. If anything, the Imperials in the scene help Han escape from the Corellian authorities. Though I guess this backs up why everyone in the movie thinks Corellia is this terrible inescapable hellhole, if it's always been like that even before the Empire was established.
     
  11. FiveFireRings

    FiveFireRings Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 26, 2017
    Saw it with my kids who grew up with the animated shows and can confirm, it was a big deal to them.

    I'll always be fond of this film. Hated the idea when it was announced, assumed it was going to be a mess during the production, bummed that it bombed because I really wanted the Obi-Wan film that should've been done first instead, but... thoroughly enjoyed it. Almost the inverse of R1 where the fanservicey moments were my least favorite parts, this one I just assumed would be all fanboy stuff, which it did well, and the other stuff it did was all pretty swell too, rendering the two SW Story films pretty much equal in my book.
     
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  12. BigAl6ft6

    BigAl6ft6 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Nov 12, 2012
    took me 6 watches of Solo, and I had to turn on the subtitles, but L3 totally calls Lando by his full name "Landois".

    Did I mention how much I love Clint Howard's big shot talking about his battling droids "HE'S NEVER HAD IT SO GOOOODDDD!!!"
     
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  13. Coherent Axe

    Coherent Axe Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 20, 2016
    "Landonis", but it's assumed to be a nickname, since no other source mentions a full name beyond plain ol' Lando.
     
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  14. BigAl6ft6

    BigAl6ft6 Chosen One star 8

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    Nov 12, 2012
    I got a bit of a "being scolded by your mother so they call you by their full name" vibe.
     
  15. Coherent Axe

    Coherent Axe Jedi Grand Master star 4

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    Dec 20, 2016
    Sure, I just think there's no full name for her to use, so she's jokingly making one up.
     
  16. Senpezeco

    Senpezeco Jedi Grand Master star 4

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    Apr 27, 2014
    This is stupid of me but I always misread "Landonis" as "Ladonis" (like l'Adonis), but it still kinda works, because it absolutely sounds like something Lando would call himself. ("why would the GFFA have a Greek mythological figure" yes, yes, I know, I said it was stupid of me :p)
     
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  17. BigAl6ft6

    BigAl6ft6 Chosen One star 8

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    Nov 12, 2012
    eh maybe there's an Adonis in the Star Wars galaxy like there's a Hell and he somehow got tagged with that name which L3 ribs him about endlessly. Adonis in Creed = Donnie. Landonis = Lando.
     
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2019
  18. BigAl6ft6

    BigAl6ft6 Chosen One star 8

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    Nov 12, 2012
    hey Solo actually ended up at #10 on the 2018 Domestic Releases list, although Venom needs about 400,000 more to pass it but since Venom is only in 100 theatres as of thursday that is really unlikely to happen. Top 10 North America finisher at least! And it outgrossed other Disney releases like Mary Poppins Returns (doesn't look like it'll catch Solo anytime soon), Wrinkle in Time and Nutcracker and the Four Realms
     
  19. Fredrik Vallestrand

    Fredrik Vallestrand Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Jan 15, 2018
    Solo was a good movie, and they still have young Solo released books. I'm sure we will future Solo content in books, comics and a tv show. they might try a another movie in a few years with Lando.
     
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  20. BobaMatt

    BobaMatt TFN EU Staff star 7 VIP

    Registered:
    Aug 19, 2002
    Solo is on Netflix, and it is good and it is fun.
     
  21. BobaMatt

    BobaMatt TFN EU Staff star 7 VIP

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    Aug 19, 2002
    What's with the shaved-faced Wookiees? Did we ever get an explanation for that? I know it was probably just cheaper costumes that way, but...
     
  22. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    I figure it was just due to mistreatment. Chewie was only a slave of the Empire- they were slaves of the Pykes, and forced to work in hellish conditions, with probably only the barest of care given to them just to keep them alive and active as workers.
     
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  23. BobaMatt

    BobaMatt TFN EU Staff star 7 VIP

    Registered:
    Aug 19, 2002
    I like that idea. Like Wookiee mange. My headcanon had been that non-Wookiee masters, used to telling people apart by their appearances, had a hard time with Wookiees when their features were obscured by thick hair.
     
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  24. comradepitrovsky

    comradepitrovsky Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 5, 2017
    Mine is that shaved hair is just chic this year.
     
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  25. Dr. Steve Brule

    Dr. Steve Brule Jedi Grand Master star 4

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    Sep 7, 2012
    Yeah, I think the visual guide (or whatever it was called) mentioned that was why they were missing hair. Or maybe it was the concept art book.
     
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