Solo What did you think of the opening?

I don’t know if this is worth a thread but I wondered what people thought about the way the film opened? I mean the way it had “along time ago in a galaxy far far away” followed by more text in that same blue font and instead of cutting to space it begins with Han doing something on the ground.

I did think the extra text was a good idea but I would’ve preferred to have the traditional camera pan down in space like all the other SW films.

Another thing I noticed is that this had the full title of Solo with “a star wars story” included while R1 only had “rogue one” in the title.

 

I liked the opening. I thought it made the movie unique right off the bat. Now one of the only things to appear in every Star Wars movie is a force sensitive.

I also really liked how the title was shown during the film and not before.

 

It set a desperate scene which was interesting. I did want a traditional camera pan though, one that focuses on a partially built star destroyer. Oddly enough once the speeder got going the camera did pan to an under construction destroyer. So I sorta got what I wanted

 

They were clearly riffing on a lot of old Ford movies, and that was riffing on Blade Runner.

The opening scenes on Corellia were the worst part of the film for me, and made me very nervous, but the rest was great.

 

I thought it was great and I hope they continue it.

(The introductory text I mean. Correllia was cool but the lighting was terrible as many have said.)

 

I thought it helped establish the claustrophobia and discomfort of Corellia's seedy side and underworld.

 

It worked WAY better than RO, IMO. I hope they keep the format for future anthology films.

 

I thought they nailed it this time after an awkward opening for Rogue One. Good title cards. Great close-up inserts of the hot-wired speeder. Alden popping into frame was a great entrance. I loved the moving yellow SOLO title card overlaid on the establishing shot of Corellia. And the music was perfect throughout.

I'm curious as to what they'll do for Benioff & Weiss's series as well as Rian's trilogy. Those are neither formal Episodes, nor are they standalone/spinoffs.

 

Yeah! Before seeing the movie, I envisioned the film opening with what look like stars but as the camera moves forward you start to realize you're inside a Star Destroyer under construction and the the "stars" are work lights and other things inside the ship.

But the sparks of Han hot-wiring the speeder were a really cool touch.

FWIW I thought Rouge One should have started with a completely cold open and only have the title card at the very end of the movie, like the Dark Knight Trilogy did so well..

 

It was short and sweet. And they needed it to establish the context.

 

It was different. I liked it. I like how the anthology films are doing something different each time. Keeps it fresh.

 

I didn’t dislike the opening text but I felt its content was unnecessary; all the information is shown as the story unfolds (I can see that it is a lawless time where recourses are fought over in exchange for shelter because they show us just that with the kids few moments later). Using the text in this way feels like holding the audience’s hand a bit.

 

Also, after negative feedback about Rogue One's title, the Solo title was very cool.

 

It was kind of pointless having opening text: Things are desperate / Lady Promixa / Solo is trying to get off Corellia.

Proceeds to display all these in the opening 10 minutes without having to spell it out. Show, don't tell.

 

I don't know if it was all that necessary to tell about Lady Proxima and all that, since she was then shown very quickly and her role made clear. Also that way they wrote things like HYPERFUEL with caps was a bit dumb- to make it clear even to the most stupid viewer it is going to be the MACGUFFIN in this film. Sure that is done in the all opening crawls as well, but in such a long text it doesn't look so highlighted as it now did. I liked the mention about lawless time and such- it would've been unnecessarily long to have a full crawl, but some background info was welcome.

I loved the way this movie didn't start from a space because getting into space was what Han wanted, but he was not in there. Showing space and then getting down to Corellia would make it harder to see things from Han's point of view. I think it worked well this time.

I think the Corellia part was very fast-paced, but that made it so exciting. It made me a bit nervous too, but in a good way I think. Second time I enjoyed it a bit more and all that unneeded nervousness was gone. The fact I felt so strongly for the characters just means it's a good film for me.

I think that it would be best to keep crawling crawls in actual episodes- there is no need for them in these spin-off films- I haven't missed them at all really, Expanded universe like video games used them too much. "A long time ago in a galaxy far far away" is enough with the title of the film (Something the Star Wars Story). That is a minimum requirement.

Also as a sidenote that small text reminded me a bit of the narrator in The Clone Wars tv-series: "It is a lawless time. CRIME SYNDICATES compete for resources." I can so imagine Tom Kane saying this, but it felt more mature when it was written for sure. Film would have worked without the text as well, but I don't think it made the movie worse. It was a nice compromise to have opening text but not a crawl.

 

I didn't expect any opening text. I assumed it would begin like "Rogue One" did. I was still waiting for a friend of mine in the theatre lobby to arrive and knew that there would be a bunch of trailers before the film. As we walked it, the last two frames of the opening text came up (I seem to remember the word "PROXIMA" but was generally disoriented, not to mention searching for our seats). But I assume this was all put there to make it Star Wars-like while still not stepping on the toes of the Saga, while at the same time adding context to the film for the average filmgoer (Keep in mind that those people also watch Star Wars films too, and Disney/LFL is also aware that all of the films can serve as a "gateway drug" to the rest of the franchise).

I wished the Athology films had a short version of the "Star Wars" fanfare to kick off the movie, or show the title cars. But the format has already been set.

As far as the future trilogies, I'd like to see them with the crawl and the "Star Wars" fanfare. I do know that those films will have a secondary title (i.e. "Star Wars: Something Something Something" and they can be given "Part I" or "Chapter I" to note their serial nature, while being distinct from the "Episodes" of the Classic Saga.

 

I personally liked the blue text intro. It was an enjoyable twist on the opening crawl. I'm much more willing to accept stuff like that in the Anthology films, it's really the main saga for me that really needs to match up...

 

I was fine with the opening and liked that it was different than other Star Wars openings.

 

It immediately made me think Blade Runner. I thought it felt like a much more natural opening than RO's was with its delayed title. But I agree with others here that the information about Lady Proxima felt redundant given what we see in the following ten minutes and the fact that she's not really an important part of the story.

 

I really liked the opening... And it did remind me of BR..

 

I'll always be in favour of an opening crawl, however I didn't mind this. I only wish it was in the familiar opening crawl yellow text.

 

I liked the opening with Han boosting the speeder, instead of opening in space like we've come to expect. I think the opening text was unnecessary, though. I didn't mind it, but I think the opening few minutes made the situation clear enough without the need for the text as context.

 

Thought the opening was meh after the first watch, but it grew on me after the second viewing. It definitely hits the ground running, and I did love the title card part of it.