Solo: A Star Wars Story

[Winter]

I'm just going to go out and say this, the "reveal" that Solo was a name given to Han by some random Imperial officer might not be the worst moment in Star Wars, but it is without doubt the Dumbest moment in Star Wars. Even the Midichlorian had more of a justification to be mentioned as Qui-Gon learning just how high a count Anakin had was to motivate him into taking him under his wing and Lucas admitted that the Midichlorian was not all there was to the force and that he regretted not being more clear and gave his blessing for a episode of the Clone Wars to mock it.

And whats worse is that revealing that Solo isn't Han's actual last name could have worked and possible added something to Han. Imagine instead of the film just giving Han his last name we instead got a scene like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zznYGAm9rGg

Revealing that Solo isn't Han's actual name but a name he gave to himself and that hinting at his actual past is something that can add to the character and make us see him in a new light just like how Nate taking the name Drake reveals so much about Nate with just the smallest bit of dialogue.

I'm not the biggest fan of the Disney Era of Star Wars and one of the reasons is that the series is trying to hard to be cool and edgy and bits like revealing that Solo isn't Han's actual name in a scene that is meant to be dramatic but just comes off as forced and stupid really does highlight that.

But that's just me, and I'm just a viewer with an opinion.

[GandALF]

Even the Midichlorian had more of a justification to be mentioned as Qui-Gon learning just how high a count Anakin had was to motivate him into taking him under his wing and Lucas admitted that the Midichlorian was not all there was to the force and that he regretted not being more clear and gave his blessing for a episode of the Clone Wars to mock it.

What episode is that? All I can think of is the Yoda arc and that's not really mocking it, just explaining them in greater detail.

I think way he gets his name fits him perfectly, he got it while improvising his way out of a sticky situation like the "we're all fine, how are you?" scene.

[Winter]

But he wasn't improvising, he just says that he doesn't have a last name and the Officer just calls him Solo to save time. Also why couldn't his last name just be Solo, remember this is a series where the main character of the first two Trilogies last name were Skywalker and the main character of the new Trilogy is called Rey. Compared to that Solo sounds normal.

[MissKittyFantastico]

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It didn't really feel like the heist story I was expecting (and hoping for) but what it was (western, kinda) held together well enough that I didn't mind that, and all the 'this is where Han got his blaster/ship/Wookiee/moxie' fanservice wasn't as obnoxious as I was fearing (although I did roll my eyes a bit at how they knocked off every add-on to the Falcon at pretty much the first opportunity - I was surprised the cape room didn't get potted by a stray laser blast, it felt kind of like how they just had to show the Emperor getting his face melted in Ep3, when I felt it would've been better to just show him starting to look a bit corpsey when he used his powers and assume his RotJ appearance was just what happens when you go full dark side for twenty more years). I never really got the sense that Ehrenhan was Han, if you follow me - he was way down the low end of the recast-role scale that Karl Urban's McCoy and Genevieve O'Reilly's Mon Mothma are at the top of - but that didn't bother me much, I liked him for what he was well enough.

Qi'ra was a letdown though - even taking into account the 'of course she's not going to wind up marrying Han or whatever' factor, I really felt like the writing for her relationship with Han was lazy. I get that he's young and lovestruck but it was frustrating how he couldn't possibly have made it any easier for her/the script to keep her 'secret' under wraps until it wanted to use it; any suggestion she was actually making choices along the way kind of got consigned to whatever Khaleesi could do with facial expressions in between predictable lines, and she did okay, but you can't anchor a film with conflicted gazes.

[Winter]

I'm really bugged by the fact that Disney didn't hire the one person both Harrison Ford and George Lucas recommend for a young Han Solo, Anthony Ingruber, who managed to get Ford's mannerisms down to a T. Here's him playing a young version of Ford's character in Age of Adaline.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8VqG4ftlK0

And here's Ingruber impersonating Han's first scene from A New Hope.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bba_wPdLxp4

See what I mean? He's perfect for the role, he looks and sounds like Han Solo/Harrison Ford. As you said Karl Urban as McCoy was perfect, I look at him and I don't see a actor playing a part I see Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy which is the first and only thing that anyone casting a film should be thinking.

[Winter]

I'm reminded of Chucks review of "A night in sickbay" for Enterprise, and how the viewer numbers dropped off and never recovered. I feel the same has happened with Star Wars since the Last Jedi's fallout combined with a loss of the Star Wars movie anticipation from the rapid release of new films.

I'm more reminded of Chuck's comparing Critics reactions to fans reactions to Dragon Age 2, with the game being largely well received by the former but the latter losing confidence in the series. On both Rotten Tomato and Metacritic critics praised the film while fans views plummeted, with the lowest audience score of all the live action Star Wars movies, with both RT and MC ranking it in the 40s, that lower then Revenge of the Sith, The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.

As Chuck said popularity isn't a sign of quality but as he also said, it's a good way of telling if people like what you are making or not and bad reviews vs. generally favorable reviews, well that is precisely the problem. I've said myself, several times over the past 5 months, that I have no issue with anyone who likes or even loves TLJ as there are things that are good about it and I myself like the Star Wars Prequels despite their own flaws but for me TLJ's flaws are just so much harder to over look.

It really doesn't help that we already had a sequel to the Original Trilogy with the Thrawn Trilogy which, for me (and many others), made better use of the original cast, had much stronger villains, more original stories and took more risks in diverging from the Star Wars formula without changing it to much and most damming of all, having a much better protagonist with Mara Jade who is still well loved and praised to this day while Rey seems to be losing more fans as time goes on.

At this point only time will tell how well TLJ will age but TTT has stood the test of time to the point that when Thrawn was revealed to be rejoining SW canon fans went crazy and I have no doubt that the same will happen if Mara returns.

[GandALF]

There's no way the more unforgiving "fans" who are still butthurt over the special editions 20 years later wouldn't scoff at Luke fighting his clone.

[Admiral X]

It's always a bit funny when an evil clone is involved in a sci-fi story, but considering the set-up in the books, it actually managed to work. Which, speaking of fighting clones, the Clone Wars hinted at in the Thrawn trilogy sounded way more interesting than what the prequels ended up delivering.

[Fixer]

At this point only time will tell how well TLJ will age but TTT has stood the test of time to the point that when Thrawn was revealed to be rejoining SW canon fans went crazy and I have no doubt that the same will happen if Mara returns.

I was at Star Wars celebration 2016 when the Thrawn reveal was shown. Can confirm crowd going wild.

TLJ's general public reception seems to be getting worse and worse as time goes on. It's a movie that becomes more flawed the more time you devote to thinking about it. I was driving some of my friends to RPG night last week and they mentioned that a friend who had now seen the movie divorced from the atmosphere of the big screen no-longer liked the film.

Outside of that and how it affects Solo. There's been only one person I know that made the effort to see the movie this weekend. He said the theatre was empty. The movie was average but he had more interest in seeing Solo 2 than Star Wars 9. Doesn't bode well for the franchise if expectations are that low.

The numbers are not good. It looks like Solo will be the first Star Wars box office bomb. Toys sales are tanking too.

[Winter]

I don't know, the Clone Wars TV series we got was pretty awesome. However, on a somewhat related note, one thing I've found interesting about The Thrawn Trilogy when viewing it as the Original Sequel Trilogy is that while it is obviously a direct sequel to the Original Trilogy it is, unintentionally, more of a spiritual sequel to the Prequel Trilogy.

Think about it, The Thrawn Trilogy features Coruscant as a major recurring location, just like the Prequels, it has uses politics as a key plot element, just like the Prequels, it also has a large clone army that is used by the villain as a means to destroy his enemies, just like the Prequels, has a chess master villain manipulating events to his liking, just like Palpatine in the Prequels and one of the major characters giving birth to twins, just like the Prequels.

But what I find most interesting when comparing the Prequels to the Thrawn Trilogy and how the latter is more of a spiritual sequel to the former is how the journey of Anakin contrasts with that of Mara's journey. Anakin started the series as someone who idolized the Jedi but as the story went on came to hate them and is almost always presented as a selfish and somewhat close minded person. Mara on the hand hated the only known Jedi but soon joined the order as while a bit selfish often puts others ahead of herself even when there is nothing in it for her.

Even the nature of each Trilogy's respective core relationship, Anakin and Obi-Wan in the Prequels vs. Luke and Mara's relationship in TTT are the reverse of each other. When they first met Anakin admired Obi-Wan like he would any other Jedi but at the end ended up hating him for imagined wrongs while Mara started her Trilogy off hating Luke but after working with him and him showing nothing but respect for her came to view him as a valued friend. At the end of Revenge of the Sith Vader and Obi-Wan ended up scaring one another physically and emotionally while Luke and Mara ended up saving each other one more ways then one.

Again, this was entirely unintentionally as Lucas hadn't started working on the Prequels until a few years after TTT but I can't help but wonder just how much of TTT inspired Lucas' direction for the Prequels and how much of TTT was inspired by Lucas' original ideas for a sequel trilogy. Like Chuck pointed out that mysterious other was a young woman who Luke would train in the ways of the Force and the final confrontation would be between her and the Emperor. Well if you break down the basic plot points of TTT that's pretty much what happened.

Luke is pretty much Mara's mentor, though not necessarily in the ways of the Force, and out of all the heroes she is the one who causes the most problems for the two characters who could be considered the Emperor, Thrawn and C'baoth.

So for me, continuity errors not withstanding, the Prequels, the Original Trilogy and the Thrawn Trilogy work better together as the story does come full circle. The Trilogy starts with a Master and their Apprentice ready to try and bring peace to the galaxy and ends with a Master and their Apprentice ready to try and bring peace to the galaxy and why the Thrawn Trilogy will always be my preferred canon.

Thoughts?