Solo: A Star Wars Story - Full Analysis

If someone had told me pre 2015 that within a few years I’d be fed up with SW, I would have called them insane and yet here we are...

"Let the past die"- A series that goes on to make a prequel, with a sequel-bait cameo

How to fix Star Wars: 1. Put 2 or even 3 years worth of production into a single film (even trilogy if you want). Do the time to get it right - focusing on story and script (see Lord of the Rings' pre-production). 2. Move away from the time period of Episodes 4-9 (it's gotten very old and is too much of the same). Lots of fans would love Old Republic or Clone Wars live action, done right. 3. Hire some people to head Lucasfilm who are actual fans of the Star Wars universe (Kathleen Kennedy clearly isn't). 4. Don't copy the MCU's humour (The Last Jedi), keep the brand separate. 5. Political statements are okay if you have a well-written story and it's subtext rather than being bashed down the audience's throat. 6. Show fans you care about them. It's true you can't please everyone, but it is possible to take care of lifelong fans and welcome new ones. Don't try and polarise the audience (Rian Johnson stated in a video interview years ago that that is what he wants from his films). 7. USE LIGHTSABERS! It's one big thing that sets Star Wars apart from any other Sci-Fi (the best part of Phantom Menace is the Duel of Fates). I genuinely think fans would've been kinder on The Last Jedi, if the final confrontation between Luke and Kylo was better. Either way, lightsaber action has been somewhat lacking. 8. BONUS I personally would like more non-human characters, bringing back more aliens from Episodes 1-6 ('Rio Durant' was cool in Solo).

So basically the original history for Solo from the EU is better and more Star Wars. Thanks!

Wasn't the 'spice mines' of Kessel were originally some illicit drugs? So, the fuel was a stand-in to make Han not be a drug smuggler.

The fatigue argument is nonsense. Maybe on some level that's the case for the casual movie goer, but Its main reason for underperforming comes from the TLJ backlash as well as how LucasFilm have reacted to the backlash. I'd say Solo is worth seeing, but you won't lose much by not seeing it in cinemas. Lucky i didn't spend a penny on it. It's ok, but I don't think you'd lose anything watching the OT if you didnt see the movie.

I'm speaking with my wallet when it comes to these fan service films I already know the ending to.

Thing about the parsecs thing is, right after he says the line about it, he says "she's fast enough for you old man". So he was clearly talking about speed. Also, fuel was a main part of the plot for TLJ - a horrible part.

I used to be the most hardcore SW fan...watched the movies over and over...had the dialogue of ANH memorized, played all the games by original lucasarts like dark forces, jedi knight, rogue squadron, pod racer, etc, read tons of books...when I was a kid I used to fuking dream of the Star Wars universe and imagine what it was like to be a Jedi. It was my only escape. Even though the prequels were disappointing, they had their charm. I loved everything about the expanded universe. And then George Lucas got sick of the chit he took from people, and he decided to make some money. With a swipe of a pen the entire expanded universe was made obsolete. Kashykk was never destroyed, Mara Jade never existed, Jacen and Jaina solo never happened, Kyle Katarn never existed. It was like losing a friend. My childhood fantasy world was destroyed. And then they released force awakens...and I was still hopeful. It wasn't totally awful, but I could see they were injecting politics into the movie. I tried to ignore it. The movie was ok. Then Rogue One came out, and I actually really liked that one, but I feel like they played it too safe with the script. It could have been much more powerful, but I felt it was a decent movie. I had hope. And then the fukking abomination that was TLJ came out with Mary fuking Poppins Leia, some SJW bullchit, and they FUKKING KILLED OFF LUKE SKYWALKER. WTF? No writer in the expanded universe had ever written the story of Luke's death. They wrote before and many years in the future after he died, but nobody had the fuking hubris to write Luke's death. People always felt it was something Lucas should handle or Luke should be left an immortal kind of hero, a character who never dies. Because Luke represents everything that is good and right about this fuking world. So what did these liberal phaggot kunts like Kathleen kennedy do? They fuking made him drink some alien cow milk and then fuking killed him like the worthless pieces of chit they are. Giant businesses ruin everything. They try to pander to the SJW crowd thinking they represent the voice of consumers. Star Wars didn't get huge because of SJW chit. Sure it was a progressive movie for its time, but that wasn't the point. Star Wars got huge because it built an incredible world -- a world of heroes, magic and fantastic technology. This is just like all the market research phaggots thinking Hillary would win. Liberals are loud and obnoxious people who drown out the other voices. The silent majority hate SJW and PC chit. The silent majority hates racism, but also believes race shouldn't be a thing people fixate on. The silent majority loved Luke Skywalker. The idea of killing Luke to make some "avant garde" statement about the patriarchy is FUKKING offensive to everyone who actually loved Star Wars. Nobody gives a fuk about Kathleen Kennedy's identity politics, and nobody wants to see it in fuking Star Wars. They probably polled some highly liberal focus groups and concluded this was the way to go. WRONG. Trump won phaggots. Turns out people hate Shillary enough to put a narcissistic reality tv billionaire up as president. Sure, she won the popular vote, but it was close enough that people really need to wake up and realize not everyone cares about political correctness or SJW chit. And anyway, this goes beyond a liberal or conservative thing. You fukking killed Luke Skywalker. Unforgivable, kunt. Now Lando is a fuking droidfuker, Han is some beta soyboy unsure of himself, there's a female bitch droid named L337...I'm just over it. You killed Luke. I'm done. Fuk you, Disney and Fuk star wars you fuking roastie pile of dogchit kunt bitch kathleen kennedy saggy titted FUKING WHORE Hope Soylo fail miserably and you phaggots lose so much money that you sell it back to Lucas for a fraction of what you paid and he fuking makes everything Disney did not cannon. Then they can release the real episodes 7 8 and 9 without your fuking garbage and all of us real Star Wars fans can enjoy Star Wars again and NOT HAVE TO DEAL WITH YOUR FUKING SJW cHIt liberal fuking kathleen btichkutn FUk

Solo: An Okay 250-Million Star Wars Story

Thanks for your true analysis. I disagree with Star Wars fatigue and wish you would do a deep dive analysis to see if this is truly a thing or just an excuse.

They don't use fuel in star Wars, OMG. The ships run on fusion reactors which is part of the canon cross cut books. The first time we ever heard of fuel was that God awful Last Jedi movie. Disney is breaking SW lore over and over again

Love the style of your reviews, very informative, especially from the writing perspective.

The Ed Norton/De Niro movie was The Score, directed by Yoda himself - Frank Oz :)

They fired Ben Burtt, so it doesn't surprise me that the sound design isn't as good.

Powell's music was serviceable but Star Wars films live and die by their developed musical themes. Williams realizes that critical leitmotifs convey a high degree of emotional precision from the film to its audience and Solo is an example of using Williams' developed Star Wars musical 'language' without understanding the true essence of what that actually means. Powell uses the same time signatures, the same musical transpositions and counter-point but never gives us the perfectly placed and more importantly memorable theme(s) that distinguishes characters. Williams always said that these critical little pieces of musical language had to seem an obvious and natural extension as if birthed by pure magic, but that the truth of the development and finally locating those 'obvious' bits musical character took time and large bouts of frustration. I don't get the impression with any of this for Solo's soundtrack. Plus, a TON of the Star Wars music magic was Spencer working closely with Williams. Modern day film orchestrators have fundamentals down pat but miss a ton of that 'Rimsky-Korsakov'-esque quality that Spencer brought simply because he was from a different time. We're talking a musical tone that was brought from the late 19th early 20th century. That kind of musical understanding (at least as intimately used by modern day film composers) is intensely rare and something that I just don't hear much of anymore. I would've thought for sure that the orchestrators used on any of these Disney Star Wars films would've been handpicked because of that musical education and musical nostalgia but I haven't really heard that. I'm hearing a lot of contemporary counter-point in the newer Star Wars soundtracks much to their detriment, IMO. I like Powell but it's been years since he's put out anything noteworthy.

spoiler - Unfortunately, they uploaded L3's brain into the Falcon, so she's basically the fucking soul of the Millenium Falcon. NOT happy about that.

It felt like a three part episode of the Clone Wars. That is, I generally liked it. It's easily the best movie Lucasfilm has put out post mouse. But is't not what people want from Star Wars.

Pirated it yesterday. Not the worst. By the numbers. Mediocre.

David your scale is too generous. How can this be a seven in score? You openly admit, and I can tell by your level of enthusiasm that your not happy with this performance. 7 is overpreforming statistically