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Han Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

Started by CrazyFoxMachine, 22 October, 2016, 12:26:47 AM

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SmallBlueThing(Reborn)

Don't forget Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, which is out in a few days. This particular couple of months is jammed with movies appealing to the same demographic. Something had to give, and it's a shame it's Han.
I'm going tomorrow with my kids.
SBT

Bolt-01

Saw Solo on the bank Holiday- despite thoroughly enjoyed the Firefly feeling of the opening section, thought Thandie Newton was wasted. Loved how Hahn got his surname how generally awful he was at most things. The only things that disappointed were the appearance of a character I thought was dead and with it the prospect of any sequels involving that character.

Mind, if Qu'ira and the spiky headed one next appear in the Obi-wan fillum and are dealt with there- that will be a nice surprise.

SIP

The full story of THAT character is covered in the really excellent Clone wars TV series, and concluded (very poorly in my opinion) in the incredibly lacklustre "Rebels" series. Sadly, Rebels is "canon", so the conclusion of that character already exists.

SIP

Still.....I would have loved to have seen the NEXT Solo movie......so much great stuff to visit.

matty_ae

Quote from: SIP on 31 May, 2018, 04:25:40 PM
They pissed off a lot of the star wars hardcore, so the fan boys who would have seen this 10 times have decided not to.

That is the best explanation for the under-performance.
I still think we'll get a sequel to Solo as all Star Wars movies are now tarnished so its even more risky trying something left-field.

I still loved The Last Jedi but then I think our generation of Brits are more used to characters being subverted by new Creators. I mean Luke really going, in person, to fight on Crayt? Bonkers. Be like Yoda rocking up on Bespin in 1980 and having a three way fight with Vader and Son.


Colin YNWA

#260
Quote from: SIP on 31 May, 2018, 04:25:40 PM
I think it was a really solid effort and if it had come out 2 years ago I'm sure it would have done a lot better. Unfortunately, it's following on from such a wave of Star wars disharmony created by last jedi that it was doomed from last December.

Apparently - and this is only based on what I've read and don't really know how these things work - that's apparently not true at all. While there is some strong anti-Last Jedi on dis 'ere Internet and fanboys are screaming its actually done fine.

Good critical reception, pretty decent box office (1.2 billion I believe but that's from memory and could be wrong) and very strong and positive audience ratings its A+ or some such. From what I've read the outrage is restricted to some fans on the internet and is unlikely to have impacted on Solo.

Edited to add: Meant to say the far more likely reason (I'd guess) is that its only been 6 months since the last movie and it has stiff summer competition. Much as sime folks don't like Last Jedi - and that's fine - it might be a bit much to blame it for KILLING Star Wars, when there's more likely reasons out there?

SIP

One very important argument against that theory though, all the hardcore star wars fans had pre-booked their last jedi tickets months in advance of its release, I know I did. So, last jedi already had a huge chunk of its box office money BEFORE it was released. The drop off rate in the second week of last jedi was the worst of any star wars film yet recorded.

That would suggest that the fans that usually go back on repeat viewings didn't this time around, and also that the word of mouth wasn't great. Last jedi did make a lot of money, but it underperformed what they expected it to make.

I am yet to see its blu ray sales. I spend a lot of money on star wars.....I am that sap.....but I don't own a copy of last jedi.

I think the fans who pre-booked last jedi didn't all pre-book solo, and that has contributed to some of its opening weekend underperformance.

How much it's contributed is unknown of course. It is significant that a film from such a hugely supported global franchise did this badly in its first week of box office. If that community had turned out for its normal multiple viewings I can't help but think this would have done a lot better than it has.

All speculation of course.

radiator

I think it's a combination of things - mainly an oversaturated marketplace - they clearly should have released it during a less crowded month.

As for the reception of the franchise itself... I can only go on my own first hand experience, but yeah there does seem to have been a huge falling off of interest.

The Force Awakens was a legitimate phenomenon - literally everyone was talking about it - and friends who normally don't care about blockbusters went to see it. I organised a big group of friends to all go and see it together.

Then Rogue One comes out the following year. Still quite a bit of hype/awareness, and I was able to get a fairly good-sized group together to see it, though the reaction was very muted - mainly shrugs.

By the time The Last Jedi comes out, no one I knew locally was interested to come and see it with me, and I'd struggle to name more than 3 or 4 people total who I know who saw it at all.

And now Solo is out, and even I - a lifelong Star Wars fan - can't be bothered to see it. I think perhaps two people in my entire social circle have seen it.

It's been a case of diminishing returns. After TLJ - the third underwhelming movie in a row - you just cut your losses.

I think RLM's Rich Evans hit the nail on the head when he said that SW as a property is surprisingly limited in scope. Return of the Jedi feels like a pretty definitive ending for the saga, and there really isn't much you can do with it. Stick too close to the originals and it feels like a retread, but diverge too far from the established formula and it no longer feels like Star Wars.

SIP

I think there is a huge amount of scope, you only have to look at the 40 years of expanded universe novels, comics , games and cartoons for that.

I think the problem lies in the approach of Disney Lucasfilm.....it's not been coherent. Marvel has built a series of films and channelled it's property expertly whilst Lucasfilm have taken a more scattergun approach. We have 4 films covering 3 different timelines, we have creative disputes on 2 of the films and we have a trilogy that is being made up on the fly.

I appreciate that the other two trilogies were also generally made up as they went, but at least they were the creation of a single individual (from a plotting perspective).

Now we have Abrams coming back in......and I suspect that he will have a strong focus on fan-appeasement to try and boost box office. I'm genuinely interested to see what the game plan is for episode 9. It's going to need to be spectacular to boost figures and get buy in from the disenfranchised.

TordelBack

Quote from: SIP on 31 May, 2018, 06:13:05 PM
Now we have Abrams coming back in......and I suspect that he will have a strong focus on fan-appeasement to try and boost box office. I'm genuinely interested to see what the game plan is for episode 9. It's going to need to be spectacular to boost figures and get buy in from the disenfranchised.

Gosh yeah, fan appeasement, that'll make for a great film no doubt.> Points at putrid mess that is RotS <.

SIP

Quote from: TordelBack on 31 May, 2018, 06:17:43 PM
Quote from: SIP on 31 May, 2018, 06:13:05 PM
Now we have Abrams coming back in......and I suspect that he will have a strong focus on fan-appeasement to try and boost box office. I'm genuinely interested to see what the game plan is for episode 9. It's going to need to be spectacular to boost figures and get buy in from the disenfranchised.

Gosh yeah, fan appeasement, that'll make for a great film no doubt.> Points at putrid mess that is RotS <.

I think the majority of episode 3 haters now look back and wish new star wars was that good! 😂

Aside from the pushing aside of jar jar, how did episode 3 appease fans?

Every story beat was already established by the original trilogy wasn't it? It was more an exercise in box ticking than fan appeasement, but the very nature of the film made that unavoidable.  Granted, we could have done without some of the silly inclusions, such as the death star construction and yoda off to dagobah, but the rest (the core anakin storyline) sort of had to happen didn't it?

Mattofthespurs

Quote from: SIP on 31 May, 2018, 05:40:54 PM
One very important argument against that theory though, all the hardcore star wars fans had pre-booked their last jedi tickets months in advance of its release, I know I did.

Booked mine on the day. And it was still less than 50% full.

SIP

#267
Quote from: Mattofthespurs on 31 May, 2018, 06:30:47 PM
Quote from: SIP on 31 May, 2018, 05:40:54 PM
One very important argument against that theory though, all the hardcore star wars fans had pre-booked their last jedi tickets months in advance of its release, I know I did.

Booked mine on the day. And it was still less than 50% full.

For last jedi?  It was packed in mine. They still made over a billion, so people came out in numbers to see it. From a superficial financial standpoint, last jedi appears to be a success.....it made a lot of money. But a lot of the financial indicators also show that it was expected to make more, and it did the bulk of its business in the opening weekend. After that it dropped off rapidly. That is unusual for a star wars film and pointed to issues that seem to have carried over into solo's performance.

radiator

Quoteyou only have to look at the 40 years of expanded universe novels, comics , games and cartoons for that

My point is that yeah, there's scope for novels, comics and games marketed exclusively to existing fans, but as we're seeing with Solo, there perhaps isn't much appetite for them as huge mainstream blockbuster films. I saw a review that described Solo as 'a filmed Wikipedia article'. That about sums it up. I couldn't give a shit about how Han Solo got his gun. It's just a gun - there's nothing special about it. I'm not interested in the precise circumstances of the times he first met Chewy or Lando - everything we need to know about their relationships we can infer from the original movies. Han is only an interesting character because of the journey he goes on in Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back. Even by Return of the Jedi he feels a bit superfluous.

I think there's a larger point about prequels - in that they are almost almost bad and no one actually seems to like them, they always fall into the same hacky tropes, and I genuinely don't understand why Hollywood keeps churning them out. More often than not, they actually do lasting damage to the prestige of their respective franchises - as in the case of Hobbit/LotR, Alien/Prometheus etc etc.

The one exception to the rule is Better Call Saul, which is totally great despite doing a lot of overtly prequely stuff that usually makes me roll my eyes. I can't think of a single other genuinely great prequel though.

radiator

Also, regarding that cameo... I was aware that [spoiler]the character in question was miraculously resurrected in the cartoons (despite being very clearly killed - like, CUT IN HALF AND TOSSED DOWN A BOTTOMLESS PIT -[/spoiler] and remember thinking "wow, that's dumb. At least they'd never do something that cheap and contrived in the actual movies"...