Han Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

[Tiplodocus]

We all right enjoyed that. It didn't do things quite the way I expected, a lot of early baths for characters I thought would stick around longer, a great last minute reverse on the "Han is an outright good guy", , it showed why the empire is demonstrably bad, kept the stakes small in galactic terms but high for the characters and still managed to tie them back to the bigger picture.

My only niggles were really minor; Beckett teaming up with marauders who recently caused his beloved to die, Chewie moves in a far too human way.... There is something ungainly about how Peter Mathew moved and the awesome music from the trailer wasn't in it.

But, yeah, really liked that.

[Professor Bear]

Me ribs finally healed enough that I could sit still in a cinema seat for two+ hours, so I treated myself and a small pool of the Bear family to this.  Like Rogue One, it works best if viewed in the spirit of a Star Wars knock-off like Battle Beyond The Stars or Star Crash than as an addition to the Star Wars lore, and I have a few questions about how some of it pans out - why the Imperial blockade is there, why ships don't come out of the Maelstrom yet robo-feminist still has a map of it, why they need the hyperfuel for the double cross to work instead of just leaving it with the Alliance - but as a goofy romp it... just about works.  It feels overlong and talky in places and I just wasn't convinced by the chemistry between Clarke and Ehrnreich and felt they could have ditched their oddly dated romance dynamic in favor of something more modern and playful - even the OT showed Han liked his relationships to be adversarial.
I guess I liked it overall, but I can understand why audiences didn't warm to it, though I have a theory that might have more to do with the 45 minutes of fucking ads I had to sit through, including one right before the movie itself that included loads of clips from the film - I detest this in movie trailers I can view for free and I detest it times 10 million for something I just paid forty fucking quid to watch, thanks, Disney, you fascism-embracing dick knockers.

[ZenArcade]

thanks, Disney, you fascism-embracing dick knockers.

    Z

[Mattofthespurs]

Indeed.
I found that line much more entertaining than the film 

[Tiplodocus]

I am having no luck trying to find the name and artist of the trailer music. But I am shite at using Google. Does anyone know what it is?

[Professor Bear]

Look for it on Youtube instead.  Usually it's quite good for trailer music, and if the info isn't in the description, the nerds in the comments will likely be trying to figure out who scored it.

[JOE SOAP]

I am having no luck trying to find the name and artist of the trailer music. But I am shite at using Google. Does anyone know what it is?

There are good copies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn2UQKDJCvY

[von Boom]

thanks, Disney, you fascism-embracing dick knockers.

Thanks for my new signature!

[TordelBack]

Finally saw this tonight, on the darkest low-contrast projector onto the worst screen I have ever experienced, in a cinema so ball-broilingly hot and humid that I'm surprised they didn't charge extra for the use of the sauna: more like Hammam Solo. So fucking awful, couldn't tell characters apart for most of it, two complaints made and a formal one going in.

And I still really enjoyed it! Biggest surprise for me: Han was great. Wasn't expecting that. Also loved L3, again, that was something new. More of this please, and screw the box office whiners.

[Magnetica]

I also finally saw it tonight. Yes I liked it. It had a quite different feel to other Star Wars films. I haven’t read any of this thread so I have a lot of catching up to do.

I liked all the little Easter eggs. I was just waiting for them to make the Kessel run about a distance rather than a time.

Tobias Beckett really reminded me of Yondu Udonta.

I had been under the impression that Darth Maul died in TPM but I guess not.

Finally apparently Michael K. Williams (Omar in The Wire) was originally cast as Vos. Now that would have been awesome.

[Professor Bear]

Finally saw this tonight, on the darkest low-contrast projector onto the worst screen I have ever experienced, in a cinema so ball-broilingly hot and humid that I'm surprised they didn't charge extra for the use of the sauna

Aw, heck, TB, if I'd known you were visiting Cookstown we could have met up for a pint, as clearly you used the same cinema I did.  RedLetterMedia actually complained about the cinematography in this being really dark, and I had problems figuring out what was happening in the odd bit - I especially couldn't make out some of the Maelstrom/gravity well stuff.  As near as I can figure, Howard for some reason made a deliberate aesthetic choice to make everything look dank and industrial.

Also should have mentioned the design work, especially the towering Chris Foss-inspired yacht that looked like it could have sailed straight off an Asimov cover circa 1980.  I know Foss did some concept work on Jorodowsky's abortive Dune adaptation, so was this a design he did for Lucasfilm in the same period?
Also really liked the nice touch of Beckett's face just before he dies - like he's about to burst into tears as he realises he's where he is because of the bad decisions he's made since Val's death.  He seems angry at the selfless nature of her death immediately after it happens, and only seems to get his head straight by retreating into the infantile mantras and codas of the scoundrel and rogue, much as Han would when things go to shit between episodes 6 and 7.  "Don't trust anybody" he tells Han, only to hear "You trusted Val."  Did he tho?  Was that why he was angry?  I suspect I'll be trying to unpack that character arc for a while.
Of course then they go and ruin it with the comedy URRRRGGGH death rattle immediately after Woody's crying death face.  If they'd done a big fart noise and a wet splat to denote he'd pooed his pants it would have had much the same effect.
I did like L3, but I suspect a lot of people didn't because they felt they were being made fun of.
I thought Last Jedi reheating the Emperor's Throne Room scene from RotJ was dumb, but I liked it here.
Also: Teras Kasi - WOOT!

[JOE SOAP]

As near as I can figure, Howard for some reason made a deliberate aesthetic choice to make everything look dank and industrial.

Apart from the general grime, I assume by having the whole film flatly lit, and not worrying too much about modelling, he could reshoot it faster. The scene in the Centipede's lair looks underexposed although it does suit the stuff in the trenches very well.

I did like L3, but I suspect a lot of people didn't because they felt they were being made fun of.

When L3 and the film are at their most anarchic it works like gangbusters but I think it's more the tone of the character that feels a little off leaving people either simply irritated, or confused as to whether it's promoting a cause or taking the piss out of its stridency. I needed a little more for it to work either way. If SOLO was a Verhoeven film we'd be left with no doubt whatsoever but we'd also have to live with seeing Lando actually fucking it.

[Krakajac]

Can confirm the movie looked ‘dark’ on the screen in Australia as well.  The train heist set piece would have been greatly improved if shot against bright snow, sun, etc.  Didn’t mind the rest of the film being shot in a grimier light though.

Really enjoyed the movie - only let down (IMO) by the return of Maul.

[TordelBack]

Yarp, I was in two minds about the inclusion  of Maul, although it was an excellent surprise: I twigged the voice and the legs just before the reveal, and that was fun.

Unfortunately I never liked the character's revival and handling in TCW, and that feeling hasn't changed. But it's a tiny moment here, offers a personal-head-canon reason for Dryden's scars, and it has the interesting double effect of simultaneously yet-again shrinking the SW universe while also opening it up explicitly to include the cartoons in a way all the earlier cameos never did: now you really do have to catch up.

So that element was more of a high-score draw.

Quick shout-out to Enfys Nest, something else I didn't expect at all, and a great addition to the masked folk of SW.

Also very positive, the restraint shown by keeping Jabba and Fett off screen.  And I really do hope against hope that we get that sequel.
 

[Tiplodocus]

Superscreen at Cineworld for me and only place it looked dark was in the maelstrom but I guess it was meant to.

Still unsure about the greatest hits nature of the music in that chase section... But ultimately I gave it a thumbs up in my head.

I never thought of Beckett as being angry after the Val thing... makes more sense.

Cheers for the YouTube clips - still no closer to finding one that seems to have a real compser/artists on it. Unless orchestra Cinematique is actually a thing.