Welcome back to Sound Off!, a semi-regular column where members of Speculative Chic gather together to chat about the latest BIG THING in entertainment. This time, don your custom-made capes and discuss Solo: A Star Wars Story, which premiered in the United States on Friday, May 25, 2018.
Sound Off! is meant to be a reaction, but not necessarily a review. After all, while we are all individuals, even mutual love of something (or hate) can come from different places: you may find everything from critique to fangirling to maybe even hate-watching.
Now, join J.L. Gribble and Shara White as they talk about Solo: A Star Wars Story. [Note: Spoiler-free!]
J.L.: I’m not going to lie — I wasn’t sure how great this movie would be. They cast a relatively unknown actor with huge shoes to fill in terms of both charisma and characterization. There were all the shenanigans with booting the original directors with filming almost completed. And to be honest, did any of us even necessarily want a Han Solo origin film? With such an enormous galaxy to explore for the stand-alone films, why rehash characters we’re already familiar with?
My husband, a much bigger Star Wars fan than me, kept claiming to be “cautiously optimistic.” But I could tell he was legitimately worried the film would be terrible and/or flop in the box office.
As usual, we saw the film opening night. And we had an absolute blast.
There seems to be this weird expectation that every Star Wars movie has to be a grand artistic achievement. That it has to have perfect, amazing storytelling, and bring some new facet to the speculative fiction genre. That it can’t just be what the first Star Wars movie was: A fun romp through a speculative fiction landscape, with interesting characters, some laughs, a dash of tragedy, and a hell of a lot of action and adventure (with occasional explosions for good measure).
That exactly what Solo was for me. As an origin story, it lived up to everything I didn’t know I wanted. How Han gets his name. How Han and Chewbacca meet. How Han and Lando meet. Exactly why the Kessel Run is measured in distance rather than time, and why Han holds the record. And finally, how Han and Chewie acquire the Millennium Falcon and ride off into the sunset.
As a total bonus, it had amazing female and person of color (and both!) characters, multiple heist sequences (my personal catnip), and my new favorite Star Wars droid. Sorry, BB-8. You’re adorable, but L3-37 is a certifiable badass.
So it’s shame that Solo is technically flopping in the box office for its opening weekend despite being far from a flop of a movie. It’ll go down in history as a good Star Wars movie that performed poorly, and perhaps make Disney think twice about cramming a new Star Wars movie down our throats every year.
Shara: I never wanted a stand-alone movie about Han Solo. I know I’m not alone in that. As someone who read all the now non-canon Expanded Universe stories about Han’s background, seeing it explored in film was just not something I wanted to experience. I’ve been there, read that.
That said, the film’s marketing push did a great job of winning me over. The trailers were fun, and Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian? I’ll take that all day long, thank you.
So watching Solo: A Star Wars Story was my reward for a hard week, and the verdict? It’s fun! I enjoyed it! It needed much more Lando. I liked seeing how they kept elements of Han’s background (Imperial Academy, rescuing Chewie from Imperial slavery) and expanded on it. I liked learning the secret of how Han made the Kessel run in 12 parsecs, and I loved seeing Lando and Han’s chemistry develop into what it became in The Empire Strikes Back. The cast was talented and a lot of fun, and I was able to mostly accept Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo — I just had to keep telling myself Han’s supposed to be MUCH younger than he is when he debuted in A New Hope.
I had some quibbles, like the last name (I mean, really? He remembered his father), how L3-37’s voice sounded distractingly like Gwendolyn Christie’s (aka Captain Phasma from The Force Awakens/The Last Jedi), and the reveal of who’s really in charge of the Crimson Dawn (guess I ought to catch up on those animated television shows). Despite these, it was a fun way to enjoy the afternoon, and while I maintain the movie in and of itself wasn’t needed, I’m glad I got it anyway.
Even if it did need more Lando.
I really enjoyed it. I wasn’t blown away by it, but it was a fun space romp!
I feel kind of bad that this movie is doing so poorly, because I had so much watching. Seriously, this is what I want from my summer popcorn flicks, lovable characters, lots of excitement, and a few satisfying twists. I can understand why it’s not making as much money as the main “episode” films, but I was hoping a Rogue One-level of excitement at least.
Agreed! Fun romp with heists, and needed more Lando. I was absolutely convinced that L3-37 was Brienne of Tarth!
YES! Thank you! I’m glad my husband and I weren’t the only ones thinking of Brienne of Tarth!
It wasn’t bad. I liked the Lando scenes and Harrelson. But I’d have preferred to get backstory on Solo peripherally, by having him show up on the sidelines in other original SW films. Having him as the main focus made for unrealistic expectations and demands on the franchise.