Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

[Cathbad]

*wonders if your posts re Rogue One still exist*

 

[BAYLOR]

*wonders if your posts re Rogue One still exist*

Yes they do and I review both that thread an my prequels thread. .

Its obvious that we have a slight disagreement on the subject of Star Wars prequels. No matter. Tonight just needed something to complain about.

 

[Phyrebrat]

I’m glad no film has ever made me such an angry little ball of wasted emotion.

Personally it’s immaterial to my enjoyment whether anyone else likes the prequels or not. I think the worst thing to come out of the prequels is the toxic Star Wars fan.

pH

 

[svalbard]

Look what I started. I liked Jar Jar, was ambilvant towards the 2nd prequel and enjoyed the third. I thought the scenes where the Jedi were wiped out were excellent.

 

[Dave]

You sure you're a Star Wars fan? You realize, the Charter clearly states that, in order to be a fan, you must hate and complain about all things Star Wars since the original 3 movies?

To be a real fan you need to have named your children after Star Wars characters.

Look what I started. I liked Jar Jar, was ambilvant towards the 2nd prequel and enjoyed the third. I thought the scenes where the Jedi were wiped out were excellent.

You see! Somewhere out there is a Jar Jar Svalbard.

 

[Phyrebrat]

I adore Jar Jar.

pH

 

[ctg]

Lucas should have turned over the writing

I think he did a good job with the writing but, knowing now how OCD he was with everything it might have been a better if someone else had done the writing and Lucas would have solely focused on the direction and the production. As stories Lucas did a good story, because his first trilogy is very well studied and congratulated, while in the second one he went further in the explanations. But, if you look for example Dave Filoni then what Lucas did pales to the changes and revelations in the SW universe. Without him we wouldn't have Lothal's Jedi Temple or the Gateway between the Worlds.

At the moment I think Mr Filoni is bigger influence in the Star Wars canon universe than any of the others. The animated series are so much better in all fronts than the movies. And I will say it here as well, Disney should focus on the serial stuff and leave the movies to feature highlights instead of being the main thing.

 

[ctg]

Many believe Disney should pump the breaks and not put out a Star Wars movie each year.

I made the timing decision, and as I look back, I think the mistake that I made — I take the blame — was a little too much, too fast. You can expect some slowdown, but that doesn't mean we're not going to make films. J.J. [Abrams] is busy making [Episode] IX. We have creative entities, including [Game of Thrones creators David] Benioff and [D.B.] Weiss, who are developing sagas of their own, which we haven't been specific about. And we are just at the point where we're going to start making decisions about what comes next after J.J.'s. But I think we're going to be a little bit more careful about volume and timing. And the buck stops here on that.

Finally, some Disneyland purists are upset that there's going to be booze for sale in Star Wars Land.

We have to be careful we don't let people drink and then go on Autopia. (Laughs.)

Funny. Walt did specifically say no booze at Disneyland.

Yeah, except I think Walt had a nip or two in his apartment at night. (Laughs.) I am a big believer in tradition. This just seemed like one of those traditions that if we changed it the empire wasn't going to crumble.

Bob Iger Talks Disney's Streaming Service, 'Roseanne,' James Gunn and a Coming 'Star Wars' "Slowdown"

 

[Phyrebrat]

@ctg yup I feel exactly the same about Darth Maul. Such a great storyline; so rewarding and emotional. I felt really sad - his enigmatic presence in TPM was explored in such a way he became completely sympathetic.

pH

 

[ctg]

@ctg yup I feel exactly the same about Darth Maul. Such a great storyline; so rewarding and emotional. I felt really sad - his enigmatic presence in TPM was explored in such a way he became completely sympathetic.

When you look at his struggles and the battles, especially the final one against the Old Man Kenobi, he went around full circle and at the end, he was completely against the Emperor and his henceman, Darth Vader. Filoni did masterful reveal on how the Sith operate with his search in the Sith Temple without doing much of info-dumping. It's kind of sad that he didn't made it to Lothal Jedi Temple as I'd assume he would have gone through one of the portals to alter the timeline.

For Disney that place opens a chance to explore time-travel in galactic scale, without mixing in the multiverse theory. If Maul would have made it and he would have gone through one of the portals, maybe even to face Vader in the Sith Temple instead of Ashoka, things could be so different. Maybe even much darker and more into the realm of Force Magic that the current state shows with Luke doing tricks that are beyond conventional Force magic.

In those terms I could compare Maul to Raistlin Major as their stories are similar and equally dark. And Raistlin is one of my favourite dark mages as he was equally leaning into the realm of Chaos as what Maul was with his search to ruin Palpatin.

I do wonder what would have happened, if he had beaten Old Man Kenobi in that desert fight and acquired a chance to influence young Luke Skywalker?

 

[BAYLOR]

I think he did a good job with the writing but, knowing now how OCD he was with everything it might have been a better if someone else had done the writing and Lucas would have solely focused on the direction and the production. As stories Lucas did a good story, because his first trilogy is very well studied and congratulated, while in the second one he went further in the explanations. But, if you look for example Dave Filoni then what Lucas did pales to the changes and revelations in the SW universe. Without him we wouldn't have Lothal's Jedi Temple or the Gateway between the Worlds.

At the moment I think Mr Filoni is bigger influence in the Star Wars canon universe than any of the others. The animated series are so much better in all fronts than the movies. And I will say it here as well, Disney should focus on the serial stuff and leave the movies to feature highlights instead of being the main thing.

The animate shows are way better then films because they have the advantaged luxury of being able to flesh out and develop the characters and stories over a loner stretch then can the films.

 

[Rodders]

As fans, shouldn't we be a little more fixated on what was good about the PT?

Sure, It's not without it's faults, but there was a lot of great aspects that makes these underrated movies. I prefer them to the fan service that the sequels have given us. (although these have been entertaining enough too.)

 

[ctg]

Maul made a surprise return to the world of live-action films with Solo: A Star Wars Story, played by Ray Park and voiced by Sam Witwer. This marked the first time Witwer portrayed the character for a film despite having voiced the character for years in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. Witwer recently detailed the collaborative process of bringing such an iconic character to life in a new way.

"Ray and I have known each other for a while. In fact, we've been bumping into each other for years, not just at Cons but at restaurants and airports, constantly just, 'Oh, hey, Ray.' It's very, very funny," Witwer recalled to ComicBook.com. "We started talking. Ray had already seen all the animated stuff, but he wanted to know, he's like, 'What do you feel are the key points that I should check out again?' He wanted to just really get on the same page with that stuff. I wanted to get on the same page. We talked, we collaborated."

As far as the process of two performers both contributing to creating one character, each performer worked off of the other one to seamlessly blend their performances.

"I recorded my dialogue, then Ray shot it lip-syncing the dialogue, and then I recorded again to accommodate what Ray did that was, say, different than what I did because, frankly, I think that [director] Ron Howard and them were absolutely right," the actor detailed. "The way to bring this character to life on the screen is to have both me and Ray have our input and our ability just to have our chance to do what we think should be done."

Park played the character in his debut in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, with Peter Serafinowicz voicing the Sith. Despite Witwer becoming the prominent performer of the character in recent years, the actor expressed how big an influence Park has had on the character over the last two decades.

"I will tell you, I was so pleased when I saw what Ray did because it was like, 'Oh, he's incorporating the hell out of what we've done in the last eight years with Darth Maul,' because the Phantom Menace Maul, very stoic. He is the disciple. He is the student. He is a soldier for the Dark Side," Witwer recalled. "Now years hence, he's not quite that guy anymore. He's got a little bit of a sense of humor. He's in charge. He's got charisma, a different kind of charisma than he had in, say, Phantom Menace. It was so wonderful to see Ray do in live action what I had been seeing the animators do with Maul for years. That was a thrill to see Ray really incorporate that."

'Solo: A Star Wars Story' Actor Details the Process of Bringing Maul to Life

 

[ctg]

One of the most memorable scenes from Star Wars: A New Hope involved seeing Chewbacca play a game of Holochess with C-3PO on the Millennium Falcon's Dejarik table. Fans saw a similar scene unfold in Solo: A Star Wars Story, with the visual effects team responsible for the sequence taking the opportunity to explain why the original film was two characters short of a complete set of holographic characters.

"For [A New Hope], Phil Tippett and Jon Berg designed and created 10 stop-motion creatures for a scene aboard the Millennium Falcon. Out of the 10, George Lucas chose eight of those characters to be used for the final shots," VFX Supervisor Chris Morley shared on Tippett.com. "In Solo, the Millennium Falcon is new and clean, much different from the grimy, heavily modified version we see in the later years of its service. We decided that it would be a good idea to pitch bringing back the two Holochess characters that didn’t make it into the first film in 1977, as if in the Solo movie the Dejarik table was in full working order with all pieces intact. This led to capitalizing on a very serendipitous moment during the shoot where, in one shot, Chewie slams his paw down on the Holochess table in frustration. The force of the blow broke two buttons off the screen right side of the table set piece."

Given that the game is entirely fictional, fans who saw the original movie wouldn't have noticed that the table was missing these pieces, though it is a nice nod to the original film to help elaborate on the Falcon's history.

Despite audiences not necessarily requiring this piece of information to comprehend the scene in the original film, it was an exciting opportunity to pay homage to Phil Tippett's work on the movie.

"An unplanned event that we thought would be a great opportunity to tell the story of how the two new Holochess pieces were lost from that day forward," Morley detailed. "We added some sparks, glitched off the two creatures and showed a version to Lucasfilm VFX supervisor Rob Bredow who loved the idea and pitched it to Ron Howard who ran with it. It was a great feeling to be able to embrace the magic of what we call a happy accident."

How 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' Explains a Holochess Question From Original 'Star Wars'

I thought the holochess match was done brilliantly, although I was expecting them to explain why Wookies should be let win with a viceral arm removal. I hope Disney isn't afraid of showing Wookie power in the future. I also wish they would give a subtitles for the Wookie language as the script shows interesting conversations that Han and Solo had during the adventure. It's shame that even today it's a tradition to not translate those weird alien languages. Only in some cases, like Chopper's speech, you can desipher what they actually say to the actors.

 

[Rodders]

My blueray copy of Solo arrived this morning. I'm hoping that I enjoy it just as much as the first time.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Finally watched this, but didn't enjoy it. Han was a bumbling fool who saw no boundary between being a thief and being a murderer. The attempts at emotion was superficial and often meaningless. The whole story felt rushed like a cheap comic book. It seemed to exist for the purpose of fan service more than anything else, as underlined by the irrelevant cameo by Darth Maul.

The meeting between Han and Chewie was a highlight, but Han spent too much time telling us he was a great pilot without ever showing it. Why didn't the story show this development? The moment when he tried to crash and turn the Falcon to escape a TIE-Fighter just seemed reckless and pointless.

Altogether, an opportunity lost IMO, as Disney rushed out yet another Star Wars film without much thought or planning. Then again, I don't think I've really enjoyed any of these new films on first viewing, but tended to like them after once I knew what to expect. However, for the moment my kids have begged me not to put on any new Star Wars films.

 

[Scookey]

Finally watched this, but didn't enjoy it. Han was a bumbling fool who saw no boundary between being a thief and being a murderer. The attempts at emotion was superficial and often meaningless. The whole story felt rushed like a cheap comic book. It seemed to exist for the purpose of fan service more than anything else, as underlined by the irrelevant cameo by Darth Maul.

The meeting between Han and Chewie was a highlight, but Han spent too much time telling us he was a great pilot without ever showing it. Why didn't the story show this development? The moment when he tried to crash and turn the Falcon to escape a TIE-Fighter just seemed reckless and pointless.

Altogether, an opportunity lost IMO, as Disney rushed out yet another Star Wars film without much thought or planning. Then again, I don't think I've really enjoyed any of these new films on first viewing, but tended to like them after once I knew what to expect. However, for the moment my kids have begged me not to put on any new Star Wars films.

Perfect assessment. Have no idea why there are so many, apparantly, claiming Solo is one of the best Star Wars films ever. It should have been and could have been, but failed sooo badly I would be happier if it never existed at all. And never said that of any film before, let alone a Star Wars one.

 

[Parson]

Han was a bumbling fool who saw no boundary between being a thief and being a murderer.

But that is exactly who Han always was in my opinion. In that I thought this movie was more true to the original story than any of those which followed "Star Wars/A New Hope."

 

[WaylanderToo]

the problem for Solo is that it followed that steaming pile of Bantha dung that was The Last Jedi - easily the worst SW film in the series

 

[Boneman]

You hafta blame the scriptwriters.... Han set out to be the best pilot in the Galaxy - got accepted for training and we see nothing of it. Nada. Not a jot. Cue Maverick in Han's body: "Permission to do a fly-past, sir?" "You do not have permission, Solo." "Yes sir." Does it anyway....
Cue a scene with two senior officers discussing him: "he could be an amazing pilot, he's top of the rankings, but he just can't take discipline, he'll be a danger to the other cadets." "Dump him."

Instead, a clumsy attempt to lull us into a false sense of 'Han-can't-fly' and we're gobsmacked when he does.... actually I was bored by the time the train scene showed he was an amazing pilot.

Blame Disney. But I watched Rogue One again and I'm still upset that (spoiler) Jyn died because I actually cared about her. Couldn't care less about young solo.