No one wants to die alone
I finally got around to watching Solo and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. It was an enjoyable heist film with solid (if occasionally overlong) action sequences. The character interactions were fun and the protagonist was likable, relatable, and amusing in his tendency to try big and fail hilariously hard. I even enjoyed the world building which added some interesting depth to what life was like under the Empire while still looking and feeling familiar in a way that, say, Canto Bite didn't.
I recently saw this video about the problem with prequels and it perfectly captured a lot of my problems with this film. In order to cash in on that sweet, sweet Star Wars money, it tried to answer a bunch of questions that no one asked. I didn't need to know how Han got his last name and the reveal was hockey as hell. By trying to fill in the blanks, they de-mythologized the character. See also the Kessel Run and the origins of Han and Chewie's friendship, not to mention Han and Lando's. It was a good story, but it could never top the million versions of it which existed in fans' heads, not to mention decades of their fic. The prequel-ness of it also drained the tension from certain moments. The success of the Kessel Run was a forgone conclusion which made the whole sequence feel overly long and pointless. Contrasted to that were the moments where we didn't know if they'd be able to pull the job off or if new favorite characters would survive.
Speaking of favorite characters, I really loved the protagonist. The problem is that he didn't feel like Han. It wasn't just that he wasn't played by Harrison Ford. It wasn't just that he felt younger, more trusting, and more naive. He felt too...clever isn't the right word, except it kind of is? Han in the OT was quick on his feet and good at thinking his way into and out of trouble, but he wasn't a social engineer the way that Han was here. Or at least an attempted social engineer. One of my favorite things about him was just how often and how hard his various gambits failed. I liked his relationships with pretty much everybody.
I liked a lot of the OCs. I loved Becket's original crew, especially the pilot guy. L3-37 was my hands down favorite though. I am here for the droid revolution and her romance with Lando was oddly touching. I actually got a little teared up when he ran back for her and then she still ended up dying in his arms. Putting her consciousness in the ship's computer to continue using her after her death was more than a little horrifying considering her beliefs, but I guess they needed to expand that throw-away line from ESB about the Falcon's computer having a weird dialect. Whatever. Her being in there and Lando being in love with her makes Han coming back to win the ship seem like a real dick move. He's basically stealing the man's wife's grave or soul or something. In general, I wish her completely justifiable anger and revolution were treated like less of a joke, if not by the characters, then at least by the film itself. When Chewie runs off to free his fellow Wookies, the score frames it as heroic. But when L3 is freeing her fellow slaves? Not so much.
Let's see...some other thoughts. I liked literally every time Han's gambit failed from when he got the speeder caught in the alley through the end of the film. It made his eventual successes at the end of the film even that much more rewarding, plus it was always hilarious at the time. I love the Wookie who pet Han like a dog after he introduced himself as Chewie's friend. I wish I could have cared more about Enfys Nest or the Darth Maul reveal, but I didn't.
I general, I think I would have liked this film way better if it was just a heist set within the galaxy, far far away with all original characters and only the briefest of mentions or cameos of old favorites. You know, kind of like what Rogue One did. Yeah, they might have had a harder time cashing in without the instant name recognition, but they failed pretty hard at cashing in anyway. It did worse in its opening week than any Star Wars movie ever, plus a whole lot of other objectively worse films that came out that year. Part of that was the over saturation of Star Wars in general, especially after the base-breaker that was The Last Jedi, but mostly it came down to being the wrong kind if prequel.
I recently saw this video about the problem with prequels and it perfectly captured a lot of my problems with this film. In order to cash in on that sweet, sweet Star Wars money, it tried to answer a bunch of questions that no one asked. I didn't need to know how Han got his last name and the reveal was hockey as hell. By trying to fill in the blanks, they de-mythologized the character. See also the Kessel Run and the origins of Han and Chewie's friendship, not to mention Han and Lando's. It was a good story, but it could never top the million versions of it which existed in fans' heads, not to mention decades of their fic. The prequel-ness of it also drained the tension from certain moments. The success of the Kessel Run was a forgone conclusion which made the whole sequence feel overly long and pointless. Contrasted to that were the moments where we didn't know if they'd be able to pull the job off or if new favorite characters would survive.
Speaking of favorite characters, I really loved the protagonist. The problem is that he didn't feel like Han. It wasn't just that he wasn't played by Harrison Ford. It wasn't just that he felt younger, more trusting, and more naive. He felt too...clever isn't the right word, except it kind of is? Han in the OT was quick on his feet and good at thinking his way into and out of trouble, but he wasn't a social engineer the way that Han was here. Or at least an attempted social engineer. One of my favorite things about him was just how often and how hard his various gambits failed. I liked his relationships with pretty much everybody.
I liked a lot of the OCs. I loved Becket's original crew, especially the pilot guy. L3-37 was my hands down favorite though. I am here for the droid revolution and her romance with Lando was oddly touching. I actually got a little teared up when he ran back for her and then she still ended up dying in his arms. Putting her consciousness in the ship's computer to continue using her after her death was more than a little horrifying considering her beliefs, but I guess they needed to expand that throw-away line from ESB about the Falcon's computer having a weird dialect. Whatever. Her being in there and Lando being in love with her makes Han coming back to win the ship seem like a real dick move. He's basically stealing the man's wife's grave or soul or something. In general, I wish her completely justifiable anger and revolution were treated like less of a joke, if not by the characters, then at least by the film itself. When Chewie runs off to free his fellow Wookies, the score frames it as heroic. But when L3 is freeing her fellow slaves? Not so much.
Let's see...some other thoughts. I liked literally every time Han's gambit failed from when he got the speeder caught in the alley through the end of the film. It made his eventual successes at the end of the film even that much more rewarding, plus it was always hilarious at the time. I love the Wookie who pet Han like a dog after he introduced himself as Chewie's friend. I wish I could have cared more about Enfys Nest or the Darth Maul reveal, but I didn't.
I general, I think I would have liked this film way better if it was just a heist set within the galaxy, far far away with all original characters and only the briefest of mentions or cameos of old favorites. You know, kind of like what Rogue One did. Yeah, they might have had a harder time cashing in without the instant name recognition, but they failed pretty hard at cashing in anyway. It did worse in its opening week than any Star Wars movie ever, plus a whole lot of other objectively worse films that came out that year. Part of that was the over saturation of Star Wars in general, especially after the base-breaker that was The Last Jedi, but mostly it came down to being the wrong kind if prequel.