Solo: A Star Wars Story

[blankall]

Originally Posted by zamler

Maybe this movie is tanking because it's not that good.

It's probably a combination of many factors. But the word of mouth has definitely been mediocre to bad. I have a few YouTube reviewers that I generally trust, and they are all kind of saying the same thing. The story is dull through the first half and then superficial through the second half.

The movie seems like it has content aimed at families and children, but deals with subject matter that only hardcore fans will want. In order to appease hardcore fans, you're going to need a pretty deep sci-fi/lore dive. A light and fun movie is just going to get torn apart by certain sectors of the fanbase, as this movie's subject matter deals with the heart of Star Wars lore.

A major issue I have with the content, is that Han was in a very very dark place by the time ANH occurs, which is only a couple of years after this movie. In his first scene, Han is a regular in a bar where people are summarily executed an no one bats an eye, a crazy doctor is performing plastic surgery on himself and others, there are anti-Droid racists, bloody lightsabre battles break out, and illegal smuggling deals are being arranged. A large part of the fanbase doesn't want to see a light-hearted segway into that. If you go back to SW's pre-Ewok darker roots, you alienate another part of the fanbase. It's really a no-win situation with the Han Solo content.

Han Solo also already had a beginning and end to his character. IMO the Cloud City scene with Lando was enough of a backstory for Han. He was a shady guy in his youth, joins the rebellion, and later dies. I didn't really need to know how he got his blaster.

Disney should stick to developing content outside of the existing characters.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

There is nothing about ANH or any of its characters that I would categorize as "very, very dark". The bar with its executions is hilarious. The way he flips the guy the coin for the dead body. That's a throwback moment to Western's and pretty funny if you ask me.

Also, RT notwithstanding (in a weird opposite to TLJ), most reviews I've seen have been quite positive, including on reddit which is basically a black hole at the centre of the complaining universe.

I'd say word of mouth is quite positive for Solo. It has a great audience score.

People thinking this story serves solely to explain the origin of his blaster are kind of missing the point I think. At the end of the day nobody "needs" to know Han's origin. But he's a fun swashbuckling character that should have great big screen appeal. You can't do anymore new stuff with him, can't do anything original trilogy with him, so the only option was a prequel.

I'll say again, this is 80% bad timing. You cut some better trailers and release this at xmas and I'd bet it does around Rogue One numbers.

[zamler]

That's a whole bag of excuses. Where are these great audience scores you speak of?

[Inglewood Jack]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

I'll say again, this is 80% bad timing. You cut some better trailers and release this at xmas and I'd bet it does around Rogue One numbers.

no way...at least with Rogue One there was a tiny bit of mystery around Jyn Erso and her quirky crew. was she somehow Rey's mom? do they get captured and turned into the Knights of Ren? there was a tiny bit of latitude with those characters, which in the end they decided not to use, but even in the rigid context of the Death Star construction, at least it felt like we could learn something going in.

maybe they could have thrown everyone for a loop with Han's origin but that's hard to market with just trailers. they just went the safe route instead and hit all the obvious Han points...blaster, dice, Falcon, Chewy, smuggler, gambler, shoot first-er. that need for safety is what got the original directors fired, and good old reliable non-boat rocking Ron Howard installed in their place. just like Torts used to say, "safe is death".

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by zamler

That's a whole bag of excuses. Where are these great audience scores you speak of?

There are literally no excuses in my post. It got an A- on CinemaScore which is quite strong.

[zamler]

All the prequels got the same grade from CinemaScore.

[Inglewood Jack]

Originally Posted by zamler

All the prequels got the same grade from CinemaScore.

mother of god, even Star Trek V Final Frontier and Nemesis got A-...that is some kind of broken rating system.

[Ashasx]

The average RT user score is 3.4/5 which actually isn't that bad

[Buff]

Originally Posted by blankall

Han Solo also already had a beginning and end to his character. IMO the Cloud City scene with Lando was enough of a backstory for Han. He was a shady guy in his youth, joins the rebellion, and later dies. I didn't really need to know how he got his blaster.

Disney should stick to developing content outside of the existing characters.

You're going to complain about a 5 second moment where he got his blaster? You're even pickier than I thought!

[N-E-B]

I can’t speak for everyone, but lightsabers were always a huge appeal for myself and many others. Making a Star Wars movie with no lightsabers just doesn’t seem right. Rogue One at the very least had that awesome Vader scene at the end.

Blasters are great and all, but nothing compares to a lightsaber battle. We’ve been robbed of a true lightsaber on lightsaber battle for three movies now. I don’t get it. I really don’t.

[direwolf]

Originally Posted by zamler

Maybe this movie is tanking because it's not that good.

But it IS good. Just read this thread. The majority of people here who watched it thought it was a well-made, entertaining movie with solid acting. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.

I think the two main factors in it's disappointing box office are a bit of fan fatigue (4 movies in 4 years is a bit much for SW), and bad timing on its release. Deadpool 2 ($53 mil) and Infinity War ($21 mil) clearly bit into Solo's weekend box office take. Rogue One and the Last Jedi didn't have that problem since they were both released at Xmas and the competition wasn't nearly as strong.

[OutOfTheCube]

Saw it, I thought it was awesome. Good story and characters, loved the stuff for the fans. Really a lot of fun and very entertaining! The character cameo at the end was a little out of place but it leaves me wondering what they’re going to do with it...

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

I'll say again, this is 80% bad timing. You cut some better trailers and release this at xmas and I'd bet it does around Rogue One numbers.

Not even close. It is 80% due to the fact they made a movie that the masses were not as interested in seeing.

If timing is as huge a factor as you believe, it should have good legs and recover from its dismal start. But I don’t imagine that will happen.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Not even close. It is 80% due to the fact they made a movie that the masses were not as interested in seeing.

If timing is as huge a factor as you believe, it should have good legs and recover from its dismal start. But I don’t imagine that will happen.

Why would a poor release date mean it will have legs? That makes no sense.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

just like Torts used to say, "safe is death".

I thought that was Feaster's motto.

[WhiteTiger]

My wife and I saw this tonight. I thought that it was 'decent', possibly even flirting with 'good'. She "quite liked" it.

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

I can’t speak for everyone, but lightsabers were always a huge appeal for myself and many others. Making a Star Wars movie with no lightsabers just doesn’t seem right. Rogue One at the very least had that awesome Vader scene at the end.

Blasters are great and all, but nothing compares to a lightsaber battle. We’ve been robbed of a true lightsaber on lightsaber battle for three movies now. I don’t get it. I really don’t.

But, but...we had those lightsaber knuckle-knife things in this one...

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Why would a poor release date mean it will have legs? That makes no sense.

It will have legs if it is a movie people want to see. The release date will have a proportionately bigger impact on opening weekend.

You interpreted my post to mean a poor release date means it will have legs?

[zamler]

Originally Posted by direwolf

But it IS good. Just read this thread. The majority of people here who watched it thought it was a well-made, entertaining movie with solid acting. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.

Looking at a much larger sample size over at RT the movie has an audience score of 63%, this is solidly in the category of meh.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

Saw it, I thought it was awesome. Good story and characters, loved the stuff for the fans. Really a lot of fun and very entertaining! The character cameo at the end was a little out of place but it leaves me wondering what they’re going to do with it...

If you haven’t watched it yet, go watch Star Wars: Rebels. It is the best Star Wars content out there in recent years, and...yeah, go watch Star Wars Rebels.

I did not like this movie very much, but found it a much more enjoyable watch than TLJ. The only truly enjoyable parts of the movie for me were the characters and the sights seen - it was a good use of Star Wars planets. The story being told was pretty darn uninteresting and seemed to be them just grabbing onto the whole Kessel run stuff in the same way they grabbed onto the Death Star’s weakness in Rogue One...except the story in Rogue One was worth telling, and this one was not.

I don’t think this is Star Wars fatigue, I believe it’s entirely related to the lack of quality story telling. TLJ had some very cool aspects to it, but the story was poorly written. Follow up that weak story with a side-tale that literally no one asked for...that’s just bad franchise direction.

I’m fully on-board with the idea of having Kennedy step down and allowing Dave Filoni to step in. He’s the one who should be in charge of this stuff going forward in my eyes.