(Starting out I will give some non-spoiler thoughts about Solo until I decide to go into some spoilers that I need to put in to fully review the movie in detail. If you have not seen Solo you should read the first section and then come back after you've seen the movie.) You have been warned.
Right away, I will say that I super enjoyed this movie, not as much as The Last Jedi (which I was so excited about for a while after seeing it that I said it was my third favorite Star Wars movie.) The overall pacing and tone of Solo is on point with lots of fun throughout, although the very beginning was not supremely excellent, I was delighted by all of the action and adventure of the movie. Being a Han Solo movie it is character driven to the max. Han is by far the best character which makes the movie. Since he is the only character that carries through to almost every scene you are always entertained. Alden did a terrific job in his performance that is most worthy of the character and the Star Wars name. Han was one of the best parts of the movie for me, there are other things to get on with. Lando played by Donald Glover was great for Solo while he was in it, which is a fair portion of the film. His attachment to L3 and embodiment of the role along with the humor that Lando brings is excellent. When they play Sabbac as we have seen in the marketing, it is so cool and a game of personalities. Chewbacca's introduction was wonderful, the film didn't have very much time to spare to go into the details of the life debt to Han, which somewhat disappointed me. The scene to introduce Chewbacca in the film is absolutely great, I will say. The villain, Dryden may have been used sparingly, but was one of the best and only non-imperial non-force villains in Star Wars and Paul Bettany pulled it off marvelous. I could only compare him to Krennic, who is one of my favorite characters in one of my favorite Star Wars movies. Qi'ra was one of the main charcters in Solo and not bad at all, the on-screen chemistry with Han worked well and she was a very good and well portrayed character in her own right.
Very neat features of the Millennium Falcon were present that have never been explored in any other movie, partly because Lando didn't own it then and we didn't get to travel around the ship as much as in Solo. The visual effects in the movie were almost all the way perfect and Solo had wonderful imagery, the effects blended in to make the movie seem real. I very much liked the music and score of the movie, by John Powell and while subtle it has a neat Star Wars spin. The Star Wars lore is very much explored with great easter eggs and some very meaningful mentions and inclusions. That said, I don't think that was at all "shrinking the universe", moreover the non over-reliance on the force or even the underground of Star Wars too much widens the universe. Solo helps with understanding of Han's character and his later relationships with Lando and Chewbacca. 10/10 Right now, Solo is my sixth favorite Star Wars movie, just after Last Jedi (but that ranking changes all of the time and definitely will for better or worse after I watch the movie more.)
If you haven't seen Solo yet, stay connected. Because, I am now going into spoilers.
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SPOILERS
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Ok, I think I'm safe.
Please don't read further if you do not want to be spoiled. I won't mention some of the biggest spoilers, but many I will.
Solo starts of with a few paragraphs, but not really a crawl explaining the happenings of the galaxy and Han. I think that is a cool twist and something Rogue One was lacking of. The entire beginning scene with Lady Proxima is shot with a very dark tint on it that makes it seem almost purple in the movie theater. I wasn't a fan of it vision-wise, but I understand it thematically and I liked the transition going out of it. Shortly afterwards, Han joins the empire and it's revealed... he has no last name! I did not want this at all going in, but I'm glad he at least had his first name and the scene was fine. My biggest problem with this now is that the movie is named after his new name, Solo. Which is now from the empire, it is also somewhat thematic. Very quickly, here are some other "nitpicks", things I didn't like about Solo: not showing or saying the names of some planets on film, the removal of the academy/ Tag and Bink scene, and some plot contradiction.
One small thing I really liked was the mention of Aurra Sing and her death, this character means a lot, in The Clone Wars and was in The Phantom Menace for less than 15 seconds. The fact they dedicated at least 30 seconds of dialogue in Solo to her death was cool and something that should be further explored in another medium or media.
I suppose that I should return the quote of "Part of the Crew. Part of the ship.", from Pirates of the Caribbean (One of my favorite film series, read my past blogs.) I say this as a reference now to L3-37 and as to how Solo's tone, feel and general direction feels a lot like the Pirates of the Caribbean movies (at least the good ones, what that may be for you.) My favorite scene in Solo, out of a lot of great scenes is the Pyke Syndicate/ Kessel Run extended scene, because of L3, Han, Lando, Chewie, and Qi'ra, and kind of Beckett. This is some of the best action in the entire movie as well as some of the best emotion all happening at once and every piece of information and messages goes along fine. L3 of course almost dies and is put into the Millennium Falcon to communicate with it's computer through the navigational system and it is a sacrifice that helps Han make the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs, if you round down. When L3 is uploaded Lando even says that she's part of the ship now. So that's my take on that, but not the last you've heard from me about Solo. I had a lot of fun with the film. It really feels like an entire movie of all of Han's amazing moments from the Empire Strikes Back.
Stay connected.
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