Chat corner 21: Solo

[annathecrow]

Welcome to this week’s chat corner!

Optional chat prompt

This week, the topic is “Solo: A Star Wars Story”. What are your thoughts on this one?

 

Comments

[annathecrow]

Your complimentary link to the Dark Side post is here.

[ruuger]

It's my least favourite Disney canon film, but there are things that I really like about it, such as Lando & L3-37, and I did like it more on rewatch (which is unusual of a Star Wars film for me, haha). Han is one of my favourite SW characters, but I'm not sure if he needed a serious backstory and I feel like the switch in directors caused the story to be a very patchy, but it was still an entertaining watch. So it's firmly in the meh/ok category for me :D

[tree_and_leaf]

Belatedly, here to agree that Lando and L3-37 were great (for me the only really enjoyable part of the film). Otherwise, it felt just sort of... there? There's less to complain about than Phantom Menace but I'd actually rather watch PM, at least that's trying to do interesting things.

[yourlibrarian]

I thought it was ok. I felt it made some common mistakes in prequels, which is to try to explain too much about what came later, instead of leaving some gaps. Also I thought the biggest mistake was to kill off Thandie Newton instead of Woody Harrelson. If those roles had swapped there would have been a much more interesting story being told.

[sathari]

Also I thought the biggest mistake was to kill off Thandie Newton instead of Woody Harrelson. If those roles had swapped there would have been a much more interesting story being told.

This, this, this so much this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, that was also the story I wanted!!!!!! (Actually, I agree with pretty much your whole comment, in fact, but I was literally just thinking last night about how much I wanted that story.)

[yourlibrarian]

Haha, great minds and all that 😉

[ruuger]

It was so weird how they killed her off too, because it had no relevance to the plot. It was like the movie was missing scenes because she (and the other characters who dies) was just completely forgotten after she died. It was like they didn't want make her death to be just manpain fodder, and decided to fix it by not having her death have any efefct on the other characters (instead of, say, by not killing her in the first place).

[yourlibrarian]

And there's that.

[primeideal]

I enjoy the 15-minute cut of it that exists in my head, featuring L3 the snarky droid freedom fighter and basically nothing else!

Me after watching Rogue One: well those Cassian/K-2 shippers seem to be enjoying themselves but eh, Star Wars isn't one of those fandoms where I get interspecies vibes
Me after watching Solo: hello please give me all your human/droid fodder at your earliest convenience, thank you

Edit: I am definitely of the camp that Enfys was meant to be Val and Tobias' daughter and that plotline just got dropped.

[fleurviolette]

I don’t remember what happened in that movie, but Shamook’s deepfake of Harrison Ford and Billy Dee Williams in Solo was good! It’s nice that ILM hired them.

[sathari]

I seem to remember a conversation with one of my friends after the movie came out in which we agreed that Han Solo was somehow the least interesting part of what was supposed to be his movie.

Also QI'RA QI'RA QI'RA. I love her and I want a sequel-era movie about her in which she is played by Dame Helen Mirren, and is possibly the sort of crimelord who's also a labor organizer, the end. (Also, also, between the number of times Lando has done something to Han that could easily have gotten him killed, and the number of times Qi'ra has done something similar, especially if you include the tie-ins, I now want all the redeemed-and-still-alive!Ben fics in which one or both of them tells him something to the effect of, "Kid, given how often in my acquaintance with your father I would've killed him, I am in no position to judge you for having actually done it. However, the part where you didn't come to me instead of Snoke after your uncle tried to kill you in your sleep, that I have a problem with. You should've called you Uncle Lando or Auntie Qi'ra, we'd have figured something out.")

And I love L3-37 very much as well, and Enfys Nest. Can Enfys Nest have her own movie, please?

[yourlibrarian]

we agreed that Han Solo was somehow the least interesting part of what was supposed to be his movie

I think just about every review said the same.