Chat corner 125: Solo

[annathecrow]

Welcome to the Monday chat corner!

This week’s topic is Solo: A Star Wars Story, AKA the one that with all the backstory.

What are your thoughts? Where does it stand in relation to the main movies of the Skywalker saga - on the same level, same-but-different, a side note, something you pretend doesn’t exist?

Also, this might be a good place to rec some fanworks, if you have any!

Comments

[atamascolily]

I have no idea why they cast Alden Ehrenreich as Han when Anthony Ingruber was right there. I'm sure Ehrenreich did his best, but he didn't look like a young Harrison Ford to me, and I was never quite able to manage the necessary suspension of disbelief enough to enjoy the movie.

I also thought it was odd that they decided to make a Han Solo spinoff right after killing him off in The Force Awakens; the tonal whiplash was a bit much.

[sathari]

I have no idea why they cast Alden Ehrenreich as Han when Anthony Ingruber was right there.

My image search agrees with you--- oh, my! *blinkblink* That is indeed a young Han Solo right there.

[atamascolily]

I know, right?? Anthony Ingruber is famous for playing a young Harrison Ford in The Age of Adaline (2015) and Solo didn't come out until 2018, so it's not like he was a complete unknown at that point. I have no idea what happened there--I don't know if they asked and he wasn't available, or if they just didn't ask, but I suspect that they decided to carry on regardless because of the (frankly insane) Star Wars release schedule and... that was a mistake. I can't help wondering if Solo would have been better received if Ingruber had been cast in the title role--I think the answer is almost certainly a "yes".

Disney did eventually fix their mistake by having Ingruber play a younger version of Indiana Jones in Dial of Destiny, though.

[havendale]

I have mixed feelings about Solo. I’m not sure I entirely buy the characterisation of Han here, but the film itself is a fun watch. I do like in particular that it keeps the stakes low: it starts as a heist story and ends as a heist story, without requiring Han to save the galaxy.

My main complaint, and I fully admit this is me being picky, is that I don’t think Solo is quite as feminist as it wants to be. I do give it credit for having female characters in it and letting them do exciting action scenes, but of those characters, Val is killed off almost immediately, L3 is killed off and then transformed into an inanimate object, Enfys is interesting but only gets a few scenes, and Qi’ra’s whole shtick is that she’s an enigma whose motives Han will never truly know, with the result that the film is mostly debarred from giving us her perspective. And when she and L3 do get a scene alone together, they ... talk about the men in their lives.

[sathari]

So much this entire comment. IMO, they should've killed off whatisface, the Woody Harrelson character, and let Val do all of that, or something of the sort. Also, I want whole movies/TV series about both Enfys and Qi'ra.

[sathari]

One of my best friends and I decided that the main "thing" about S:ASWS is that Han Solo is the least interesting or important person in "his" movie.

My main feeling is Qi'ra, Qi'ra, Qi'ra, with a side of "More Enfys Nest, please and thank you." And also as I said above that I would have killed off Woody Harrelson's character and had Val fill that or a similar role.