As I’ve said a few times, I’m not really into the Disneyfication of the Star Wars franchise. Once Disney bought Lucasfilm, they started churning out Star Wars movies on a yearly basis, and it’s gotten to be… too much, quite honestly. I also feel like Kathleen Kennedy is mismanaging the brand, throwing good money after bad because she’s not hiring the best people from the start. Solo: A Star Wars Story was the perfect example of this: the original directors were fired in the middle of the production, and Ron Howard was brought in as the replacement director. There were rumors that star Alden Ehrenreich couldn’t act his way out of a paper bag. The production of course cost a lot more than originally expected. And what was the result? A mediocre film which people felt rather blah about. At Rotten Tomatoes, Solo has an all-critic score of 70% and a top-critic score of 59%. What’s telling was the audience score of 60% after opening weekend – people had a vague warmth about a beloved character (Han Solo) but really, this film was just kind of there. It’s not doing well by word-of-mouth either, because the box office is not great… considering this is a Star Wars movie.
Disney and Lucasfilm’s Solo: A Star Wars Story is struggling in its debut at the Memorial Day box office, where it’s coming in well behind expectations with an estimated three-day debut of $83.3 million-plus and projected four-day debut of $101 million. That’s even worse than forecasts earlier in the weekend.
The news is altogether grim overseas, where Solo rolled out in every major market save Japan. The movie — which made a high-profile stop at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this month — is bombing with $65 million, including a dismal $10.1 million launch in China. The global bow is an estimated $148.3 million; many had thought it would fly to $300 million even though the Star Wars franchise has never been an enormous player internationally.
The Han Solo origin pic is pacing well behind fellow standalone movie, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), which opened to $155 million in North America. Solo blasts off a mere five months after Star Wars: The Last Jedi hit theaters, raising the possibility of fatigue. The movie’s performance is sure to prompt Lucasfilm and Disney to reevaluate their strategy for the marquee franchise.
“We are all over it, and will spend a lot of time digging into why things happened the way they did. We have a year and a half before Episode IX comes out,” says Disney distribution chief Dave Hollis. “We’ve had so much success. The previous three Star Wars films did $4 billion worth of of buisness at the box office, so it doesn’t feel like saturation is necessarily an issue, but we are still answering all of the questions.
Heading into the weekend, tracking suggested Solo would debut to $130 million-$150 million domestically. Box-office observers note that the movie is playing younger than other Star Wars installments, meaning it could lure families. The film nabbed an A- CinemaScore from Friday ticket buyers, a half-grade below the A bestowed the previous trio of films. Rogue One is the best comparison for Solo among the three new Star Wars films released by Disney and Lucasfilm.
Yeah, all of the issues were there – it came out too soon after The Last Jedi, it came out after several massively successful films were released, and people have Star Wars fatigue in general and “blockbuster fatigue” long-term. I keep waiting for this kind of thing to happen with Marvel movies too – the DC Universe has had their reckoning with the failures of the Batfleck and Justice League films, but the reckoning for Marvel still hasn’t come. Will it come at some point? As for the larger Star Wars universe/franchise… just stop making all of these prequels and stand-alone movies!
Photos courtesy of Lucasfilm/Disney.
Stop making them in general. But get their shit together to hand off to talented people to make a Lando movie. B/c Donald Glover.
X1000000!! Stop ravaging my childhood with these films. OTOH, I loved Solo. Amazing supporting cast. And a Lando film with Donald Glover needs to happen.
I don’t think it’s fatigue so much as they just made a film that NOBODY asked for and on top of that it was just not that great.Movies bomb for a lot of different reasons but a lot of the times it’s because of studios putting out a bad product.
I also like to view this as cosmic justice for Lord and Miller!
@Ashley, I agree. Nobody asked for this movie. I was kind of meh on The force awakens. I actually enjoyed Rogue One more than I thought (although the CGI Princess Leia was awful). I wasn’t as eager to see the Last Jedi in theaters so I will watch it when it comes out on Netflix. I grew up on A New Hope, Empire strikes back, and Return of the Jedi. The prequels after that were just terrible (Revenge of the Sith and the other forgettable ones).
Rogue One was the better one of all the unwanted Star Wars movies so far!
Don’t even bother with the Last Jedi, it was utter garbage.
To be the last Jedi felt like another Star Wars reboot pretending to be new. I got bored halfway through and I’m not interested in the next one.
Actually, I DO think it is fatigue. I have a 16 year old boy who grew up on Star Wars, from the old movies to the new. Every action figure and Lego set he could find. He still watches the DVDs. He had no interest in seeing Solo. I asked why and he said that there shouldn’t be two Star Wars movies every year and that we don’t need the back story for everyone of them. He saw The Last Jedi, but in its 2nd week of release. He’ll see the 3rd installment of this trilogy, I’m sure, but has no interest in the rest of it. As he said yesterday, “Damn Disney ruining Star Wars.”
I think a lot of people are on SW burnout – the old adage of “How can I miss you if you won’t go away” fits here. Also, TLJ was a train wreck of a movie and that with all the bad advance press probably didn’t help.
And it’s too bad, because Solo wasn’t THAT bad. Not the best of the bunch by a long shot, but it was a fun watch and while Alden Ehmerich is no Harrison Ford, he did a decent job. So did Donald Glover. Emilia Clark’s role could have been played by anyone, unfortunately.
They should have stopped with Rogue One for stand alone movies – for me, that movie is up there with the originals in terms of favorites and anything following that would have had to be insanely good to do as well. But as studios do, they got greedy. I don’t think you’ll see this kind of burnout with Marvel, unless the Disney execs ruin things for the studio-they’ve been pretty savvy so far about how they pace their movies.
I think it will be awhile for a Marvel burnout, I’m always shocked by how much I laugh watching them. They do a great job mixing in comedy with action and drama. It might get interesting soon since a few of the headlining actors like Robert Downey Jr and Chris Hemsworth keep saying they won’t play these characters much longer. I wonder how that will change things.
What I heard from die hard fans is that there’s no one else whom could play Solo but Harrison Ford. Also, I think they are just making those movies for the cash, not caring about how it relates to the story of Star Wars per se.
That’s exactly how I feel, Harrison is the only Solo and it feels wrong and greedy to try and replace him. I have no desire to see someone else in his role and probably won’t see this movie.
Yep. Nothing against the new guy but I prefer to watch Ford in this. While we’re at it, they should retire the Indy franchise too.
I agree.
I might be 100% alone in this statement, but the reason I think the movie didn’t do well is that Han Solo belongs to Harrison Ford, not this kid. Harrison MADE that character. No one else could play him. Yes, I know this movie is about a young Solo. However, Harrison gave the character life (and that sarcastic snark I loved so much back in the day).
I agree. Alden was fine, but it’s almost impossible to be like Harrison Ford. And I think it’s unfair to expect any actor to do that. I realized that halfway through this movie, I was watching it more as a guest movie than a Han Solo film.
Yeah I agree. For me and several friends, it’s hard to imagine anyone but HF playing Han Solo. He made the character so iconic! Maybe I’m just stubborn and should be more open to someone else playing the character, but I found that hard to get past and won’t watch the movie until it’s on Netflix.
I saw it and thought it was fine. Not awful, but not amazing.
As a huge Star Wars fan, I’m ready for some new stories. Solo and the Boba Fett movie is not going to appeal to a wide audience. There is so much they could explore in this world. There’s no need to keep focusing on the past.
I agree, the Star Wars universe is so vast, why not explore that? Plus, I don’t know how invested you can be in a movie when you know the ultimate outcome.
Rogue One worked because it was about new characters – we knew the plan succeeded, but we didn’t know their fate.
I wish Disney would actually take a clue from that instead of rehashing the stories of everyone and their uncle from the OT.
It’s really that simple. A tepid, mediocre movie got a response in kind. No complicated explanations required.
I love Star Wars. I have a Star Wars room in my house, but this movie was no bueno. The early gossip was correct in that Alden cannot act his way out of a paper bag. I wasn’t even comparing him to Harrison Ford; he just didn’t bring anything to the table. No charm, no Han swagger. BORING. If I were Princess Leia I wouldn’t want to bone him.
Don’t get me started on the girl from Game of Thrones, who also can’t act. I don’t know if that was the original directors’ fault, but she also brought nothing to the table. However, Donald Glover shined brightly as Lando. I would watch a spin-off with him in a minute. Woody Harrelson and Thandie Newton were also spectacular. Otherwise don’t waste your money on this movie, wait until Redbox.
It’s a shame because with the right director, a better script and quite frankly some people who could act, this could have been a very interesting origin story.
Agree 100%. The appearance of Chewbacca actually kept me from nodding off. I turned to my kid and said “Thank God, a character that makes sense!”
The domestic numbers are bad, the international ones are a borderline disaster. Unreal.
Their first standalone in Rogue One was a smash, huge, hit. For many reasons this one was never going to match it; but this is much more than that. Way too big a fall. This is not natural erosion, this is a rejection. If Rogue One was the anomaly and this is the norm then the standalone films are in huge trouble.
The thing is, if Lucasfilm actually paid attention to their non-movie content, Rogue One isn’t an exception on the spinoff front – they also made 4 seasons of Rebels, and that was also a spinoff with all-new characters …..and it’s very well-liked by the Star Wars fandom! Maybe an OT character drops in once in a while (Rogue One actually contained a couple of Rebels references too) but other than that, let a bunch of people we haven’t met before do their thing in a corner of the SW universe and it always seems to work.
I really hope they don’t make the Boba Fett/Obi-wan movies, they’ll squander any remaining goodwill if those turn out like Solo. And a huge chunk of the problem with Solo really was that no one wanted it despite Disney thinking we’d go for anything with the name ‘Star Wars’ on it (to be fair, I get why they thought that because people went for the prequels too but at least those came out at three-year intervals, not six-month ones).
The diverse cast probably contributed to Rogue One’s big foreign take, I’d say. This one was too mayonnaise.
Blockbuster fatigue is not a thing. It is just that people are a lot pickier because there are so many blockbusters. There are around 10 superhero movies every year, why would you pay to watch a shit one? Same goes for Star Wars, after TLJ fans are going to be cautious. Kathleen Kennedy is fucking it up though. So many directors fired, so many reshoots… Who would have though a Star Wars movie would bomb just a year ago? Rogue One turned huge profit even though it did not have any original characters in the movie. Such a shame.
Kathleen Kennedy has made three movies that, between them, made over 4 billion dollars at the box office and $1.5 billion in profit alone. Now she’s got one flub on her record, and it reminds me of how everyone said Marvel was over when Age of Ultron turned out underwhelming.
Moviegoers don’t care as much about reshoots and replaced directors as film nerds seem to think – TFA and Rogue One both had troubled productions and that didn’t stop them each clocking a billion or two at the box office, once the end product was seen to be all right. Solo was just an ill-advised cash grab that had Disney forgetting that making prequels about OT characters has historically never gone well for Star Wars even when those films made money.
Rogue One had both Darth Vader and Moff Tarkin. They are both iconic.
1. Stop making movies no one asks for. No one wants a backstory on Han Solo, Boba Fett or any other character (except maybe Donald Glover as Lando).
2. Star Wars can be taken into new directions going forward, not backwards.
3. The character assassination of Luke Skywalker in TLJ, turned off many fans (myself included). TLJ could have told the same story it did without damaging Luke’s character.
4. Put more effort into making quality, well thought out stories/movies and stop just throwing things together with the latest flavor of the month mediocre white male director.
I don’t know about your number 1. Seeing a movie about Han Solo doing the Kessel run was a genius idea I think. It just needed better execution and I know a bunch of people who are down for a Boba Fett movie. I think people would go ape sh*t if they made a stand alone movie about Darth Maul (as long as they did it right). There are so many awesome characters that I think could carry a movie as long as it’s done right.
I agree with your 2 and 4. I get your 3, but I actually like the direction they took with Luke. I feel like they gave him some more depth. He’s only human and I thought everything that happened with him was believable. They could have toned his grumpiness down a bit, but over all I didn’t mind what they did with him.
I saw the movie and I really enjoyed it. It was fun and entertaining. Did the franchise need it? No, not really, but I thought it was a fun addition. I don’t understand the crap the movie is getting. I feel like it’s cool to dump on it, kinda like the prequels. I have to say I enjoyed this movie much more than The Force Awakens. I actually liked The Last Jedi, but Rouge One is hands down my favorite Disney Star Wars movie. Rouge One was phenomenal in my book. My Star Wars opinion means nothing though, because I actually enjoyed the prequels and (runs and hides) liked JarJar. Forgive me lol
for me, it’s just far, far too soon. this is right on the heels of the last SW film. clearly saturation is an issue.
also, these are beloved characters to old-timers like me. it’s starting to feel kind of gross how things are coming out so fast & seemingly to just keep pumping in the cash. i need, like, TIME on this stuff, and it feels like they’re treating the characters and storylines in such a throw-away manner.
(is nothing sacred? 😉 )
Struggling is putting it mildly, it’s flopping hard. Just a few weeks ago it was forecast to have a 175 million opening weekend domestically…it won’t even hit that mark globally.
Unless word of mouth performs a total miracle and turns everything around, it’s going to be lucky to make over 400 million worldwide. Production alone cost at least 250 million, with some sources saying more like 350 million. This has the potential to be one of the biggest blockbuster flops of all time.
It was up against Infinity and Deadpool and it wasn’t promoted heavily. I think they raised the white flag and knew it wouldn’t be a smash. I remember SW standalone Rogue One being everywhere (Christmas ornaments, toothpaste, cereals, etc.). They have cool items like K2SO, Krennic and Death Star. I haven’t seen a single promotional item for Solo except for some baby Chew tumblers, I don’t think we associate Chewy to this Solo movie.
The promotion on this just felt weak. I was never sold. The merchandising being lacking though is partially a function of Last Jedi merchandise really not doing very well. It’s interesting.
One odd thing I noticed that I thought was a PR misjudgment; the writers in interviews kept trying to sell us on the romance; Han’s great first love…and yet I cannot find any joint interviews between Alden and Emilie. Very little together at all. No I’m not trying to start some weird “omg, they hate each other!” rumour, I just mean that it is such an odd choice for a movie to not try and sell the chemistry between your romantic leads…or maybe I just answered my question.
In contrast I refreshed my memory on Rogue One promotion and there are numerous joint interviews with Felicity Jones and Diego Luna. He was also with her for all the overseas press. And it works: they have a fun rapport and nice chemistry (and no I’m not saying, “omg secret romance confirmed!” Good lord). The kicker is romance between their characters is implied at the very most. So how are you not selling the actual romantic subplot in Solo? Weird. So weird.
It made no sense when the Lando’s droid says to Qui’ra, “You’re in love with him.” And she immediately retorts like a silly child, “No I’m not!” I actually said out loud to the screen, “What?! But that’s the whole point!” For two people who were supposed to be so deeply in love to only have been separated for three years, I felt like that was the stupidest thing the director et al could have let happen, and I completely checked out at that point. I was already struggling with the constant barrage of the overdone music (Disney’s contribution) and awful film editing. And don’t get me started about how the Kessel Run was a joke. Canisters about to blow, time ticking away, and literally no suspense or pressure or sense of urgency in the scenes. The best actors in the world didn’t stand a chance against writing with such obvious contradictions, a manipulative score, and ADD camera cuts. I actually felt bad for them. It was a good effort on the actors’ parts that was never going to succeed.
Frankly, no one cares about Han Solo’s love life without Princess Leia – THAT was the elephant in the room Disney ignored, along with the ‘not Harrison Ford’ one when they made this.
It didn’t help that they had no chemistry whatsoever – it’s such a sharp contrast to the other not-couples of Disney’s Star Wars (Ridley/Driver, Jones/Luna), it was almost annoying. And I don’t even think Alden and Emilia were bad per se, they just didn’t vibe.
SPOILERS for Solo and Rogue One below:
Also, re: Qi’Ra – the dialogue keeps hinting at her having done Bad Things to survive but no one gives us a clue what she actually did other than join Crimson Dawn, there are zero specifics given even when she’s revealed to be on the bad guys’ side. It’s like they were afraid to make her unlikeable or something. Meanwhile Cassian’s first scene in Rogue One involves shooting his own informant dead and soon after, trying to assassinate Jyn’s father behind her back – they spared no detail and as a result, the big pre-mission speech he gave actually rang true. It’s just such a contrast, and not a happy one.
Emilia Clarke’s casting seemed to fill Kathleen Kennedy’s required quota of fair skinned British brunettes, vs any actual story need.
I’m indifferent to Emilia and her character but I don’t get the ‘British brunettes’ crack, Daisy Ridley and Felicity Jones are actually great in their roles and I don’t see how an American or Canadian brunette would have made it any better when the worst of the Star Wars female leads was an American – Natalie Portman.
I agree the lack of chemistry between the two leads did this in, together with their flat and unconvincing performances imo. I saw no spark in Alden E, it really was bad casting. And Emilia Clarke was little better. Too bad because the supporting cast–Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge–was terrific. But without perfect casting of the two crucial parts, of course this movie would not fly.
@Teacakes – I’m genuinely surprised that this is the first you’ve heard that. There have been 4
Star Wars movies in the Kennedy era, and each has its lead actress as a British brunette. I even liked Ridley and Jones, but it feels a bit interchangeable at this point. Unless you felt that Clarke was integral to Solo?
@Bridget – like I said, I don’t know where this is coming from. What is the issue with Daisy and Felicity both being British? Do their accents make them – or any two women with the same hair colour and accent – interchangeable? Would you have had the same issues with two American brunettes in the same roles, or – I ask again – would those be seen as automatically more “unique” and better?
I’m neither British nor American, and I don’t think those particular two (Ridley/Jones) seem interchangeable at all, either with each other or with Emilia, unless literally all you look at is a movie poster (in which case, why are they more of an issue than the American and also brunette Carrie Fisher and Natalie Portman, you can’t hear an accent through a poster). For starters, Emilia is not even half the actress the other two are, and the whole “Han’s first love” plot was cheesy and unnecessary so no, her character is pointless and a good part of why no one really cares for this movie. But like I said, would you have the same issues if she spoke in an American accent, and if so, how is that any better? She’d still be brunette and a not-good actress.
@teacakes I don’t have a problem with the British aspect – I think that some folks are getting tired of seeing which brunette is going to save the universe this time. Lots of diversity in the males roles, but the leading female role is always the same. To the point where people theorize that they’re all related (they’re not).
To add to the bad press, it’s the most expensive Star Wars movie ever made. Yikes.
I didn’t think it was *bad* so much as Han was the least interesting character in a movie about Han. And it’s Han-effing-Solo!
Harrison Ford as Han Solo is flat out iconic. The 3 core Star Wars characters in general are iconic – they should never have tried to do this movie and I sincerely hope they never try to do a Leia movie. Solo was always going to fail, Alden E just happened to have the bad luck to be the one that was cast in the role.
I saw this movie last night visiting my brother in Charlotte with his 15 year old stepson who wanted to see it. It was absolutely TERRIBLE. Like how would anyone spend money to see such crap? I literally had no idea what was happening for most of it. My brother fell asleep. At least the empty theater was posh and I sat in a leather recliner and caught up on emails. My stepnephew said it blowed too.
Lots of factors went into this disaster.
Too many SW films too soon. That in itself isn’t a problem but they aren’t making great movies but rather churning out mediocre movies. Slow down the pace and put quality before quantity. Make an awesome, fun film that people want to see.
Second, keep the budget reasonable. I know they had to hire a new director and do reshoots but that only decreases your profit margin. Again, slow down and do it right the first time.
Third, alienating the fans is not a good strategy. It just isn’t.
Fourth, why release this as a summer film against giant competitors like IW and whatever else. The other recent SW films were released during Christmas. That gave them time and they were the only major release. Why change the formula? Granted this might have still collapsed but perhaps not as spectacularly.
I’m with you on the budget issues. $250 million on a heist movie (before marketing) and then reshooting the damn this is NUTS.
However I don’t know the December release would have saved it. Last Jedi was against Jumanji (a HUGE hit), Rogue One overpowered Sing (big money maker) and faced down Passengers (JLaw! Pratt!…Oops!). And the fact is it is opening #1…just a desperately weak #1. I think it might have been a softer blow in December, but in the end, this was just an overall mistake.
They went up against Deadpool 2 and Avengers, was never going to do well against those 2 movies which were highly anticipated by fans.
It feels like the only movies that are made now are for Star Wars or comic books…neither of which I have interest in.
This! Opium for the masses is my guess.
My sons are Star Wars fanatics, especially my 15 year old. They are getting frustrated with the direction of the new films. They hated the Last Jedi. As for Han, they love the character as played by Harrison Ford, but Ehrenreich just didn’t do it for them. I’m thinking they should have chosen Anthony Ingruber.
I don’t think anyone asked for Ant Man and the Wasp this summer… So that might be the marvel flop that’s coming…???
I wouldn’t count on it, if only because the story will feed into the Avengers film next year. I was a big Star Wars fan as a kid, but the only new film I have enjoyed is Rogue One. I will probably see this one on Netflix.
Yeah, Paul Rudd is charming but ant man is taking things too far.
While i don’t expect Ant Man to do Black Panther money, i don’t expect an outright flop either. I think people arr familiar enough with the character now and the IW tie in will help. But it’s certainly going to be closely watched. That and Captain Marvel.
Good. Fuck Kathleen Kennedy’s racist, self-insert ass.
I don’t understand all the Last Jedi hate. While there were some problems with storyline, namely the Finn/Rose narrative, I thought it was fun and I loved the politics. There were some amazing battle scenes, and I was engaged with all the actors.
I think it was great that they made Luke rethink his role as Jedi. I thought that was a great narrative turn.
Same, I loved The Last Jedi precisely because of the direction in which it sent Luke. Which made That Scene on Crait (you know the one) even more epic and emotional because of the forty years’ worth of full circle we were getting there. And by God was Mark Hamill magnificent in that role.
That and Rey. She’s a great heroine, Daisy Ridley did so good playing her. She’s a worthy successor to Mark when it comes to the central protagonist role, and it never gets old seeing her wield a lightsaber.
I agree.
People complained Luke was too wide-eyed and naive and perky in the first trilogy.
Now they’re moaning that he turned into a grumpy middle-aged man!
I thought his character development was sad but very realistic.
I also liked the bond between Kilo and Rey- the yin and yang of the balance.
They might kill each other to save the world.
I don’t hate it, but I do not think it’s well written as part of a trilogy. Rian Johnson wrote the script before TFA was completed, and it shows. There’s no consistent character arc for the new cast between TFA and TLJ – and that’s not even getting into my irritation with how John Boyega’s character was treated.
I know Marvel movies have always made money but they have had a number of flops on the quality front, at least in my book. Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, even large parts of Civil War were soooo mediocre to me. So Marvel’s not untouchable — one day, more ppl will not like a Marvel film than will like it, and Marvel will have a flop. But it won’t matter, b/c the Marvel team has shown that it can pull out hits even after misses. The factory works, it doesn’t always churn out great product but it functions very well, it doesn’t need fixing.
The D.C. franchise, however, is broken apart from Wonder Woman. And the Disney Star Wars franchise, eeeeeeeeeesh. Those gears are not spinning correctly. Everyone can smell it. It just doesn’t have the juice right now. Creative vision, execution, marketing, timing, concepts…none of it is really great right now. I don’t know that they can fix it, it feels like there will be a long, slow Star Wars slide for the next few years.
There are so many of these SW movies it’s ridiculous.
I dont think there is anything wrong with making stand-alone SW movies. Just make ones that the fans want to see. Like the Obi-Wan Kenobi movie! Also cant compare it to Marvel. Yes, Marvel are putting out a lot of movies from the same universe. But…. they’re all different movies with very different main characters.
Yes to the Obi Wan movie.
I don’t get these “stop the Disney-fication of Star Wars!” complaints, because apparently everyone’s forgotten how horrible the prequels were. I know it’s been two years but TFA and Rogue One are pretty well-regarded, and even TLJ is not, despite the online noise, THAT bad (I actually like it).
The real problem is Disney running around trying to make fanservice cash off [fill in younger version of OT character] prequels because they’ve deluded themselves into thinking a few noisy fanboys means what the moviegoing audience really wants is to revisit/rehash the stories of characters we already know. I mean, we already know Han Solo is dead. Dud anyone ever really care about his pre-Leia love interest? And who on earth gives a f— about Boba Fett in 2018?! Why are you wasting James Mangold on this bs?!
The irony is that Rogue One and tv’s Rebels and Clone Wars spinoffs have shown time and again that people like stories set in the Star Wars universe and CENTRED ON NEW CHARACTERS. But what is Disney trying to give us? Knockoff Han Solo with budget Leia, Boba Fett and Obi-wan. (I love Obi-wan but between the OT and prequels, we’ve seen enough of him that the OBW movie isn’t any less pointless than Solo.
And also – burnout is real, even TLJ being universally beloved wouldn’t have led to Solo doing any better…..at least leave a year between movies ffs!
Well said!
Develop new characters in the Star Wars universe, don’t try to milk the old characters with weak replacements.
I love Han Solo but recasting one of the most recognisable characters in popular culture is ridiculous.
Rogue One showed you could make an interesting Star Wars prequel but it worked because they were new characters.
What next- Leia’s story?
Exactly – create new characters! And don’t centre your damn movie around people we’ve already seen die (that goes for Obi-wan! and Boba Fett too). They’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel, which is ridiculous considering how Rebels and Rogue One did.
Exactly. And it reminds me of remakes of Sex and the City and the like with younger actors in the roles, the new cast are always going to look like light-weights compared to the originals, and the audience will almost always view it as a money grab.
Rogue One provided a missing puzzle piece that was desperately needed…because we ALL wanted to see how the Death Star came to be…and of course, there is the connection to Darth Vader with that lineage…also…the acting…production and script was excellent for Rouge One…one of the best out of the series to me…Perhaps…the truth of the matter is that Han Solo…is only compelling within the original Star Wars context…and killing him the way that they did…and THEN bringing out a movie about his early life…that was shaky from the start…was NEVER going to work…and that Boba Fett movie? They’re going to water down the brand until it’s not worth anything…Ain’t nobody checking for Boba Fett like that!
“Ain’t nobody checking for Boba Fett like that!”
Bingo. Disney needs a reality check, quit making prequels about characters/their phases-of-life that we already know and no one gives a sh-t about. We know Han’s dead now, did anyone really want to see him as a ‘young Han’ with a not-Leia love interest? Is Boba Fett anything other than a way overhyped fan in-joke? gtfo!
The scene where the senator said: “Many bothans have died to bring us this information” was so intense. It was brilliant to turn that one sentence into a movie. But a Solo movie? Why? Im not interested in that.
Enjoyed the film very much. Liked the portrayal of the young Han and thought they did a good job showing his transition from wide eyed to the beginnings of snark and ennui. Anyone who couldn’t imagine what Qi’ra was about in minutes wasn’t paying attention. I loved that she was bad but obviously still had a soft spot for Han. No starry eyed fool and why, given her deal with the devil, would she ever admit to a droid that she loved Han? She is all about self preservation.
Not going to go on and on, but wanted to put in a few positive words about the movie from one who saw the originals in the theater as they came out. They are super simple. Super simple acting with seemingly ham handed special effects, and not nearly as tense and scary as the Marvel and other franchise films. Some people like the films for that reason. I like Solo, and thought it fit with the style of the original films.
*shrugs* They did it to themselves. They had plenty of time to hire good people, write good movies, and give us a good story. They chose to shove it out the gate as fast as possible without having all of their ducks in a row. Say what you want about Lucas’s prequels, but at least they had a consistent vision and story.
Reasons why people didn’t watch Solo A Star Wars Story (at least for me):
▪The Last Jedi was utter trash.
▪Alden Ehrenreich =/= Harrison Ford
▪We don’t need prequels & or sequels for every single Star Wars chara.
▪Fatigue of seeing Star Wars everywhere, on everything, 24/7.
Star Wars had ended then restarted, then started again…I know movies get remade etc. but honestly it’s been too much of the same thing and they have been bad at the stories. I’ve been a fan of the Original 3 as have been a lot of others, and I would be perfectly happy if we never got another movie in that universe ever again.
Sometimes it’s ok to end a story as it is, you know, don’t reinvent the wheel, and all that.
Plus as a fan, I think they have cheapened the franchise by bombarding us with merch at every turn. Like I don’t want to go to the grocery store, and see R2D2 on my bananas. It’s to much, and it’s everywhere, as opposed to when it was harder to find or you had to wait for a bit to see merch.
As, for why Marvel hasn’t faced the same backlash yet, it’s because they pace themselves a bit better, and also the stand alone movies are very different in tone, cast etc. to make people curious enough to watch them.
However, I think after Avengers 4, there will be bit of a slow down, as people like me, who have invested 10 years of their lives now into that particular arc will get the “ending” we need. And even as I write that, I’m damned curious, and will go watch the next Ant-man, Spider Man, Guardians movies bc Marvel perfectly cast them, marketed them extremely wisely, and there’s enough variety to keep me personally interested. I won’t go see Captain Marvel though bc Brie Larson bores me to tears.
I love Star Wars movies. I am not a die-hard fan; but I do see them as soon as they come out. This movie didn’t even have a Star Wars feel…at all. I’m not sure if it was casting, the script, the plot, or all of it. I really wanted to like it, because Han Solo is such an intriguing SW character. But, it’s flat…at least in my opinion. 🙁
Saw it today. It was all right. The cast was good. Glover scene-stealed like crazy – so awesome for him! Alden wasn’t bad at all.
The movie needed tightening and there needed to be more going on between Lando, Han and Chewie, which would have made it more fun.
I have no interest in seeing this film in theatres and I have yet to even see Infinity War or Deadpool 2, last film I saw in the theatre was SW The Last Jedi and I thought that film sucked. Others call Rian Johnston’s “Subverting Expectations” is genius. No it is a total charlie foxtrot, this is a trilogy that should be a coherent narrative that ties in all THREE films. Rian decides to just say screw the last movie I am an ARTIST behold my GENIUS.
EP7 is ACT 1 of a story in a story you just do not abandon plot points in ACT 2 that you established in Act 1.
These crap films are hurting the entire franchise, there us a YouTube channel called World Class Bullshitters, they have videos of Star Wars toys rotting on pegs in store shelves. Latest one a TRU that is going into liquidation cannot sell toys that are on clearance. For one TRU cannot get the price points right that even HASBRO cannot do for the basic MSRP. 300 for a smartphone integrated AT-ACT walker from Rogue One, Figures for that film fail to sell because kids do not want to play with figures that all DIED in that film, Kids want to make up new stories with these toys, cannot do that when they are all DEAD.
I don’t see how anything can hurt the franchise more than the prequel trilogy did but go off, I guess.
Solo’s not a bad movie and is kind of fun (Donald Glover is great), but 1) no one asked for this movie, and 2) The Last Jedi turned off a lot of people. Disney should focus on quality (Rogue One) not the quantity of movies. Also, Force Awakens and Last Jedi messed with our heroes, and you just don’t mess with people’s heroes. The Force Awakens should have focused on the attack on the Jedi academy with Luke going to the grump side in The Last Jedi, and then doing his disappearing act in the last movie. Also, if Rey is not a Skywalker, then we would have sat through 9 movies of the screw-up Skywalkers who were ultimately failures and some random person had to save the day. I don’t think so.
By the way, thank you so much for the civilized conversation here. On the Hollywood Reporter site, the weak, little men have been congregating and complaining about the women and minorities in the the latest SW movies. Idiots.
They destroyed Luke’s character and Han and Leia’s characters and their arcs lbh in TFA and TLJ.
So who cares about young Solo anymore? Han ended up as a loser in sequels. Abandoned his wife, rebellion, got back to his old ways in his old age, his son killed him.
Disney can choke for what they did to SW franchise.