Get excited because in today’s episode we rank perhaps the most forgettable, unexciting, yet underrated movie in all of Star Wars…Solo: A Star Wars Story. Is it just a ‘cute’ movie? Should droids have the same rights as humans? Is Christian just a crazy fanboy giving it a high ranking? Stay tuned while he defends it against the gang just crapping on film.
“It was just largely forgettable.” - Amanda
We all know Solo wasn’t the film we needed. Of all the characters to have their own anthology film, Disney picked Han Solo…the character they killed off in The Force Awakens. Why should we care anymore? Amanda said she doesn’t leave the movie with a really strong emotion tied to it, and we can’t blame her. She asks questions that I think a lot of us have: Do we need Han’s story? Did we need an explanation for his “Solo” name? Probably not, but we can at least appreciate some of the lore behind this film. Afterall, Amanda believes it’s only a lore movie because that’s its strongest quality. For her, the best thing about watching this film is L3-37, portrayed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. She loves her performance and spunk on screen. She also likes the love story between Han and Qi’ra. However, she wasn’t surprised when Woody Harrelson only played himself under the guise of Beckett. This movie didn’t reinvent anything different for her that the Star Wars universe hasn’t done before, but she did enjoy seeing the nitty gritty everyday life of the Correllians on the streets. To sum up her feelings, the Maw was cool, but it just didn’t bring it. She mentioned it feels written almost as if there was supposed to be a sequel, which at first it was slated as a trilogy.
“The movie was cute.” - Brody
Of the group, Brody was the harshest critic of characters. He thought many other actors could have portrayed the young Han Solo better than Alden Ehrenreich. To him, Han also seemed to be adopting Beckett’s persona as the film went on (which I think was the point). He didn’t like that Chewie was portrayed as a cold-blooded killer when we first saw him. He didn’t connect with the characters and the stakes never felt high. It was more of a fun Marvel movie to him. It was fun seeing Darth Maul and Crimson Dawn on the rise. In terms of technical aspects, he thought Lady Proxima was awesome to see in action.
“Stick that in your pie hole and chew on it.” - Charley
Hot Takes
It’s so milquetoast, that it doesn’t deserve a hot take.
It’s so bad, the movie would’ve been better if old Harrison Ford played young Han Solo.
Droids should not have the same rights as humans.
Donald Glover was not a good Lando Calrissian.
L3-37 is a social justice warrior for droids’ equal rights with humans, which poses an ethical dilemma. A dilemma that humans have entertained for a while now. Let us not forget droids are machines, so why give machines the same rights as us? As Charley said, “People can make machines. Machines cannot make people.” They’d be purposeless if they killed humans. Amanda disagrees, but it’s a fun part of our episode regardless. It’s funny that after all of Brody’s talk of how great Donald Glover is (he’s mentioned him in a couple of previous episodes), he still thinks he wasn’t a good Lando Calrissian. That is a hot take in which the rest of us disagreed!
“It can’t piss you off as a Star Wars fan.” - Christian
individual Rankings
Christian = 23
Amanda = 15
Brody = 13
Charley = 12
Overall Score = 63
For Charley, he thinks the biggest mistake was not finishing what they started…the trilogy. Maybe then he could’ve seen who the bad boy Han Solo really is, but here he’s just a nice guy calling himself an outlaw. He enjoyed Chewbacca, liked how they showed the economy of the Empire, and appreciated finally seeing how difficult it was to get off of Corellia. All the other movies make it seem simple to just steal a ship and break away from a planet. Not so in this film. He thinks Q’ira should’ve died to make Han more of that grim bad boy, but I disagree. You’ve got to have a story to get him to be a bad boy. He’s more calloused to love now because she deliberately left him, instead of dying. Charley and I do agree though that you can’t be mad at the movie. It doesn’t do anything outlandish or drastic for Star Wars to ruffle many feathers.
“Did you not like how they did the Kessel Run? Did you not like the Maw? Did you not like Dryden Vos and the idea of a space yacht? - Christian
I particularly love this movie. There’s a lot of fanservice being done, especially for readers like me who enjoyed A.C. Crispin’s Han Solo book trilogy. When you can take material from the older Expanded Universe and pepper it throughout your now canon films, then I think that’s a recipe for success. I like the Corellian hounds, and the fast and furious chase scene on Corellia. I thought it was great seeing Lady Proxima play the similar role of Crispin’s Garris Shrike, oppressing children for profit. I loved the meeting between Han and Chewie. It was funny, new, and it made sense for this universe. Learning more about coaxium and the syndicates in the opening text: “It’s a lawless time” was a cool opening paired with the flashing screen of Han hotwiring that speeder. Another unique and great start to an anthology film.
“This movie is like a Wookiee’s lap.” - Christian
I enjoyed finding the easter eggs of this film. It’s very comfortable to watch (much like Rio’s Wookiee metaphor). Han’s gun was Beckett’s gun; we got to see their outlaw endeavors. With an attitude like Han’s “show me how to do that”, it makes sense for him to have the skills that he has. Jon Favreau’s portrayal of Rio (and his CGI) as well as Phoebe Waller-Bridge really worked in this movie. If you love the characters of Rogue One, you have to give these characters time too. The music for Han and Chewie escaping together and then talking under the railing of Beckett’s stolen vessel was pleasantly different. Lando showing the Falcon for the first time was nostalgic. The Imperial March used for recruiting and then grim and dark in the war during their boots-on-the-ground scene was a brilliant play. I like that scene of Han defying orders, maskless and going the opposite way against the masked soldiers blindly obeying orders (likely to their death). We got some actual war scenes from the perspective of the Empire!
“Everything else about the movie is pretty much milquetoast.” - Amanda
What makes it so underrated (in my opinion) is that it’s the most non-space opera movie of them all, and I think that was the biggest risk about making this film. This movie executes comedy better than most Star Wars films, and it was comforting to see that they didn’t jack up a story like they did with the sequel trilogy. Sure it’s not grand or heavy, but it’s still a great story. Solo: A Star Wars story breaks the formula for Star Wars; steering away from the grand, epic, and dramatic elements to tell a different story. A story that not all of us might enjoy.