Author Topic: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review  (Read 25116 times)

iamfanboy

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #60 on: 01 June 2018, 16:16:53 »
That's exactly what he is though - the Boba Fett of Ep I. Both are cool looking jobbers sent by the main villains to hunt down the heroes. Both have barely a handful of lines of dialogue. Both get no character in the films & die ignoble deaths. Both were revived in expanded fiction due to an onslaught of fanboys going on & on about how amazeballs they were, when in reality all the did was fight the heroes briefly, then die like a chump. It's cool if you like what he was made to be later - I like Fett - but they're essentially the same nobody jobbers in the films.
The blatant cash-ins I was thinking of specifically were Jango Fett in Ep 2, written in JUST to be able to throw Mandalorian armor into the toy boxes, and how Darth Vader shows up in full regalia at the end of Episode III just so they can throw him on all the damned posters. And his first words are whining about Padme. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

I don't care much about Maul in the movie. The Phantom Menace is suck from beginning to end. The aforementioned scene where the Jedi and Maul are all trapped together is about the only decent piece of cinematography in the whole movie (for reasons roosterboy already posted), and the reason he's less suck than the rest is because he doesn't have any of that Magic Lucas Dialogue spewing from his voicehole. Hell, if he DID talk in the movie, it'd probably be in some horrible German accent just to make sure we KNOW he's evil. "Jawohl, Mein Master!"

And remember, most of the marketing before and during the run of the movie focused on Jar Jar - there were Maul toys to be sure, but he wasn't written as the main selling point of a movie. Afterwards, he was rightly chosen as the least worst part of the movie and more emphasis was put on him, but was Maul planned as a cash-in character from the start like Jango or Papa Vader? No.

The first and last of those are well know from the original movies. Not sure about the Maw... I only remember it from the Star Wars books as a reference to something else. Don't recall which book though.
The exact lines were in talking about the Falcon, "Hey, I won her from you fair and square." No mention of how, and sabacc doesn't even exist canonically until Star Wars Rebels, around 2015ish. Ditto the Imperial Academy connection - there's nowhere mentioned in the movies that Han Solo attended there or how he dropped out, and it wouldn't have come up in any of the existing spinoffs. The Maw came from the (bad but not the WORST) Jedi Academy novels. This was all stuff taken from the EU and woven in as nods to the real dedicated fans, even if they filed off a few details.

In other words: The person writing this knew his stuff. Even if there are some details that I personally hate (why couldn't've it have been spice they were stealing? And starship fuel? We already KNOW various gasses are used as starship fuel from a half-dozen canonical sources! Just to have that scene where they escape the Maw! Why not explain it as some sort of additive that gives fuel an extra kick?)

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #61 on: 01 June 2018, 19:30:16 »
Uh, Darth Maul does have voice lines in Phantom Menace.  He's surprisingly soft spoken: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gug3R-bKt9U

I find it a genuinely refreshing dichotomy that he seems incredibly calm and collected outside of combat but when the lightsabers are humming he resembles more animal than person.

(Incidentally, Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter is one of the old Legends canon that I genuinely regret losing, and I say that as someone who was largely unmoved by Disney's decisions in that regard)
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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #62 on: 01 June 2018, 23:54:47 »
Uh, Darth Maul does have voice lines in Phantom Menace.  He's surprisingly soft spoken: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gug3R-bKt9U

I find it a genuinely refreshing dichotomy that he seems incredibly calm and collected outside of combat but when the lightsabers are humming he resembles more animal than person.

(Incidentally, Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter is one of the old Legends canon that I genuinely regret losing, and I say that as someone who was largely unmoved by Disney's decisions in that regard)

Probably they couldn't get Peter Stenafenowich who did his voice in Ep I so they used the voice they had in the cartoon which was perfectly fine :)  Because he could go from softly spoken

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T70-DuN0FPo

To being a bloodthirsty monster

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9QqfzBcvgI

and then there's the fight with Darth Sidious which was amazing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7hBZNsPnyg

As was the scene where he got his legs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jIjG-e7mZM


« Last Edit: 02 June 2018, 04:14:23 by marauder648 »
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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #63 on: 02 June 2018, 06:47:42 »
Well yeah, beyond the Movies, he got air time in TCW and Rebels which Fett never did (canonically).
What? Boba is prominently featured in several episodes of TCW.
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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #64 on: 02 June 2018, 08:32:14 »
What? Boba is prominently featured in several episodes of TCW.
See Reply#56.
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iamfanboy

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #65 on: 02 June 2018, 09:38:39 »
Uh, Darth Maul does have voice lines in Phantom Menace.  He's surprisingly soft spoken: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gug3R-bKt9U

I find it a genuinely refreshing dichotomy that he seems incredibly calm and collected outside of combat but when the lightsabers are humming he resembles more animal than person.
Ah. The last time I watched the prequels was the Fall of the Jedi cut, which trims 44 minutes of pure suck from The Phantom Menace and makes it... more coherent? Less painful? GOOD really isn't the word, but it hurts less. It paves the way for his cuts of the other two movies, and those are actually watchable. Oh man, that deleted scene he put in of Anakin having dinner with Padme's family is quite nice.

But yeah, that scene with the Darths walking and talking was gone. Yes, that is a nice dichotomy, and really brought out during TCW and Rebels.

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #66 on: 02 June 2018, 12:28:29 »
With initial reviews this poor, I haven't really gotten round to watching it. Hype's rather died I'm afraid. My uncle did though. Very poor openings here in SE Asia, hall was about 15% full and he claims the only patrons were middle-aged men like him, aka probably SW grogs. He felt it was forgettable.

A lot of people credit Darth Maul as the first SW character to really show off the potential of lightsaber combat. The TPM duel is one of the best in the Prequel Trilogy, and rather puts the OT to shame. Two more firsts - double bladed saber and 2-on-1 fight - make the duel unforgettable, and of course there's that rockin' soundtrack!

Its a pity he was resurrected in Rebels, and more of a pity that his death in Rebels was even stupider than the first.

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #67 on: 02 June 2018, 15:16:57 »
He was resurrected in the Clone Wars, not Rebels. 

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #68 on: 02 June 2018, 15:34:22 »
With initial reviews this poor

The reviews have not been poor; the majority have been positive or mixed. The box office has been lower than expected. Not the same thing.

Quote
A lot of people credit Darth Maul as the first SW character to really show off the potential of lightsaber combat. The TPM duel is one of the best in the Prequel Trilogy, and rather puts the OT to shame.

That fight sucked, as did all the fights in the Prequels. Too choreographed, too intricate, too stylistic, too sterile, too cold and dispassionate. There's no story in those fights, not like the way there was in the OT, just dance moves and coordinated stunts. And CGI. Compare to something like the fight between Kenobi and Vader in ANH. Yes, it's far more static, but there is character in there, there is story, there is emotion. Or both times that Luke faces off with Vader; none of the Prequel fights have even a tenth of the drama and emotion of those two. Look at how Luke goes completely apeshit feral on Vader when he fears Leia becoming the next target of the Emperor's schemes. Now compare that to Obi-Wan's reaction after Maul kills Qui-Gonn. Night and day. So, yeah, the Prequel lightsaber fights may be more kinetic and acrobatic, but that doesn't make them good fight scenes. A fight scene should be about more than just the moves.

And I'm not even going to get into Yoda's fight scenes. Those were just straight up ridiculous.

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #69 on: 02 June 2018, 16:10:15 »
I really enjoyed the film
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iamfanboy

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #70 on: 02 June 2018, 16:25:44 »
A lot of people credit Darth Maul as the first SW character to really show off the potential of lightsaber combat. The TPM duel is one of the best in the Prequel Trilogy, and rather puts the OT to shame. Two more firsts - double bladed saber and 2-on-1 fight - make the duel unforgettable, and of course there's that rockin' soundtrack!

Its a pity he was resurrected in Rebels, and more of a pity that his death in Rebels was even stupider than the first.
*blink*

What?

If you don't understand why Darth Maul's final battle in Twin Suns is one of the best moments in Star Wars, then I'm not sure how to explain it to you. But I'm going to try.

A duel in cinema is about the emotions between the two characters, not the flashy footwork or scenery.

In Return of the Jedi, it wasn't just about glowsticks hitting each other in the throne room as the Emperor watched, it was about Luke trying to redeem Anakin while confronting the fact that he was becoming more like his father... a fear we all have. It was about the Emperor being sure that he would win no matter who killed each other, up until the moment he found out that he would not. It was about Darth Vader realizing that he did not have to be what the Emperor had made him; he did not have to stay shackled to his past if he chose not to be.

In TPM, the emotion - up until Quigon went tumbling down the hole - was tepid annoyance at best. Each side was an obstacle to the other, not a real thing to hate. And even AFTER that moment, when we might have seen a better director give Kenobi a loss of control, a bending towards the Dark Side and pure savagery... instead it was more flawless dancing with glowsticks hitting each other. Beautifully choreographed, but empty of any real emotion. It was all artifice, superficially impressive but made of nothing if you actually think about it.

In Twin Suns, there is real emotion between these two characters, and we are SHOWN the difference between Kenobi and Maul. Maul twirls his saber around in the same way that he did back then, and while Kenobi starts with his older pose, he shifts to a newer one. One character is locked into the past, obsessing over it, and the other has moved on and learned from it. We see which way is superior in a heartbeat, when Maul tries the same flashy trick he used in their earlier fights and Obi-Wan ends it in less than three seconds.

Another thing flavoring it is the history of these characters. Yes, they first met in TPM where they didn't really interact, but in The Clone Wars they fight several times, with Maul being directly responsible for overthrowing and killing the great love of Kenobi's life - in other words, there was plenty of reason for Kenobi to resent and hate Maul just as much as Maul hated him, but he refused to.

Brevity is the soul of wit. TPM takes a 10 minute duel to tell us one thing: Kenobi's master dies, leaving him ill-prepared to manage Anakin as a padawan. Twin Suns takes two minutes to tell us many things: Maul defines himself by the Sith Code, despite his claims otherwise. Obi-Wan has grown and transitioned from the somewhat whiny Master he had been into a self-assured true Master of the Force. Luke is the Chosen One, not Anakin. Maul dies alone and forgotten by everyone but Kenobi - an important note, as Maul does have a habit of coming back! Maul cares most about the past - "He will avenge us!" are his last words - while Obi-Wan is looking towards the future.

And all that's on TOP of how much the scene is drawn from classic Kurosawa samurai duels, which were a major inspiration for Lucas long ago and far away. Kenobi doesn't want to fight, because he knows that he's already won. Perhaps Maul knows the same, and is inviting death rather than admit failure - and so forces Kenobi to fight. In an instant, it is over... with the ending that both saw coming.

There were many good things in Star Wars Rebels, and even a few truly great moments. But that final duel is not just a good moment in REBELS, it may be one of the best moments in Star Wars, ever. I'd stack it up near "I love you." "I know." and "Be seeing you, kid." and "Help me take this mask off." and "rebellions are built on hope."

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #71 on: 02 June 2018, 22:33:44 »
If you guys are rating fight scenes on the basis of plot advancement and emotion alone, well then I've nothing more to say. We can cut out the entirety of fight scenes, thus saving lots of unnecessary expense, for HBO series style "battles" - ten minutes of dramatic buildup, one minute of clashing swords, and twenty minutes of denouement where the (surviving) actors wax lyrical about all the awesome stuff that went on during the battle, with EMOTION! and PATHOS!

Oh hey, that just about describes Obi-wan vs Maul 2.0, and Obi-wan vs Vader 2.0. Except the 2nd Maul fight was actually over in 5 seconds, after 30 seconds of very emotional fierce glaring and posing.

Look at how Luke goes completely apeshit feral on Vader when he fears Leia becoming the next target of the Emperor's schemes. Now compare that to Obi-Wan's reaction after Maul kills Qui-Gonn. Night and day.
You're right, but not in the way you probably intended.

Luke does indeed go apeshit feral - and that's what the Emperor wants. That's Luke coming to the Dark Side. Obi-Wan is indeed more restrained. That's because right after his Big No, you can see him visibly curb his emotion and gird himself for the fight. Yet when he's finally unleashed, he still fights with more passion than when he started, like Qui-Gon did. Night and day? Dark and Light.

If anything, it's the ending of the fight that's lame. Because we have like a minute of Obi-wan hanging there while Maul glares at him, and then it ends in like 5 seconds in a single cut...

...oh wait. That's exactly how it went in Rebels too.

iamfanboy

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #72 on: 03 June 2018, 00:14:08 »
If you guys are rating fight scenes on the basis of plot advancement and emotion alone, well then I've nothing more to say. We can cut out the entirety of fight scenes, thus saving lots of unnecessary expense, for HBO series style "battles" - ten minutes of dramatic buildup, one minute of clashing swords, and twenty minutes of denouement where the (surviving) actors wax lyrical about all the awesome stuff that went on during the battle, with EMOTION! and PATHOS!
Mass battles - like the opener for Saving Private Ryan - serve different visual purposes than duels - like the one between the two snipers during the climax of that film.

Quote
Oh hey, that just about describes Obi-wan vs Maul 2.0, and Obi-wan vs Vader 2.0. Except the 2nd Maul fight was actually over in 5 seconds, after 30 seconds of very emotional fierce glaring and posing.
It was their fourth fight, possibly fifth, most of which I think you would enjoy - they tend to have a lot of lightsabers flickering around. One even had half a dozen Jedi, space pirates blasting stuff, and Maul's brother(?), most of which end up dead or maimed.

Quote
Luke does indeed go apeshit feral - and that's what the Emperor wants. That's Luke coming to the Dark Side. Obi-Wan is indeed more restrained. That's because right after his Big No, you can see him visibly curb his emotion and gird himself for the fight. Yet when he's finally unleashed, he still fights with more passion than when he started, like Qui-Gon did. Night and day? Dark and Light.
NOOOOOOO... I'd forgotten that TPM actually HAD that cliche.

But 'unleashed' Kenobi fights exactly the same as regular Kenobi. He doesn't even swing any harder, or show any effort! He has no emotion, and gives us nothing to hook onto to WANT him to win except for the fact that he's fighting a guy with devil horns and black skin.

Quote
If anything, it's the ending of the fight that's lame. Because we have like a minute of Obi-wan hanging there while Maul glares at him, and then it ends in like 5 seconds in a single cut...

...oh wait. That's exactly how it went in Rebels too.
And their last duel ends like their first. An interesting notion - intentional callback? - that I hadn't considered, probably because I was too bored by the glowstick rave to really care that much about how the fight ended. NTSNTSNTSWUBWUBWUB. Someone needs to replace Duel of Fates with dubstep.

In all seriousness, though, that's a bit of art there, if it was intentionally done. And that was suspense. We knew that Kenobi would win - he lives to Episode 4 - but we didn't know HOW. How would he do it? What could he do, dangling there, completely at Maul's mercy?

*watches it again* Well, that is pretty stupid, and a fitting end to the dumbness of the duel. Did Maul forget that Force users can jump real high, or how to swing his glowstick when Kenobi goes rocketing past him? For some reason I thought it was something like the lightsaber ignition in The Last Jedi, when Kylo assassinates Snoke. My mistake, thought it might have actually had some depth to it!


But... I don't know how to bridge the gulf between us here. Are Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich favorites of yours? If you don't know the latter name, he produced the 1997 Godzilla, Day After Tomorrow,  Independence Day, 2012...

Plainly there are people who like that sort of thing - there's a unfortunate reason that Michael Bay is rich! - but I can't understand it. I'm just completely incapable of grasping how someone could enjoy something like the Transformers movie, or five minutes of glowsticks being twiddled around by stuntmen pretending to be real actors on blatantly fake CG sets. But YOU like what you like, and dislike what you dislike; I can't stop you from doing so. I can just explain why I, personally, don't, and hope to persuade you at least a little.

But it is wasted effort. There's a gulf between us, and it's a gulf that I've never been able to bridge in past arguments with other people. I can't understand why people enjoy splashing through the cinema equivalent of shallow puddles when they could be diving deep beneath the ocean or whitewater rafting, and the reverse has always been true.

So I think this conversation is over. We're just coming at this from such different points of view that it's like we didn't even watch the same movie.


Aaaand now I'm thinking about Rashoumon. ******, I'd call myself a cinema snob if I hadn't just watched Dracula: Dead and Loving It day before yesterday. :D

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #73 on: 03 June 2018, 00:33:38 »
At least we have a little common ground there. "She just ate!" :D

No. I like both Blade Runners and Seven Samurai as much as I do 97 Godzilla and Independence Day. There's a time and place for emoting and whizbang effects both.

The Prequel Trilogy suffers from a crippling lack of the former, I agree. (Not Obi-Wan though. I like his portrayal.) But that doesn't exonerate the Original Trilogy's lightsaber duels, or IMO condemn the Maul duel.

Really, my perfect Star Wars is probably the OT remade with modern graphics, 10 extra minutes of the Space Battle of Endor Kashyyk and WOOKIES, not kiddie-bait.

ANS Kamas P81

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #74 on: 03 June 2018, 01:42:28 »
Looks like it's going down hard as a flop.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/weekend-box-office-solo-a-star-wars-story-crash-landing-second-outing-1116066

It might make 28 million this weekend for a total of 150.  That HURTS, considering Rogue One broke 155 in its opening weekend, and had a much smaller budget to start with.  There's gonna be a lot of blood in the carpet at Disney and Lucasfilm...
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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #75 on: 03 June 2018, 02:09:26 »
The thing is.  Is this a flashback because of TLJ or Solo?  Because honestly, Solo wasn't bad.  It was far more enjoyable than TLJ (which had me leaving the cinema feeling angry) and I'm not sure what the backlash about this movie really is.
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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #76 on: 03 June 2018, 09:10:35 »
The thing is.  Is this a flashback because of TLJ or Solo?  Because honestly, Solo wasn't bad.  It was far more enjoyable than TLJ (which had me leaving the cinema feeling angry) and I'm not sure what the backlash about this movie really is.

I can guarantee you it's The Last Jedi. Most of the people who have seen Solo have said it was alright. It seems to be a favorite for a handful of viewers, & most people who went to see it liked it okay, but the large majority just aren't seeing it at all. Poisoning the fandom has finally caught up to Disney - the toxic mess in the fanbase is now pushing people away from the franchise rather than encouraging people to feel like it's a "must see" event. Disney was handed a formula for success, but their people thought they knew better & this is the result. Their staff has been deliberately antagonistic & divisive with pop culture's most rabid fanbase for nearly four years now, & it just wasn't necessary. You reap what you sow.
« Last Edit: 03 June 2018, 10:31:50 by MadCapellan »

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #77 on: 03 June 2018, 14:38:45 »
I suppose, as blasphemous as it may sound, they should have retained Abrams for Episode 8.  I mean, he's doing 9, so...
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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #78 on: 03 June 2018, 15:18:10 »
There have been dozens of off-ramps, & Kathleen Kennedy has just kept driving this truck until it ran out of gas. Star Wars should be literally bomb proof, & what happened looks even worse when right across the hall Marvel has racked out 19 back-to-back hits since 2008. I hope Iger & the board put a lot of thought into analyzing what has happened.

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #79 on: 03 June 2018, 16:26:55 »
Surprisingly enough, the bulk of people who see Star Wars movies are not actually Star Wars fans. They're just regular moviegoers who, what do you know, want to see a movie. The "rabid and toxic" fanbase is in fact still a tiny minority of the overall audience of the film.

More likely the issues here are a combination of Franchise Fatigue (the last Star Wars film only came out six months ago) and the hangover from the still-strong Avengers: Another Avengers Movie (and a lesser degree, Deadpool 2) creating a crowded movie space then anything else. That Solo required a lot of expensive reshoots along the way is probably not helping, mind you.

The Star Wars fandom was pretty damned toxic throughout the entire prequel trilogy. Did that cause people to stay away from the movies en-masse? No. Rather, the fandom likes to think that they are more important then they actually are.
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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #80 on: 03 June 2018, 17:17:23 »
Staying away from issues plaguing the rest of the franchise... there's very little to recommend Solo to non-fans actually. That might put a spanner in the works of the "A Star Wars Story" series, cause the rate things are going, the franchise is banking heavily on the existing fanbase and the power of nostalgia is proving insufficient to cover up other perceived defects.

Which is a tad unfair to the series. I quite liked Rogue One by the way.

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #81 on: 03 June 2018, 17:29:07 »
Surprisingly enough, the bulk of people who see Star Wars movies are not actually Star Wars fans. They're just regular moviegoers who, what do you know, want to see a movie. The "rabid and toxic" fanbase is in fact still a tiny minority of the overall audience of the film.

And who generates the buzz that gets these people into a Star Wars movie rather than something else? Yes, it's fans. Yet search for Star Wars on any media these days, & it's a non-stop back & forth shit show. Whichever side you're on, the average moviegoer looks at it & goes "Yeah, I think I can find something more enjoyable than this...."

Quote
More likely the issues here are a combination of Franchise Fatigue (the last Star Wars film only came out six months ago) and the hangover from the still-strong Avengers: Another Avengers Movie (and a lesser degree, Deadpool 2) creating a crowded movie space then anything else.

I know that's the "official" line, but it sounds like a bunch of marketing malarky to me. Who honestly avoids watching a movie because they think back and say "Nah, I just watched a movie like that in December! Too close together for me!" Meanwhile, people are streaming into their umpteenth Super Hero movie.


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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #82 on: 03 June 2018, 17:35:04 »
Staying away from issues plaguing the rest of the franchise... there's very little to recommend Solo to non-fans actually. That might put a spanner in the works of the "A Star Wars Story" series, cause the rate things are going, the franchise is banking heavily on the existing fanbase and the power of nostalgia is proving insufficient to cover up other perceived defects.

Which is a tad unfair to the series. I quite liked Rogue One by the way.
the only thing I didn't like about rogue 1 was the whole "everyone dies" I mean they spent the whole movie building up these characters to get you to like (care) about them, and not a single one survived.

now don't get me wrong, that can be a powerful narrative, but to me there was a certain amount of beating the dead horse about just how bad (evil) Tarkin and friends were, that they were willing to destroy an essentially critical and irreplaceable archive to mess with their enemies, I mean really Tarkin and everyone should have been tried, and likely executed for collateral damage issues.

Skyth

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #83 on: 03 June 2018, 17:35:36 »
People have limited budgets.  The more movies crowded together the less likely people are to see all of them.

MadCapellan

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #84 on: 03 June 2018, 17:39:24 »
People have limited budgets.  The more movies crowded together the less likely people are to see all of them.

What does it say that Star Wars, one of film's largest franchises, is no longer getting priority in that budgeting? I'm pretty sure that says something about the value of said franchise.

Skyth

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #85 on: 03 June 2018, 17:45:16 »
I've seen Solo twice and enjoyed it.  But if I had to pick one movie to see it would have been Infinity War or Deadpool.

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #86 on: 03 June 2018, 17:59:15 »
the only thing I didn't like about rogue 1 was the whole "everyone dies" I mean they spent the whole movie building up these characters to get you to like (care) about them, and not a single one survived.

now don't get me wrong, that can be a powerful narrative, but to me there was a certain amount of beating the dead horse about just how bad (evil) Tarkin and friends were, that they were willing to destroy an essentially critical and irreplaceable archive to mess with their enemies, I mean really Tarkin and everyone should have been tried, and likely executed for collateral damage issues.
Slightly off-topic here, but well... I liked it. I've always been of the blood-and-guts school of drama; significant people have to die meaningful deaths to make conflict worthwhile and memorable. That's something you don't often see these days - blockbuster flicks tend to focus on invincible supermen protags and pad the rest of the action with obvious redshirts.

Tarkin blowing up an Imperial base full of mooks doesn't bother me the slightest. Rogue One, Blue Squadron, Admiral Raddus, loads of brave Rebels... that does. And I like that.

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #87 on: 03 June 2018, 18:11:13 »
... there's very little to recommend Solo to non-fans actually...

Are you sure about that?

Of course there is many stuff in Solo that cater for the fans but this movie is very non-fan friendly (the most SW movie in fact IMO). My brother girlfriend liked a lot of the movie and she doesnt even know whats a "death star" (i think she never saw a SW movie before).
« Last Edit: 03 June 2018, 18:12:58 by Kentares »
Star Wars ST and Star Trek current shows are crap.

Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #88 on: 03 June 2018, 18:29:04 »
the only thing I didn't like about rogue 1 was the whole "everyone dies" I mean they spent the whole movie building up these characters to get you to like (care) about them, and not a single one survived.

now don't get me wrong, that can be a powerful narrative, but to me there was a certain amount of beating the dead horse about just how bad (evil) Tarkin and friends were, that they were willing to destroy an essentially critical and irreplaceable archive to mess with their enemies, I mean really Tarkin and everyone should have been tried, and likely executed for collateral damage issues.

Slightly off-topic here, but well... I liked it. I've always been of the blood-and-guts school of drama; significant people have to die meaningful deaths to make conflict worthwhile and memorable. That's something you don't often see these days - blockbuster flicks tend to focus on invincible supermen protags and pad the rest of the action with obvious redshirts.

Tarkin blowing up an Imperial base full of mooks doesn't bother me the slightest. Rogue One, Blue Squadron, Admiral Raddus, loads of brave Rebels... that does. And I like that.

Samurai movies pretty much start with the premise that the hero(es) die at the end.  It can work.  And hell Star Wars wouldn't even exist without stealing from Kurosawa.

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Re: Han Solo: A Spoilerrific Star Wars Review
« Reply #89 on: 03 June 2018, 18:41:43 »
People have limited budgets.  The more movies crowded together the less likely people are to see all of them.

If you think three in one month (Avengers, Deadpool and Solo) is bad, December 21st will find the release of three movies I want to see...Aquaman, Battle Angel Alita and Bumblebee...that's all three released on the same day!

Slightly off-topic here, but well... I liked it. I've always been of the blood-and-guts school of drama; significant people have to die meaningful deaths to make conflict worthwhile and memorable. That's something you don't often see these days - blockbuster flicks tend to focus on invincible supermen protags and pad the rest of the action with obvious redshirts.

Tarkin blowing up an Imperial base full of mooks doesn't bother me the slightest. Rogue One, Blue Squadron, Admiral Raddus, loads of brave Rebels... that does. And I like that.

I rate Rogue One as one of the absolute best Star Wars films, primarily for showing the true cost of war...

As to Tarkin's actions, they are well within character for him, and also fairly justified as it was the fastest way to ensure that the plans for the Death Star and many other projects didn't fall into the wrong hands...especially now that the locations of these plans was now known...if the blast had occurred minutes before, A New Hope wouldn't have had the ending it did...

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