Post by Uesugi-dono on May 30, 2018 9:45:55 GMT
SOLO: Uesugi's Review and Dissertation on Star Wars in General
Let me just start by reminding you what Star Wars is to me. I was 3 years old in 1977. Star Wars is the first movie I was present for in a theater. I remember almost nothing except for the enormity of the Devastator in pursuit of Princess Leia. The awe, the scale, the immense size of the Imperial-Class Star Destroyer that dwarfed the audience. It's a kind of appropriate metaphor for the impact the Star Wars universe would have on my life.
In 1980, when I was 6, I went with my grandfather to see The Empire Strikes Back. It was the first and last movie we would ever see, just the two of us in a theater. I had vagueish memories of Star Wars, mostly due to the toys I was consumed with, but Empire lit a fire that burns bright today. I had just witnessed the pinnacle of a Galaxy Far, Far Away.
When the creation of the Prequels was announced I was part of a stage combat sword-fighting group called the Stormy Knights. A fellow fighter and I very nearly dropped everything, school, our jobs, relationships... all of it just to act out the crazy idea to drive to Skywalker Ranch and plead to be Jedi extras. (I still kind of regret that we backed out to this day.)
When Lucas released his special edition of Star Wars in 1997 I was the assistant manager of a movie theater. You could not imagine the excitement... or the disappointment when we first put the print together and watched it. "What is this shit?" my friend (the manager) and I asked each other, "Han Shot First!" (To this day there exists at least one print of the Special Edition where he does; ours. We edited out the 6 frames of Greedo's shot. You're welcome, everyone who saw it in our theater.)
That marked the beginning of the Dark Times.
I still worked at a theater in 1999 when The Phantom Menace came out. Even I, management, wasn't allowed to see the film before release night. Even I had to pay to see it. Those were the rules. Each theater was allowed ONE projectionist to build and preview the film. No management, no employees, and no freebies. Break the rule and Lucasfilm would pull the movie from your entire chain. No doubt some did, but we stayed honest. We stayed true. I queued up in line as we opened the doors, allowing the devoted who had camped in front of our doors for a few days to get in front of me. I cheered when this appeared:
I cried when John William's score began. 'Finally,' I thought, 'the moment I've been waiting for ever since 1983's Return of the Jedi ended has arrived!
I left the theater in shock. "Was it good?" we all asked each other. "What I just saw, was what we have all waited so long for... good?" It had good parts... Darth Maul was bad ass. But... was it good?
That same sensation would happen again. On December 15th, 2017 three of my daughters and myself left the theater and posed that same question: "Was it good?" It was a sinking, aching feeling that was answered by the next morning. No. It wasn't good. It was awful. It managed to be worse than The Phantom Menace, another movie made by someone who had come to hate Star Wars. It took a grand Saga and dragged it through the mud and shit, actively trying to dismantle the legacy of Star Wars. The goal was stated in the movie: "Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to." That wasn't really the character of Kylo Ren speaking; it was Rian Johnson. He, like many other hip Hollywood elite, had come to equate older Star Wars fans, we who grew up with and worshiped the series, with the nefarious image of Gamergate. We were to be reviled, destroyed. We were relics, backwards in our thinking, and the only conceivable reason we might disapprove of his radical departure of Star Wars canon was because we were sexist. We were racist. We must hate his film because of women, because of minorities getting a chance to shine.
George Lucas, as he grew older and realized he had peaked with the Star Wars trilogy, came to despise the fans and, because of them, his creation. It's no secret that the original draft of "The Star Wars" is radically different than the treatment that made it to film (thank you, Steven Spielberg) and also that Lucas hired Lawrence Kasdan and Leigh Brackett to write the Trilogy's best episode (in fact one of the best movies ever put to film) and Ivan Kershner to direct it. He also neither wrote nor directed Return of the Jedi. When he took on the task of writing and directing all three Prequels in his vision he expected us to love it. He wanted to be our hero again, to prove that he was a Storyteller... the man behind the legend that Star Wars had become, but the biggest legend here was his colossal failure. Disjointed, stilted, with bad direction and worse writing it didn't take long for fans to answer the question "Was it good?" It wasn't. None of them were. It was Star Wars... but it wasn't. George became even more bitter. He loathed the fans... because he wanted us to love him again.
Rian Johnson doesn't want my love. He wants me to disappear. He made The Last Jedi with the idea that he would drive away fans like me and leave Star Wars to a new generation.
He nearly succeeded.
Wow, where to start with this troubled production? A disaster that nobody wanted from the start, Solo has been plagued since its inception. Directed by a couple of dick-joke comedians, starring an unknown kid with strong neanderthal DNA and getting about as warm a welcome from fans as a fart in an elevator Solo appeared to be doomed. Following on the heels of the travesty of The Last Jedi the largest part of Star Wars fans, people like me, couldn't want a movie less if it starred Marky Mark and was about the treasure-hunting descendant of Sir Francis Drake. Disney's stewardship of Star Wars has been a mixed bag. Wisely they hired Dave Filoni, creator of the excellent Clone Wars animation, to write and helm the excellent Star Wars Rebels series, which only recently concluded. The Force Awakens was well-received, but pretty much all of my generation ranks it somewhere around Return of the Jedi; below Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. Rogue One came in a little mixed too; although there are many (I daresay a majority of) fans who see it either on par with or just below Empire some others felt it dragged and drop it near Prequel territory. Still though, it felt like Star Wars.
The Last Jedi did not.
So when Disney fired Lord and Miller pretty much everyone said "Uh oh," and even the inclusion of legendary Ron Howard did little to assuage our fears. The fuck-ups, known for the Jump Street reboots, had turned Solo, a movie envisioned by George Lucas in 2012 and written by none other than Lawrence Kasdan; the writer of Empire, into some insipid "Jump Street in Space" movie. 'Not even Ron Howard can save this,' we collectively thought.
Then the trailer came out.
"Okay," I/we thought,"I still hate the kid playing Han but maybe I could give this a shot... but I'll probably wait for Redbox/Kodi/Netflix to see it." That's what I planned to do. But yesterday was "5 Dollar Tuesday" at AMC and I got a wild hair up my ass. "The trailer looked great," I thought, "and I can't seem to recall a Ron Howard movie that I hate," I reasoned... "Okay, I'll give it a shot."
For those of you skipping ahead to the review, here we go
I, understandably, went into Solo expecting disappointment. After all my relationship with Star Wars now is akin to that of a domestic abuse victim; I love it and I can see its good points, but it keeps beating the shit out of me, abusing me, and generally making me question my self-worth. I am happy to report that for 2 hours and 15 minutes I was completely, wholly entertained.
Surprisingly it took me less time to adapt to Alden Ehrenreich as young Han than it did for me to accept Liam McIntyre as a replacement for Andy Whitfield in the incredible Starz TV series Spartacus, another of my favorite movies, and I've met Liam and know him to be a delightful person. Perhaps it was because the opening focuses on a very young Han on the streets of Corellia and Howard ensured that Ehrenreich looked appropriately young. It helped create the illusion that Han could have looked like this fugly kid when he was a snot-nosed brat tween, which eased the transition into accepting Ehrenreich as Han in his late teens/early 20s when the rest of the film took place. By the end of the movie I felt like Ehrenreich did a good job, something I never imagined I'd actually put into writing or speak aloud. I still would have preferred a different actor, one who physically resembled Harrison Ford more, but you know what? Ehrenreich nailed Han's mannerisms and that did more to make him Han than anything else. It is clear that the acting coach on set with him did more than help Alden speak his lines, he must have helped him ape Ford's classic portrayal.
With that concern out of the way I went on to enjoy the hell out of the opening scenes. Another concern of mine, Emilia Clarke, was also well-de-aged and perfectly believable. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to see her as any other than the iconic Mother of Dragons, despite my ease in accepting her as a scrappy new Sarah Connor in Terminator Genisys. It was a silly concern, as it turns out, she did great as Qi'ra (Kira,) Han's childhood friend and early love interest. The whole opening act had a Schindler's List kind-or vibe, portraying a world-under-occupation fairly well and I wound up instantly drawn into the film, even when the appearance of one Lady Proxima didn't really jive with what I was envisioning.
The movie, masterfully written by Lawrence Kasdan, kept many parts of Han's early lore; his time as an Imperial Naval Cadet and meeting and rescuing Chewbacca, and it introduced one of my new favorite Star Wars characters; Tobias Beckett, played perfectly by Woody Harrelson in what has to be my favorite of his roles. I loved Beckett. He was a joy every moment he was on screen, a perfect rogue. He's the kind of Star Wars character we all want to play if we can't choose a Jedi. In short he was Han Solo before Han was Han Solo. (That was a weird sentence to write!) Beckett has his own crew and they are interesting and well-portrayed. I was immediately drawn to their characters and now I want to see more of them. Their train heist was both thrilling and exciting. I found myself rooting to Han to get into this criminal band of outlaws, despite their unsavory connections to a shadowy organization known as the Crimson Dawn, which makes one recall the Black Sun Syndicate from Shadows of the Empire.
Probably the weakest character in the entire movie was that of gangster Dryden Voss, Beckett's employer and the obvious lackey of someone far more dangerous at the top of the Crimson Dawn pecking order. He was well-played by Paul Bettany but the character, as a whole, served as little more than an intermediary villain which, to be fair, was his precise role. But if Voss was a character lacking in... character... next we meet:
Unless the technology emerges to put Billy D. Williams in a time machine and physically make him younger there could not have been a better casting for young Lando than Donald Glover. Charming, witty, confident... he nailed everything about the character to a tee... and he looks like him to boot! His companion, sassy, annoying, yet not-that-bad droid L3 was played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge doing her very best Gwendoline Christie impersonation. L3 grated just a little; as if Waller-Bridge was trying to channel Christie into the body of K2-S0, and her only true defining characteristic was that of a droid-rights social justice warrior. If Dryden Voss was the random officer that Darth Vader choked, L3 was more of a Salacious Crumb: not quite annoying enough to be Jar Jar but just irritating enough to be a bit of a relief when she was off screen.
The whole Kessel Run was not what I was expecting either. Most of the pre-Disney literature marked it as a race but the event, as portrayed in the movie, was part of a bigger plot. It worked, it worked pretty well. The Spice Mines themselves were afflicted by a bit of deus-ex-machina but it wasn't that bad, and was largely redeemed by the presence of Chewbacca. Interestingly Kessel and the mines looked exactly as they were portrayed in Rebels, so that was a very nice touch for the fans like me who have devoured all of Star Wars filmography, including the excellent animation.
It was so nice to finally get to see Warwick Davis' face in a Star Wars movie! It felt like justice mixed with nostalgia. The movie's final act was FULL of both fan service and sly action and I can say nothing less than I loved it. I LOVED it. Let me tell you two things about it: First off if you have not watched the Clone Wars or Rebels... shame on you. You only have yourself to blame for your confusion. Prepare to have your mind blown. And finally, the only semi-spoiler I will give you:
In summary if you have yet to go and see Solo and you consider yourself a Star Wars fan then you have done yourself a disservice. Go and see it. With this unexpected and surprising film Disney has restored some of the faith lost with The Last Jedi. It is fun, it is exciting, and it has just enough fan service to really reawaken the kid in you. I laughed and, yes, I cried. I actually cried when the credits began to roll. It is a testament to how much damage The Last Jedi did that this movie was such a relief that when "Directed by Ron Howard" appeared I was moved to tears. Thank you, Ron. You've saved Star Wars for me.
If I had ONE complaint about this movie it is this: Fuck those damn dice. They never mattered before, not in any movie except The Last Jedi, and their presence and importance mean literally nothing except to try to impart belated significance to their appearance in that cinematic turd that Rian Johnson shat upon us. Other than that:
The movie, masterfully written by Lawrence Kasdan, kept many parts of Han's early lore; his time as an Imperial Naval Cadet and meeting and rescuing Chewbacca, and it introduced one of my new favorite Star Wars characters; Tobias Beckett, played perfectly by Woody Harrelson in what has to be my favorite of his roles. I loved Beckett. He was a joy every moment he was on screen, a perfect rogue. He's the kind of Star Wars character we all want to play if we can't choose a Jedi. In short he was Han Solo before Han was Han Solo. (That was a weird sentence to write!) Beckett has his own crew and they are interesting and well-portrayed. I was immediately drawn to their characters and now I want to see more of them. Their train heist was both thrilling and exciting. I found myself rooting to Han to get into this criminal band of outlaws, despite their unsavory connections to a shadowy organization known as the Crimson Dawn, which makes one recall the Black Sun Syndicate from Shadows of the Empire.
Probably the weakest character in the entire movie was that of gangster Dryden Voss, Beckett's employer and the obvious lackey of someone far more dangerous at the top of the Crimson Dawn pecking order. He was well-played by Paul Bettany but the character, as a whole, served as little more than an intermediary villain which, to be fair, was his precise role. But if Voss was a character lacking in... character... next we meet:
Unless the technology emerges to put Billy D. Williams in a time machine and physically make him younger there could not have been a better casting for young Lando than Donald Glover. Charming, witty, confident... he nailed everything about the character to a tee... and he looks like him to boot! His companion, sassy, annoying, yet not-that-bad droid L3 was played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge doing her very best Gwendoline Christie impersonation. L3 grated just a little; as if Waller-Bridge was trying to channel Christie into the body of K2-S0, and her only true defining characteristic was that of a droid-rights social justice warrior. If Dryden Voss was the random officer that Darth Vader choked, L3 was more of a Salacious Crumb: not quite annoying enough to be Jar Jar but just irritating enough to be a bit of a relief when she was off screen.
The whole Kessel Run was not what I was expecting either. Most of the pre-Disney literature marked it as a race but the event, as portrayed in the movie, was part of a bigger plot. It worked, it worked pretty well. The Spice Mines themselves were afflicted by a bit of deus-ex-machina but it wasn't that bad, and was largely redeemed by the presence of Chewbacca. Interestingly Kessel and the mines looked exactly as they were portrayed in Rebels, so that was a very nice touch for the fans like me who have devoured all of Star Wars filmography, including the excellent animation.
It was so nice to finally get to see Warwick Davis' face in a Star Wars movie! It felt like justice mixed with nostalgia. The movie's final act was FULL of both fan service and sly action and I can say nothing less than I loved it. I LOVED it. Let me tell you two things about it: First off if you have not watched the Clone Wars or Rebels... shame on you. You only have yourself to blame for your confusion. Prepare to have your mind blown. And finally, the only semi-spoiler I will give you:
{Spoiler}
HAN SHOT FIRST!
HAN SHOT FIRST!
In summary if you have yet to go and see Solo and you consider yourself a Star Wars fan then you have done yourself a disservice. Go and see it. With this unexpected and surprising film Disney has restored some of the faith lost with The Last Jedi. It is fun, it is exciting, and it has just enough fan service to really reawaken the kid in you. I laughed and, yes, I cried. I actually cried when the credits began to roll. It is a testament to how much damage The Last Jedi did that this movie was such a relief that when "Directed by Ron Howard" appeared I was moved to tears. Thank you, Ron. You've saved Star Wars for me.
If I had ONE complaint about this movie it is this: Fuck those damn dice. They never mattered before, not in any movie except The Last Jedi, and their presence and importance mean literally nothing except to try to impart belated significance to their appearance in that cinematic turd that Rian Johnson shat upon us. Other than that:
Uesugi's Master Ranking for Star Wars (Movies and Animation)
1. Star Wars Rebels
2. The Empire Strikes Back/Rogue One
3. Solo/Star Wars (A New Hope)
4. The Clone Wars
5. Return of the Jedi
6. Revenge of the Sith
7. The Force Awakens (lowered by TLJ)
8. Attack of the Clones
9. The Phantom Menace
Dishonorable Mention: The Last Jedi
1. Star Wars Rebels
2. The Empire Strikes Back/Rogue One
3. Solo/Star Wars (A New Hope)
4. The Clone Wars
5. Return of the Jedi
6. Revenge of the Sith
7. The Force Awakens (lowered by TLJ)
8. Attack of the Clones
9. The Phantom Menace
Dishonorable Mention: The Last Jedi
