# Solo: A Star Wars Story - My first impression



## Jerome Vonhogen (May 23, 2018)

Hi everyone!

If you hated The Last Jedi as much as I did (and believe me, I REALLY hated that movie!), you may want to know that I was pleasantly surprised when I watched the new Star Wars/Disney movie "Solo" yesterday at the premiere. In fact, I enjoyed this film more than any of the Star Wars/Disney movies so far, including Rogue One.

John Powell did a great job scoring this movie. The score is very effective and manages to bring together different musical styles and arrangements, just like you would expect from Powell. I believe this is the first Star Wars score featuring a piano as a melodic instrument in one of the scenes, which feels a little weird but does fit that particular scene. The only choice I didn't understand was the incidental use of rather unusual vocals during some of the action scenes (not the usual 'epic' choirs John Williams that would use). I thought those vocals sounded somewhat out of place, but it didn't really bother me.

For the actors, I have nothing but praise, including Alden Ehrenreich, who must have had a very hard time getting his role right. I think he succeeded, although I had a very bad feeling about him... Woody Harrelson is definitely my favorite of the Solo cast, but I did enjoy Donald Glover almost as much, despite him appearing in fewer scenes.

There's just one extremely annoying thing that I think should have been cut from the movie. It's Lando's loud-mouthed, feminist robot friend. It's much, much worse than JarJar, however ...

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WARNING: possible spoilers ahead!
Read the rest of this sentence at the bottom of this post, if you want to know just a little more about this stupid, obnoxious SJW-robot.
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Anyway, if you need consolation for the traumatic experience of sitting through Rian Johnson's abomination of a movie called 'The Last Jedi', then you should definitely watch this movie. I was expecting another disappointment, but Ron Howard worked his magic and made a very entertaining and impressive Star Wars movie. I enjoyed it very much. I still don't want to see Star Wars Episode 9, though...

Let me know what you think about "Solo", if you plan to watch the movie.

Thanks!

Jerome


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WARNING: possible spoilers below!
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(...) Lando's loud-mouthed, feminist robot friend. It's much, much worse than JarJar, however the torture of having to watch this robot doesn't last the entire movie, fortunately. It could have been much worse. That's all I want to say about this stupid character.


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## robgb (May 23, 2018)

Jerome Vonhogen said:


> If you hated The Last Jedi as much as I did (and believe me, I REALLY hated that movie!),


I probably hated it more. Forget the whole Star Wars thing. It was just a poorly constructed movie, in general, on so many levels I wanted to throw my popcorn at the screen. I hated Rogue One for the very same reasons and am hoping Solo is an improvement. Thanks for the review. And loudmouth feminist robots don't bother me. I don't have to love or agree with every character in a movie. Just like the real world.


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## John Busby (May 23, 2018)

that's a fair review Jerome, thanks for that!

I'm a huge Star Wars fan, have been since childhood!
i enjoyed The Last Jedi, but not as much as The Force Awakens and each time i re-watch The Force Awakens i like it less and less for some reason.
And for me i am 100% not interested in Solo. The marketing has been terrible at least for me; you had the copyright/plagiarism issues with their posters, the characters have fallen flat for me in each trailer, you had the directors being fired and Ron Howard brought in to salvage the whole project, and who was even asking for this movie?? I mean you have a universe rich with material and they tell an origin prequel? The one thing Rogue One had going for it was it at least had new leading characters but even that movie fell flat to cause you to care for them at all.
At this point i dare say that Marvel Studios is actually the better universe at this point, who would have thought....


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## chillbot (May 23, 2018)

Jerome Vonhogen said:


> It's Lando's loud-mouthed, feminist robot friend.


Great thanks. Now I am forever stuck with this image in my head:






Please tell me the robot is not voiced by Joan Rivers. Please?

On a side note, I would be careful where you use the word "feminist". When you are talking about a character that you find "annoying", and you use the word "loud-mouthed" (obviously negative) in conjunction with "feminist"... it is a bit insulting. Unless that was your intention, in which case... carry on, I guess.


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## gsilbers (May 23, 2018)

good to know. I really don't have much hope for Hans solo movie... a movie about a different Hans solo actor that looks nothing like the one from the other Star Wars movie and being kinda forced into our throats to fulfill the never ending franchise of the same characters,.. which in Star Wars could of been any other character or anything from that huge universe. Or start coming up with new characters.


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## MA-Simon (May 23, 2018)

gsilbers said:


> good to know. I really don't have much hope for Hans solo movie... a movie about a different Hans solo actor that looks nothing like the one from the other Star Wars movie and being kinda forced into our throats to fulfill the never ending franchise of the same characters,.. which in Star Wars could of been any other character or anything from that huge universe. Or start coming up with new characters.


Well there is already a new Star Wars triologie in the works. This time featuring new characters set in a different part of the galaxy. So you will get that.


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## gsilbers (May 23, 2018)

MA-Simon said:


> Well there is already a new Star Wars triologie in the works. This time featuring new characters set in a different part of the galaxy. So you will get that.




cool. its going to be awhile though. episode 9 will be showing in dec 2019. im guessing the new trilogy would start in dec 2020. ok.. just 2 years.


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## robgb (May 23, 2018)

MA-Simon said:


> Well there is already a new Star Wars triologie in the works. This time featuring new characters set in a different part of the galaxy. So you will get that.



With this guy in charge, I wouldn't expect much. His writing on Jedi was atrocious.


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## MA-Simon (May 23, 2018)

robgb said:


> With this guy in charge, I wouldn't expect much. His writing on Jedi was atrocious.


Yeah not a fan of the direction the story went to.


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## robgb (May 23, 2018)

MA-Simon said:


> Yeah not a fan of the direction the story went to.


Not to mention the glaring plot holes, inconsistent character development, pointless side stories, faulty story logic, and a slow motion "chase" that not only made zero sense, but could have been ended easily in the first ten minutes of the movie.


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## fixxer49 (May 23, 2018)

Jerome Vonhogen said:


> although *I had a very bad feeling about him*


well played


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## Strezov (May 26, 2018)

Jerome Vonhogen said:


> The only choice I didn't understand was the incidental use of rather unusual vocals during some of the action scenes (not the usual 'epic' choirs John Williams that would use). I thought those vocals sounded somewhat out of place, but it didn't really bother me.


Ok, I am biased but I do think that the choirs are one of the coolest segments of the soundtrack. What I love about John Powell's music is that it is different, yet on the same professional level. Loved the music!!!


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## babylonwaves (May 26, 2018)

Strezov said:


> Ok, I am biased but I do think that the choirs are one of the coolest segments of the soundtrack. What I love about John Powell's music is that it is different, yet on the same professional level. Loved the music!!!


the music is fantastic. i'm laying in the sun and have it on repeat 
and yes, the choral arrangement is really cool. he does some asynchron changing of the syllables (a part of the choir starts to sing another vowel or word while the other half keeps on singing the old one). something i never do and really should try out.


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## Lionel Schmitt (May 26, 2018)

By the way - Disney has uploaded the soundtrack on their YouTube channel. 
https://www.youtube.com/user/DisneyMusicVEVO/videos


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## NoamL (May 28, 2018)

I might go see this in theaters just to hear John Powell.

I liked TLJ as a stand alone film, much more than most people did probably... and I think many of the problems with its construction are actually due not to its own faults, but to Disney's imperative to make TFA an Empires vs Rebels rehash movie and JJAbrams' failure to actually flesh out the details of how things reverted to that status quo after the events of ROTJ... people on YouTube talked SO MUCH about how bad Captain Phasma is in TLJ. Like, was she great in TFA?

however, after seeing Avengers Infinity War, I much more understand what people meant when they said TLJ killed their enthusiasm for seeing how Star Wars turns out. Infinity War left people wondering what the hell would or could happen next. Despite the huge twists they have taken with the storyline, they still have an enormous range of options. With SW9, while I'm still interested in seeing Adam Driver & Daisy Ridley act and hearing John Williams's score, the actual story potential leaves me feeling pretty blah. They're either going to 1) redeem Kylo in a straight rip of the original trilogy, 2) pull a switcheroo and make Rey a Palpatine as some people think the movies have been hinting, or 3) do something that's truly out of left field and would feel arbitrary and disconnected from the first two films. Considering that JJAbrams is the director again and that Disney almost certainly is bringing down the hammer hard in light of TLJ's fan reception, it would be optimistic to expect SW9 to be in any way a creative film.

If you are right that Solo is the strongest new SW movie alongside Rogue One, then it's interesting & perhaps significant that the best SW films are the ones that haven't even tried to pick up the story after ROTJ. Digesting that idea, I think a whole new trilogy of movies with new heroes that are not _at all_ connected to the original trilogy, could be a very good or very bad thing. But leaning towards bad. Is it really Star Wars if Harrison Ford, John Williams, Mark Hamill, George Lucas and Carrie Fisher have all checked out?


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## paularthur (May 28, 2018)

Solo is right up there behind Rogue One for me (better music imo), I think these two films were better than TFA and TLJ... The story kicks you right into the universe, and as with How to Train Your Dragon (the introduction to Isle of Berk in Particular) John Powell's first cue is right on the money & gets you into the feel of the film immediately. My only criticism is that Han was too happy for how crazy his life was...

The success of these two new* prequels eludes to a larger problem = The disconnect between anything not directly involved with the original trilogy & the fans... They've really backed themselves into a corner now.

Hopefully we get a Young Yoda film completely separated from the prequels (lol) (but not really lol that would be great).


Re-Spoiler
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First time i was like finally when a character passes...


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## lux (May 28, 2018)

Haven't seen Solo.

But to be honest I hated Rogue One and screamed in horror when I saw one (missing) great actor like Peter Cushing trasfigurated in a poor videogame/like doll and the terrible New Hope references spread all over the movie like a kid would have probably done better. Actors stumbling here and there into characters from NH without a sense just because the audit panels wanted something like that. Are we serious?

A dead classic actor turned into a cgi zombie anyway was really a showstopper and a blaming choice. I'm not really inclined to see Solo at all.

I'm probably the only one who thinks that the Last Jedi was way above Rogue One. I personally liked it.


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## ghandizilla (May 28, 2018)

Loved _Solo_. Not an awesome movie, but it has this feel-good vibe, an immense folklore, and the OST is IMO the best since Episode III (a bit too much low end to my taste, and that's it). (Loved how the bulgarian choir fitted well.) (Didn't hear the vuvuzelas, where were they?) (What a great OST.) (Did I say how much I enjoyed it?)

The universe has more consistency than the new trilogy's. There is always "more-than-the-picture" connoted in those Star Wars stories, whereas in the new trilogy, everything feels like... empty. No background, no allusions to something more (i. e. how empty feels The New Republic), (+ an useless storyline and two-three clumsy scenes here and there in _The Last Jedi_ which make the movie even less immersive).

_Solo _is not a masterpiece, but really an enjoyable movie. The main catch point for me is how it _repopulates _the universe.


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## Dewdman42 (May 28, 2018)

Saw it last night. I wasn’t expecting much and I was still left disappointed. There was virtually no story and they managed to actually REMOVE depth from Han Solo as a character. In a word, lame movie. I liked rogue one more. I can’t stand force awakens or last Jedi they are pure blasphemy not to mention ridiculously poor writing.

This movie wasn’t blasphemous in any way at all it was just flat, boring and nothing.

And sorry, but I didn’t care for the score either. It was like watching a guitar player that only knows how to play loud and fast. But then again maybe the movie itself was simply lacking any real subtlety to work with


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## CoffeeLover (May 28, 2018)

no vader no Emperor that aint much star wars for me. 
but then again i enjoyed rogue one just as much as i enjoyed the empire strikes back
and the force awakens kept me entertained but sad to see how they took a crap on it with the last jedi.
in reality i was just a fan of vader and the emperor but not much of the star wars universe itself
i do however own the original star wars score on vinyl first edition like it was bought yesterday i am mostly proud of that.


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