SOLO: A Star Wars Story :: Spoiler Free Review

My (spoiler-free) thoughts on Solo, followed by updated rankings below:

I went in to Solo not expecting much. I’ve been pretty open about my recent feelings about oversaturation of Star Wars lately. I wasn’t sure if it’s all the announcements of upcoming stuff, or my excitement for Infinity War and Deadpool 2 overshadowed it. But, I wasn’t planning to go opening night for Solo, just because I wasn’t sure there was a story that I needed to see in there anywhere. Which was weird, because I really enjoyed Rogue One.

 

I was surprised when I got word of a prescreener last night. So we got tickets and got in line. I had low expectations, due to the director changes and reshoots. But I can assure you that this was a very fun movie. There are fan-service moments but most of them are pretty hidden, and will require the most astute fans (or one of those multiple page lists on facebook) to pick them out. I had a great time, and found myself smiling, laughing, and even tearing up at parts. Like Rogue One, it felt “Star Warsy” enough, but different too. To me, it was similar to watching Firefly.

 

Now, on to spoiler-free commentary on the characters. I will only talk about ones we’ve seen in official marketing, and only in generalities so as to not spoil anything.

 

Chewbacca was fantastic – as people know, Peter Mayhew isn’t playing Chewie anymore, and we have new blood in the costume. Still, this felt like Chewie, and he had lots of screen time and amazing moments and callbacks to the OT.

 

Beckett was your generic father-type character, and while I thought Woody Harrelson was an odd choice, I quickly got behind the casting, and enjoyed his portrayal.

 

Qi’ra was a complex character, and I feel Emilia Clarke was a great choice. Although, it was hard for me to not see her as the Mother of Dragons. The rapport she had with Han throughout the movie made me care about both characters more.

 

Speaking of Han, Alden Ehrenreich (rightfully so) is going to be looked at hard for not only his portrayal of Han Solo, but his portrayal of Harrison Ford. And at first, it was a little jarring for me to not see Harrison as Solo, but that quickly faded and by the end of the movie, he *felt* like Han to me. His mannerisms, inflection, posture and everything screamed Han Solo to me. I am actually looking forward to seeing more stories with Alden as Han.

 

But of the advertised characters, the standout for me was Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian. This was another choice that people were questioning – how do you recast Lando as anybody but Billy Dee Williams? But I can assure you that Glover’s Lando is every bit as cool, suave, and classy as you’d think. It is great seeing the early part of the Han/Lando dynamic, and Glover was a great choice to bring Lando to a new generation.

 

I won’t talk about any other characters for fear of spoiling things for someone – but do yourself a favor and go see Solo as soon as you can.

Updated rankings:

The Empire Strikes Back
The Last Jedi
Revenge of the Sith
A New Hope

SOLO: A Star Wars Story
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
The Force Awakens
Attack of the Clones
Return of the Jedi
The Phantom Menace

Ready Player One – A Review

BEWARE, SPOILERS BELOW!

Thanks to our local barcade, I had a chance to see a screener of Ready Player One last night. In case you’ve been living under a rock, Ready Player One is the film adaptation of Ernest Cline’s novel about a dystopian future where people escape the real world for a virtual one called The Oasis. The book (and movie) is about a character called Parzival and his search for an in-game easter egg that will grant him full control of The Oasis.

For starters, I’m gonna preface this by saying that before seeing this screener, I hadn’t read the book or listened to the audiobook. Over the years, I’ve had a few friends tell me that the book was right up my alley and that I should check it out. However, my leisure reading time was nonexistent during school, and honestly I forgot to circle back around to it. So, when the movie was announced, I decided to go into it without much prior knowledge of the subject matter. All I knew was the movie would be full of 80s pop culture references, and seemed to have a decent soundtrack.

I went to the screener with a few friends, one of which had listened to the audiobook (read by Wil Wheaton) and loved it. As I told my Facebook friends, I was there for the pop culture references. I buckled in and prepared for my own personal trip into The Oasis.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. Right away, the audience is hit with references to Minecraft, Overwatch (which I assume were added for younger audiences since these weren’t around in the 80s), retro video games, John Hughes movies, 80s music, vehicles, and more. I admit I was a little jarred by the fact that a good portion of the movie featured computer animated characters but again, since it takes place inside a virtual world it made sense.

There were quite a few places the audience really had a positive reaction to the various references. There was a race scene populated by all the cool vehicles we grew up loving – including Parzival’s DeLorean-with-KITT-grille-lights, Bigfoot, 60s Batmobile, and Kaneda’s bike from Akira. The race was visually exciting, and further heightened by King Kong interrupting and causing mayhem.

There’s another great scene where our ragtag group (Parzival and his new group of friends searching for the keys to the Egg) goes into a perfect recreation of Kubrick’s The Shining. There were lots of funny moments here.

But the film’s ending battle is where all the stops were pulled out. References of Gundam, The Iron Giant, Halo, Godzilla, and an especially hilarious cameo by Chucky from Child’s Play really got a great reaction from the crowd.

Overall, this movie accomplished what it set out to do. I had a great time, and will watch it again for sure.

After the movie, I talked with my friend who had listened to the book. He said that, while it had some familiarity, the movie was very different from the book. I’m sure some book purists will take offense to this but, as someone without prior knowledge, I thought it was a fun popcorn movie.

Side note: I got the audiobook this morning via Audible, and will be listening to it on my commute for the next few days. I may write an update comparing the two at a later date.

I rate this movie three Atari 2600s out of five.

Ready Player One hits theaters March 29.

The Journey Begins… Again

Starting this thing back up again – pardon the mess.