I finally watched it the other day, yes I am one of the boycotters, I thought it was very good and will buy it on BR now to give my support to it. It is a shame that TLJ came a few months before it, if they had held off release to maybe around this time of year it may have had a better box office. Anyway, glad I watched it but also stand my decision to not go see it at the cinema. (Please no arguments about this)
I still function.....................while killing threads. ;-)
I may buy this at JB when it hits $12.98 or in the buy 2 get 1 free bin, just because Star Wars.
This is the first Star Wars film that has come out in my life time that I saw just once in cinemas. I've not bothered to watch it at home release.
It was largely uninteresting, had no clear strong message or theme, and did nothing to further the mythos of the franchise. On reflection it remains in the bottom tier of the franchise for me (there are too many films now to do numerical rankings - I find tiers deals with the question of quality better).
I'll see Ep9 in cinemas at least once though given who is directing I'm not super optimistic it will be particularly interesting. JJ Abrams directs solid unremarkable 7/10 films. As a directorial safe pair of hands I could understand him for the first of the sequel trilogy but him helming its conclusion leaves me apprehensive.
I'm really just here for the free food and open bar.
A lot of fans hate The Last Jedi because it was too different from expectations.
A lot of fans hate Solo A Star Wars story because it was too conservative and predictable.
Seems like they're damned if they do and damned if they don't. Or perhaps it shows that Disney really need to focus on finding balance -- a movie that's not too conservative but not so daring that it makes fans feel like it's moved away from the spirit of Star Wars. I personally thought that the Sequels were going to be adaptations of we got from the books. I was looking forward to seeing the Yuzhan Vong on the big screen.
It also really doesn't help that Solo had 3 different directors. I don't know the story behind what happened or why... I've heard rumours of creative differences leading to the original 2 directors being sacked, leaving Ron Howard to come in and reshoot 70% of the film. Yikes. :/ Maybe studios either need to be better at picking their directors, or just have faith in the directors that they've chosen. I'd like to know what those creative differences were.
It's not like Justice League which also suffered from a late directorial change, because we all know that Zack Snyder had to quit that movie due to that awful tragedy that happened to his family.
Solo was written by Lawrence and Jonathon Kasdan. Lawrence being the writer of Empire Strikes Back, so I imagine he had a fair bit of standing within the studio. When the original directors allowed the actors to improvise a bit too much for the Kasdans’ liking...imo this is one reason why they were given the boot. The studio should’ve done a better job screening the directors and not pick ones who encouraged improv.
Solo was the first Star Wars movie I didn't see at the cinema, partly because of all the bad reviews. What a mistake. I just saw it on Blu Ray and really enjoyed it. Maybe because I'm not a hard core fan but I found it as good to watch as the other films.
I enjoy Solo too, but I can understand why others don't. It is a very safe and conservative "stay inside the lines" Star Wars movie. But as I mentioned before, The Last Jedi was a "colour outside the lines" movie and fans hated that too, so it's hard to know exactly what fans want.
It's interesting to hear that the original directors were sacked due to allowing improv. Taika Waititi allowed loads of improvisation on Thor Ragnarok and that worked out really well. And heck, a lot of the best humour in Michael Bay's Transformers were improvised by the cast. Much the more cringeworthy attempts at humour in Bayformers was scripted.
e.g.
Devastator having balls = scripted
"There is no tighter shirt, we checked" = improvised
And of course, Han Solo's epic reply to Leia's "I love you" was improvised by Harrison Ford too. Then again, I don't know what was being improvised... maybe it was out of hand and not suitable to what they were trying to go for, I don't know. But I agree that the studio should've done a better job in selecting the directors that they wanted.
Keep in mind that Thor is not the most popular of Marvel heroes and furthermore, after the first two Thor movies it wasn't looking good for the franchise so it was a wise gamble to let the director have such free reign.
And so the only complaints will be from the Thor diehards who are few and far between but the Star Wars universe is another story altogether where it's now impossible to please everyone more so than ever. It's just too popular for it's own good.