[SPOILER FREE THOUGHTS]
A really excellent movie! There were no major flaws with it. Maybe a few moments that I felt were superfluous, but nothing that detracted from the story or film. The pacing felt pretty good. At first I felt that this new Han Solo didn't feel like "my" Han Solo to me, but then I realised that this is the whole point of the story and also it's strength. Han doesn't need to be the suave dude that we meet in A New Hope, because that's his future self. This is a young Han Solo who hasn't become that man yet. He needs to be a different person in order to change and grow into the Han that we see in ANH. Not only that, but this Han also gives us a grounding into who we see Han become at the end of ANH and throughout the subsequent movies, up till he becomes a full fledged Rebel in Return of the Jedi. So it's doing a lot of groundwork for what this character will be in the future.
Now of course, herein lies what people either love or hate about Prequels - they are slave to the pre-existing movies. They exist to flesh out those films and there is a set path that the characters and story must take. Deviate too far from it and you get problems (continuity least of all). I personally quite like Prequels because I like seeing familiar material being expanded upon, but I can understand the lack of appeal for other people because there isn't as much freshness or novelty to it. But then that's what the Sequels are for, and The Last Jedi was very bold in going in a very new and different direction. Let the Sequels break new ground and these spin-off movies can fill in the gaps of the existing canon, which is what they're supposed to do. So in context of the intention of the movie, I think it works very well.
[SPOILER THOUGHTS]
SPOILER WARNING!
SPOILERS AHEAD!
First up, I love L3-37 (heh). At first I thought, "Oh, not another nutty droid," because we already so that with K2SO in Rogue One. But she was crazy in her own way, but more importantly, she fills a vital part of the Star Wars lore -- she finally explains how the Millennium Falcon got its highly intelligent computer brain. This is something that fans have known for a long time. I don't know if the previous EU provided a back story, but obviously the movie canon is now retcon. But it's so cool! It's not like the Tardis' mind where she's just sentient because all Tardises are... we know that he Millennium Falcon was modified to have a highly intelligent brain that's possibly SENTIENT.
This is a new concept that's never been touched upon - do droids dream of electric sheep? One reason why droids are meant to have their minds routinely wiped is to prevent bugs, and one of these rare bugs might be the accidental development of sentience. We've seen it before with Artoo Detoo, although it's hard to gauge his exact level of sentience or sapience since he cannot speak. See Threepio isn't really sentient, but merely simulacra, much like many other protocol droids (including K2SO who isn't so much sentience, but his AI interface is messed up as a result of his forced reprogramming). Droids are a slave class in Star Wars, but only L3-37 is aware of this. She has a concept of freedom. Even when she removes the restraining bolt from that Astromech droid, it initially awaits new instructions and she says, "I don't know, go liberate your brothers and sisters!" and the droids all go about "liberating" themselves and staging a revolt... but is it because they want freedom or because it's a relayed instruction from L3-37?
But the real clincher was L3-37's conversation with Qira. Sharing her feelings about Lando. There is love there, but it's restrained because she believes that society wouldn't accept it... but she has doubts. What if society could accept love between a man and a machine? She then relates with Qira because she can see the Han's love for her is unrequited. This requires a high level of emotional empathy that is unseen in any other droid. And she's a navigator, not a protocol droid! Then when we see Lando rush back for her and even mourn for her destruction, promising to save her. Okay, on one hand you could argue that it's because he needs her navigational data, but I dunno... the way he was crying and in emotional anguish suggests more. He hadn't just lost an important asset, it felt like he was losing a friend. Then the tone of his voice when he realised that L3-37 had become one with the Falcon, and continued to help them as the Falcon's computer brain... man, there was more love in that voice than any of Anakin Skywalker's odes to Padmé Amidala! But man, it was like phoenix rising from the ashes.
The character journey of Han: I thought it was good. It shows that he's a genuine good guy who's been dealt a lousy hand, and the universe forces himself to become more selfish purely for reasons of survival. The inherent good guy bit is important because this is the core part of Han's personality that we see surface at the end of A New Hope and in the following Star Wars films. It's this part of his personality that Leia falls in love with when she eventually learns to look past the harsh smuggler exterior that he's built in the years because he had to. And the character journey shows us WHY he's had to become a scoundrel. It's a dog-eat-dog world that he lives in. Han and Chewbacca quickly learn that they have to look after themselves. Putting their trust in others is dangerous, even trust in Qira proved to be folly. And this is where I think the importance of the Qira character lies. She teaches Han that he really cannot trust anyone completely (other than Chewbacca). They had to give him someone that he implicitly trusted and then work towards tearing that trust away. It's a bitter-sweet moment because obviously Qira feels something for Han, but she's also learned to become intensely self-interested for personal survival. As she said to Han, he managed to get out be she didn't.
That Darth Maul scene.
Gguuuuhhh... totally pointless. And reeks of lame fan-fiction (it always has to me, even when he returned in the comics and cartoon). Yeah, I get that they're building something for another movie, but still, this felt like a superfluous scene. And why did Maul take out his lightsabre? He's on a freakin' hologram call with Qira. Yay, we're allies now, but let me visually threaten you with these lightsabres and snarl at you. Huh? Not only did that seem utterly pointless, but it kinda made him feel like less of a threat. One thing that made Darth Maul more menacing (heh) in Episode 1 was that we didn't see much of him until he attacked Qui Gon Jinn on Tattooine. Until then he was just this freaky looking hooded guy. But at least this scene was short and didn't drag on like the Pod Race or the Canto-Bite scenes.
IN SUMMARY
Solo is very much a By-The-Numbers movie. It is a conservative movie that is fairly risk-adverse and plays it safe. Having said that, I think that it is a pretty good by-the-numbers film that ticks all the boxes. Does it soar above its mandate? Not really, but that doesn't make it a bad movie IMO. Not exemplary, but that doesn't mean it's not good.
The Last Jedi is a movie that took risks and copped a lot of heat from fans, so I'm not surprised that Disney decided to play it more safely with Solo. And IMO, TLJ is still a pretty darn good movie. My only real criticism of that movie is the useless Canto-Bite (casino planet) scene. Utterly useless. But aside from that there's nothing that I consider really bad about the movie. Importantly, I appreciate Rian Johnson's effort to do something new and fresh with Star Wars. It sure is a lot better than Michael Bay just predictably regurgitating the same thing over and over and over again.
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Originally Posted by reillyd
