@Cmdr:
Got it. So I will watch it on my TV at home, and not pay $17 for a ticket, popcorn and sit in a nasty theater.
I saw it over the weekend. It was enjoyable, in a fast-moving popcorn movie way, and it certainly wasn’t dull, and frankly I liked it better than Episodes VII and VIII, but it tended to feel like empty calories. The main problem I had with it, in contrast with Rogue One (which I liked more), is that there wasn’t a clear and compelling storyline that drove and unified the plot; the film felt more like a checklist of elements from Han Solo’s past, which were being dutifully checked off as the film progressed. As a result, the film seems a bit unfocussed.
The fact that we already know (from the earlier movies) various things about Solo’s background also undercuts some of the suspense. Without spoiling anything, here’s one example: About halfway through the film, we think we’re going to witness a major event in Solo’s life which we already knew about from the earlier films…but it deviates from what we were expecting in a critical way, and in fact it doesn’t have the expected outcome. Since we know perfectly well that this event has to happen to Solo, it’s clear that at some point the film is going to revisit that event so that it can happen…and sure enough, that’s what happens near the end of the film. The payoff only felt mildly satisfying because, even though we didn’t know for half of the film how it was going to happen, we did know it was going to happen somehow. And when we finally get to that scene, the film drops a clear advance hint about how the events are going to unfold, which does in fact turn out to be the case.
Several elements of the movie are highly contrived, so before you watch the film it’s best to turn off some of the parts of your brain that control your higher reasoning functions. For example, there’s a gigantic space monster that exists, for no discernible reason, near a spatial phenomenon so dangerous that no sensible ship captain (a category that excludes Han Solo, which is why he’s such a popular character) ever goes there. Where the creature came from, and what it lives on, is never explained, and the creature is quickly dispatched once it’s served its plot purpose. It reminded me of those stock monsters and enemy knights in Arthurian legends whose only purpose in life is to hang around a particular road or bridge and wait for the arrival of someone against whom they can fight, and who are hard to take seriously as a credible threat because they’re so arbitrary in nature.
One thing that really bugged me (again, without spoiling anything) is that there’s a “major reveal” towards the end of the film that I found utterly baffling because it involves someone who died long before the events of the film and yet who’s still alive in this one. This made no sense to me. Perhaps the answer is somewhere in one of the many Star Wars spin-off novels, but I haven’t read any of them, so this plot element completely lost me.
On the up side, most of the characters are reasonably well-drawn, with distinct personalities, and are interesting to watch. In fact, one of the characters whose personality comes across the most vividly is a droid, L3, who in that respect is as good a scene-stealer as the droid K-2SO from Rogue One.
So all in all, I’m glad I saw it but I didn’t like it enough for me to plan getting it on DVD when it’s eventually released (unlike Rogue One, which I did like enough to buy subsequently). Jen’s planned tactic to do the reverse with Solo is a completely valid alternative too.
Rolling 1d10:
