Topic: The Movie Thread

@Rudy_Manchego haha! That song is absolutely.. uh, what’s the word... unexpected. And the interpretive dance... so inspiring! I mean, how did they keep a straight face through that? 😂
Certainly, this is confirmation that Mr. LaBeouf has reached full meme status.

@Rudy_Manchego "But you can do jiu-jutsuuuuu!"

Winning.

@Th3solution @RogerRoger I like it because it isn't really being mean as it is so out there and I love that he joined in at the end. My favourite bit is the line 'normal Tuesday night for Shia LaBeouf'

@Rudy_Manchego Self-deprecating humour is the very best humour.

Han Solo. Ah, Han. One of my favorite movie characters. How does his stand alone film hold up?
Disclaimer: If you’ve read my comments before you know I’m a bit of a Star Wars apologist. Other people would be able to give a more objective review than I. I look at the Star Wars movies through a bit of rose-tinted glasses. That said, I will try to be as impartial as I can muster. I will also avoid spoilers, of course.
First off, I was quite surprised at how empty the theater was on Friday night, opening weekend. School has let out for the summer, and you’d think the show would sell out. It was pretty sad attendance for a 9:00 PM show. Is Star Wars losing its luster? Has the magic dimmed after the mixed reception of the last movie? Time will tell, but I have a bad feeling about this. 😉 (I couldn’t help myself)
Now, onto my impressions of the actual movie — If I had to do a thumbs up or down, then I would give Solo a fairly solid thumbs up. The movie is quite different than any previous installments. It does give a slightly similar vibe as Rogue One, in that the time period is around the same in the SW universe, and there was a lot of nods to the early films, especially A New Hope and Empire. But the story and the way it is told is very different from the mainline films where the focus is on a larger narrative. Unsurprisingly, it’s not a spoiler to say here we spend the entire movie revolving around Han Solo. There are attempts to draw in the big picture of course, but one of the things that will be off putting is that there is definitely a reliance on just a few characters to carry the movie. And they make it or break it for you. Alden Ehrenreich has huge shoes to fill as Solo, and for the most part he grew on me. But I’d say he just falls short of really becoming the character that Harrison Ford made into an icon. Donald Glover, on the other hand, does a better Billy Dee Williams than even Mr Williams does himself and is spot on as Lando. Chewbacca is fantastic and as endearing as ever. The other lesser characters are serviceable and even Woody Harrelson did pretty well, and I don’t usually care for him. The main antagonist also was quite good. The acting, although a far cry from Hollywood’s finest, is light years ahead of the prequels.

The action was frantic as one might expect. Plenty of chase scenes and space battles. The special effects were solid, but I actually was disappointed in a couple of the renderings of certain characters. Also a few of the segments were shot too dark for my taste and I couldn’t tell what was going on in some of the frantic scenes. The stuff in space was very well done though. The Kessel Run felt a little shoved in, as did a few other nods to the original movies and felt at times forced in to try to please the long time fans. The Force Awakens was really full of those similar moments, and they occur periodically here too.

There was a certain sloppiness to the plot and characters react in unexpected ways, sometimes inconsistent with the feel of the narrative, and sometimes things happen or decisions are made that are not well explained. But these are the types of things that one comes to expect in the Star Wars series, and honestly in the Sci Fi epic genre as a whole. The ending is sure to be divisive, but without going into too much detail, personally I liked it. But I can also see why some people will be critical.

Overall, I would have liked a little more focus with the narrative with better believability of the plot motives. In the end, that’s being nit-picky because I really did enjoy it. I would rank it actually toward the middle of the SW movies. For reference my favorite is probably Empire and least favorite is probably Attack of the Clones.

@Th3solution I think there were no more than six people in the theathre when I went to see it. Wednesday was release day, and it the theatre could seat up to a thousand people. Admittedly, it was (late) in the afternoon, but it was also the first showing of the day. Other Star Wars films were pretty much booked at that time, maybe not sold out like the in evenings, but definitely more than six lol.

@Th3solution Thanks for your thoughts. Never apologise for being a Star Wars apologist!

I accidentally stumbled across a spoiler from the end of the film (because it was so unexpected, yet Google immediately suggested adding "Solo" to the end of it) which makes me incredibly excited about what might be coming next; beyond that, I'll do my best to keep an open mind, having heard good and not-so-good impressions.

Glad I'm not the only one who's frustrated by scenes shot in darkness in film. When I saw Rogue One at the cinema, I could barely make out anything happening on the rainy planet in the middle.

@RogerRoger i watched the movie yesterday and it was a fun, enjoyable film and as for that spoiler i actually cracked a smile when that happened, yeah as an easter egg it wasn't really needed but it does help tie the film into the larger Star Wars mythos a bit

and yeah when a film is too dark it's off putting, depending on the film it can work of course but you need to be able to see what the hell is going on too

Watched Solo and thought it was only so-so. Not the main issue but also the guy playing Han Solo wasn't as charismatic as Ford. Personally for me, the last few Star Wars movies have been average at best with the exception of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Watched Spiderman Homecoming. Well I watched half the movie then swicthed it off. Easily the the worst spiderman made to date.

@Octane Yeah, it wasn’t quite that dismal a showing at this theater. It was smaller, probably seats about 300, but there was only about 20 people there. It makes for a less fun experience to not hear the crowd laugh at the jokes or cheer when something great or unexpected happens. Some of my most enjoyable movie experiences are with a packed house and you can feel the buzz of excitement from the audience.
@RogerRoger @FullbringIchigo I think I know what you’re referring to and yes, it is a great moment. I can’t say I didn’t see it coming a tiny bit though. Even if I can’t quite make it work in my head. 🤔 There is a moment of glee once it happens and then when I had time to consider it after the film was over, I was a little confused.
I’ll spoiler tag a few things in a separate post so no one is accidentally exposed to the spoiler in their email since I’ve @ named people here (thanks to @Jaz007 for mentioning that as I didn’t know that fact either) because I want to see if anyone has input on some aspects of the film.

@WanderingBullet I agree on the actor, Alden E, not being as good as Ford but some of that I think was actually the script not giving his as much to work with. Yes, this is a younger Han Solo that we aren’t used to, but still the script lacked some of the snarkiness and arrogant quips we’ve come to expect from the character. I suppose we are to explain it away by the fact he hasn’t yet become as jaded and toughened as when he is older, but still it didn’t quite hit the mark.
@hotukdeals That’s too bad you didn’t like Spiderman Homecoming. I really liked it. I will say the movie gets a lot better toward the end and there is a really large reveal that is one of my favorite twists in any superhero movie I’ve seen in recent memory. Those who saw the whole film know what I’m talking about. I thought that surprise moment was brilliantly executed. I get a smile just thinking about it.

Watched Deadpool 2 the other day. Wasn't as keen on it as others. Didn't like the way they tried to humanise Deadpool and I wasn't onboard with the main plot. I also thought it was over sentimental in places, the first one had just the right balance. There were a lot of recycled jokes from the first film which obviously didn't hit home as well, and the cgi in places was bad. Really bad.

Plus points, all the actors were really good especially Dominio. I liked the way they handled X Force but still felt they are leading thing into a new franchise. Has the best cameos I can remember (especially for The Vanisher. Wow) and the post credit scenes were probably the funniest moments of the film, which says a lot about the rest of the film.

So overall not a bad movie just not up to the high standard of the first film. I've always said comedy sequels are rarely better or funnier than the original. This proves my point even further.

Solo (the movie ... not as in “solo” as I have a single spoiler, lol) spoiler questions and comments coming up; also a spoiler in here for a major moment in the prequels if by some miracle you haven’t seen them yet and plan to. Also a very small spoiler for The Last Jedi:
**Again, HUGE spoiler forthcoming for the movie Solo**
When Darth Maul shows up at the end as the big boss for the Crimson gang, it was a nice surprise. I somewhat saw it coming moments before as I was trying to guess who might be the ring leader and it is pretty clear that Maul has been one of the most popular villains of the SW universe and fans have been vocal about their disappointment that he died at the end of Episode I. I’m not surprised that they want to try to bring him back. However, how did he survive being sliced in two?!? We see him clearly be killed in The Phantom Menace. And are we to believe that he didn’t age .. as the time between TPM and Solo is probably what... like 30 or 40 years? Han appears to be in his late 20s early 30s and is supposed to be a little older than the twins, who have yet to be born for another .... oh, 15 or so years when TPM takes place. I suppose adding 30 yrs to Maul is conceivable as the Sith supposedly have the ability to use the Force to prolong their lives and defy aging, as we see Palpatine has done. Nevertheless the biggest obstacle is that he was killed. Cut in two and shoved into oblivion. Let the theories begin! One thought is that this is not actually Darth Maul but one of his protégés or something like that.
A couple thoughts on the story -
I was disappointed that there was nothing about his experiences in flight academy. That was glossed over and he trailer made it sound like that would be an important plot point. In fact the whole way he entered into the Imperial military was awkward. But the most awkward plot jump was when he and Beckett decide to just fess up to Dryden after the botched heist. That was a little weirdly done. Also the reunion with the girlfriend Qi’ra was a decent idea but it didn’t play out well. After 3 years where his sole motivation was to make it back to save her and this was their reaction?! The emotional pay-off was severely lacking. I realize she was emotionally cold because she is a crime boss lackey now, but I can’t believe after all that time he wouldn’t fall over himself in joy and relief when they are reunited.
A positive thought -
I thoroughly enjoyed the development of he and Chewie and how they met. That was great.
The next semi spoiler is regarding the dice. Clearly they were created as a MacGuffin to tie in the movie to The Last Jedi. I had read online that the dice were special to Han because they were the dice he used to win the Millennium Falcon from Lando. Well, clearly they are not. He had them back way before that, I guess as some kind of ...good luck charm? For as often as they use them as a plot device passing them back and forth, here was no explanation at all. I’m not sure if there ever will be. I actually liked the idea of them being the dice used the win the Falcon. Kinda disappointed it wasn’t
Thanks for indulging me with the long spoiler text. 😅

@Th3solution on your first point Watch the Clone Wars, Mauls survival is explained there

@Octane I went to Deadpool 2 on opening weekend, and the theater was only half full. I was really surprised, to be honest. When we went to the first one the second weekend after release at the same theater, it was packed.

Anyway, I'm guessing Solo is going to be the black sheep of the Disney SW films. Nobody seems overly thrilled with it.

@Th3solution @Octane Solo has been heavily rumored to be a disaster from a troubled development and it sounds like it’s taking a toll. I haven’t been excited for it because of that and I think opening night is getting affected.
Also, on the thought of crowd reaction, I’m usually neutral, but when the crowd starts cheering because someone gets kissed or hit or whatever I tend to want to murder everyone in the theater. I don’t laughing or gasps usually really, but cheering and clapping in the middle of a movie are distracting and unacceptable theater behavior to me personally. I can remember this in Infinity War and the last Twilight movie in particular.

@Th3solution As correctly stated by @FullbringIchigo earlier, and since I won't tag anybody else and inadvertantly uncover the following spoiler tags, Darth Maul's survival is indeed explained in The Clone Wars. He features heavily in the latter half of that show and the subsequent Star Wars: Rebels, which takes place seven years after the events of Solo, meaning Disney now has that seven-year window to play in. I therefore think that the primary reason we haven't had confirmation from Disney about the Obi-Wan spin-off in 2020 is because it won't be an Obi-Wan film at all, but rather a film about Maul (no longer a Darth, by the way) in charge of a crime syndicate. They couldn't confirm that ahead of Solo's release, as it would've ruined the surprise.

What surprises me the most is that Disney are treating the franchise evenly. Since they took over, it's been the original trilogy on overdrive; the sequel trilogy is all TIE Fighters, Star Destroyers and the return of the classic characters, and The Clone Wars prequel-era show was immediately cancelled in favour of Rebels, an original trilogy tie-in. Solo as a "young Han Solo flick" was a predictable cash-in move, but using it to re-introduce Maul to a wider audience and bring his small screen narrative to the big screen, to a much wider audience of casual fans who didn't necessarily watch what many dismissed as a children's cartoon, is an incredibly brave move. It also shows much, much more respect to the entire fanbase and, specifically, the prequels than they have thusfar... especially if there is still gonna be that Obi-Wan standalone adventure starring Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson.

@FullbringIchigo Just a separate note on films shot in partial or total darkness; as a fan of science fiction and DC superhero films, going to the cinema for things like Star Trek Beyond (the entire shootout inside the crashed saucer) and Batman V Superman (pretty much all of it), as well as the aforementioned Rogue One, was actually a worse experience than watching on Blu-Ray. I don't know whether that's the fault of cinematic projection systems or the films themselves, but if I've got the ability to go see something at the cinema, I'll stop and think about whether the trailer has a lot of dark sequences and may even decide not to go. It's a waste of the £8 ticket, especially if I'm gonna drop £20 on the Blu-Ray six months later.

Either that, or I'm just getting old. Next I'll be complaining that the cinema is too loud.

I'm growing tired of Star Wars, personally. The Force Awakens was more or less a rehash of A New Hope, with one of the biggest Mary Sue protagonists I've seen in a while, and Rogue One was just kinda....okay? The Last Jedi was actually pretty good, but even still, it wasn't a film I'd really care to rewatch at all. It was just good, not great IMO. I haven't seen Solo, and I don't plan to. I just don't really care about it at all.

Clearly something has gone wrong with these new movies, because I've gone from being incredibly hyped to watch The Force Awakens, to hardly caring if I even see the next Star Wars.

@RogerRoger it could be the way it's shown in a cinema that causes it because i noticed that DVD's and blu-rays tend to be a bit brighter