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He shoots first

I won't see it until Monday, but I did just read an interesting spoiler regarding the return of a certain character from earlier films. It doesn't spoil the whole plot or anything, just a "did I really just see that?" moment.

After the mess that was TLJ, I'm just not really too gung ho to see this one. And that's a shame, because Han's backstory is one that I've been wanting to see since the original trilogy. Even when the prequel trilogy came out 20 years ago, I was hoping they'd address it then, but they never did. But I'm just losing faith in Disney to handle this franchise properly, so I'm not expecting much. :frown:

well...I saw it last night and enjoyed it.  Almost non-stop action, but that's about what you would expect from a Han Solo back story.  Introduces a new twist on his past with a criminal element and may set the scene for a sequel at the end (I'd almost  bet on it).  Stunning visuals as always, good plot, and (very minor spoiler) they finally set the story straight on the "13 parsecs" Kessel run from E4.   :biggrin:

I really liked it.   It's better than any of the other Disney movies IMO.

I'd rate the new movies this way....

1. Han
2. Rogue
3. TLJ
4. Force Awakens

The only reason TLJ is ahead of Force is they saved it at the end, IMO.

Nothing saved the TLJ, though for the first time in over a decade Luke acted like he had a use for the force, too little, too late IMO
Glad I didn't pay $$$ to see it!

I bought TLJ on Blu-ray,  just because i have all the others and I'm a completionist. But every time I see it, I like it less and less. :frown:

Okay, I just saw Solo a day early, and I have to say I am pleasantly surprised. I actually loved it. It's more like the original trilogy than any of the others that have come out since. Unlike the others, this isn't trying to be "prestige cinema"- it's a big, fun summer blockbuster, just as the first three were. Easily the funniest SW movie yet- although the humor here doesn't seem misplaced like in some of the other movies (see that cringeworthy opening scene in TLJ).

And though there's still a bit of Kathleen Kennedy's social-engineering and "forced diversity for diversity's sake" going on here, it isn't quite as "in your face" as the previous Disney entries. In fact, the SJW feminist droid almost seems like a meta wink towards that very controversy.

I was pleasantly surprised as well.  I really liked Rogue One and Solo seemed to be just as good.  I thought Last Jedi just sucked and I don't really have much desire to watch it again.  Force Awakens was just barely OK, it had its moments and it had its flaws.  Last Jedi was certainly made well from a technical aspect - but story-wise it is a hot mess.  Horrible.  Rail on the prequels all you want - at least they told the story (or tried to).  TLJ was like some kind of dysfunctional jumble of crap.  Disney should give the reins to the Kasdans - they know what they are doing.  If Howard had been the director of Solo from the start, it probably wold have been even better.

Agree about the Kasdans, the father did Empire, which speaks for itself.  I heard that Lucas told the writer of ROTJ that "it doesn't have to be great" (i.e., the franchise momentum will carry it) which says a lot about Lucas if true.  Having said that, I have also read that he seriously overworked on Empire and that it ended his marriage, etc, so maybe he was just trying to have a life after all that, and/or after 8-9 years was sick of the whole trilogy.  

Agree with most of your comments about TLJ...if not for the last 20 minutes I would have really hated it.

I am seriously annoyed at the overt PC (very typical of Disney) evident in Force Awakens.  When Target starts running ads showing little girls pretending to be Rei and spouting crap about empowerment, I just have to roll my eyes.  I have no issue with a female Jedi, in fact I think it's great because Rei is pretty hot.   :naughty:

But as someone mentions above, it's the forced nature of it.  We have to have a strong female lead.  We fave to have a major character that is black (and seems to have little other purpose).  We can only grudingly show white males in a positive role.

Why?  Because Disney says so.  Movies are not just entertainment, they must serve the purpose of a socio-political agenda.  Bleahhhhhhhhh!!   :hurl:  Not what I go to the movies for.  I want to see  that crap, I'll watch cable news.   :banghead:

Since when is popular entertainment a vehicle for socio-politics?  Don't get me wrong, i know it always has been at times (for instance...the movie "To Kill a Mockingbird").  But Star Wars was intended to be an ESCAPE from that!  fizzle Disney and fizzle JJ Abrams.   :bird:

http://time.com/4153583/star-wars-the-years-best-movie/

It's the flotsam and jetsam from the period when I was twelve years old," says Director George Lucas, 33. "All the books and films and comics that I liked when I was a child. The plot is simple —good against evil—and the film is designed to be all the fun things and fantasy things I remember. The word for this movie is fun." For once, a director is right about his own work. Star Wars has brought fun back to the movies and glowingly demonstrated they still can make 'em like they used to.

That innocence and that feeling for romance are what make Star Wars so fresh, so much fun and, finally, so fantastic. Lucas believed everything he put on film, and somewhere under the celluloid, he is Luke Sky-walker—out to slay the dragon, rescue the princess and find the Holy Grail. Black is black, white is white, and good will conquer evil, at least in his screening room.

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

On a humorous note, I never realized the "thing" with Lucas' scripting "ability" extended so far back.    :dielaughing:

All nearly gagged trying to say some of Lucas' lines. " 'I thought I recognized your foul stench when I was brought aboard, Governor Tarkin,' is not everyday conversation," says Fisher. "There were times when I issued a threat to tie George up and make him repeat his own dialogue," adds Harrison Ford, 35, who plays Han Solo, the cynical mercenary captain of the Millennium Falcon. "I told him: 'You can't say that stuff. You can only type it.' But I was wrong. It worked."

A few weeks ago, I read an interesting fact. I hadn't really thought about it before, but now that I have, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

Through four Disney SW movies so far, they have yet to introduce a new major character who is a white male, and also a good guy- they've all been baddies. I thought Woody Harrelson was going to break the streak in Solo, but he turned out to be a heel at the end. The closest they've come was Jyn's father in R1, but he only got maybe 5 minutes of screen time so I wouldn't call him a "major" character. Not to mention that the two "legacy" white guys, Han and Luke, have now been killed off.

That's not something that will keep me from seeing the films, but it does speak to a pretty obvious agenda. :frown:

https://www.youtube.com/v/ICSNhMSaVgk
 :hurl: :hurl: :hurl: :hurl: :hurl:

Yeah I would say Poe Dameron, but I guess the actor is hispanic, which technically is not a white male or at any rate not in our current culture.

I have an extremely liberal man-bun-wearing friend who is simply obsessed with issues like this.  For instance, he brought up the day that in spite of the "diversity" of the Cantina in E4, there wasn't a single black person in the whole movie.  Good godawmighty!  I just can't think that way.  He is obsessed with "diversity" even in a galaxy far far away!  It's just ridiculous.

Now...I vaguely recall there was controversy over that even in the 70s and that perhaps Lando Calrisian was created because of that.  But still....I just. don't.  get.  that mindset.   To obsess over the lack of black people in an extra-galactic cantina....I just.... :crazy: :dunno:   :laugh:

The Cantina was full of criminals- "Scum and villainy". If they had put a bunch of black guys in there, they would've been accused of playing into a negative stereotype. :frown:

BTW, I thought the funniest line in Solo was the throwback to Empire:

Lando: I hate you.
Han: I know.
 :dielaughing: