[Black Wolf]

Just arrived at the midnight screening. This is my third SW midnight show in a row (and my wife's fourth) and it is... Really quiet. Significantly less than half the number of people for the last couple.

I'll be interested to see of this is a local thing, or if it's something broader - an indication of Star Wars fatigue setting in? It has only been about six months since the last one. Or possibly a reaction from hard core fans to Disney ****ting the bed with TLJ?

Either way, fingers crossed for a good movie. Spoilery review in a few hours!

[Grizzly]

I'll be interested to see of this is a local thing, or if it's something broader - an indication of Star Wars fatigue setting in? It has only been about six months since the last one. Or possibly a reaction from hard core fans to Disney ****ting the bed with TLJ?

I think The Last Jedi is a great Star Wars film, and I hugely enjoyed Rogue One.

I still have no interest in seeing this in theatre or indeed at all. Rogue One was appealing in no small part becuase it was about characters we have never seen before and it focused away from the usual suspects. Solo focuses on a character whose story already has been told. It's trailers seem inspirationless, giving the impression that this is a star wars film because there just had to be another star wars film because the Star Wars Cinematic Universe must keep rolling.

Off course, this approach works just fine for Marvell, so we'll see.

[Novachen]

I hope for you, that  they show Spaceballs as a Preliminary movie... because it can easy happen, that this one has more in common with Star Wars than the main movie you are about to watch

But well, have fun and a enjoyable night.

[Black Wolf]

This is a spoiler thread, so I'm not using spoiler tags. But, short non spoilery first impressions: It's good! Not amazing. There's nothing as impactful as the hallway scene from Rogue One, and the movie suffers from an opening third or so that feels disconnected from the rest of the film, but overall, it's a unique, fun film that is very rooted in the Star Wars universe. The visuals and the music were spot on, and I'm increasingly confident that Disney have really got those parts nailed.

It takes a while to get used to the new Han, but by the end I was fully engaged. Donald Glover, by contrast, sold Lando from his first moments on screen. Fantastic performance. Woody Harrelson was... Well, Woody Harrelson, but he did well. Nobody else stood out, but I do wish Paul Bettany had done an accent or something - having just seen him in Avengers, every time he opened his mouth I just heard Vision.

Overall, it's good. I walked out happy, and I want to see it again to pick up more Easter eggs and immerse myself in the world of tue film a bit more, but also because I just liked it. I walked out of the theatre happy - not as happy as Rogue One, but way, way happier than TLJ. It's a solid, middle of the road Star Wars movie that maybe suffers a little because it doesn't have the traditional Star Wars things (Starfighters and Jedi and light sabres and big capital ships), but they're trying something new.

Overall, probably a 7 out of 10.


Now, spoiler bits. You've been warned!

I think I would have been very likely disappointed if the big reveal hadn't been there in the last 15 minutes. You see Qi'Ra stealing the ship about a mile away, but it didn't even enter consideration that they might bring Darth Maul over from TCW. That is Lucasfilm really committing to "everything is canon". I thought VCX-100 was going to be the extent of their willingness to nod at the cartoons, but no way.

I thought a few of the Easter eggs were a little forced (Teras Kasi?) but mostly I liked them - things like calling out CEC by name were cool.

The kid coming out from under the helmet was a little... Eh. And then tying them to the start of the rebellion... I could have done without it, but it didn't make that much of a difference. One thing that was cool was their use if existing aliens - it's kind of annoyed me that just about every alien we've seen since Ep VII has been something new. Ok, fine, but we have these established species too, that are supposed to be all over the galaxy - where are they? In this movie, apparently. I spotted a Twi'lek, a Rodian and a Talz (and was that Edrio Two Tubes in amongst the rebels at the end?) 

Loved all the little things. Han's "fair and square" line from ESB has some context now, as do Threepio's complaints about the Falcon's computer.

There's lots more to say, but I'm tired.

[Scourge of Ages]

Review: It's actually pretty good! Not amazing, but kept me engaged all the way through (part of it was definitely guessing how various characters would die since they're obviously not in the orig-trig).

If I had to rate it in terms of goodness, I'd say a little in between Rogue One and The Last Jedi. If you were on the fence about whether you should see it or not, you won't be disappointed if you do! If you were already on the side of not wanting to see it, I'm not going to tell you you were wrong.

Spoilies ahead:

And if you're wondering if Han makes the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs in this movie, of course he does. And they pass by the Maw while they're at it.
If you're wondering if he wins the Falcon in a game of sabacc vs Lando in this movie, yep.
If you're wondering if he shoots first, uh huh.
If you're wondering if he gets a bad feeling about this, surprisingly he does not!
Also: no mynocks. They mention them in passing, but don't see any.
And if you're wondering if Darth Maul shows up in a hologram just to be all "Hi y'all, it's me! Darth Maul!" then you obviously didn't read Black Wolf's post above, because he totally does that.

And there's a bunch of other references for the hard-core Star Wars nerds up in there, but they don't really take you out of the film.

[Luis Dias]

I've heard it sucks, I've concluded therefore that it sucks and now you are all trying to dismiss this conclusion I've already formed in my head because you what? Saw the movie yourselves? Nah, my feelings don't care about your facts.

This stuff aside, I won't watch it til it reaches teevee. I'm that excited to see it.

[Grizzly]

If I had to rate it in terms of goodness, I'd say a little in between Rogue One and The Last Jedi. If you were on the fence about whether you should see it or not, you won't be disappointed if you do! If you were already on the side of not wanting to see it, I'm not going to tell you you were wrong.

Hehe, alright, alright, I'll probably go watch it at some point (at home though, as I did with Rogue). Disney is probably going to set these up in a way that ensures that they'll never be horrendously bad, but will also not be all that innovative either.

[Scotty]

This is one of those movies that I was thoroughly entertained while watching, but isn't honestly all that great.  It's fun basically the entire time, though, which is enough for me to recommend it.  Don't go in expecting art, go in expecting a wild ride.

Special mention goes to the music for exactly one scene, where the Asteroid Field score from ESB plays, the best musical score in Star Wars where the bar for that at least is set incredibly high.  Highlight of the movie for me.

[Scourge of Ages]

Special mention goes to the music for exactly one scene, where the Asteroid Field score from ESB plays, the best musical score in Star Wars where the bar for that at least is set incredibly high.  Highlight of the movie for me.

Also that the Imperial March plays at the Imperial recruiting station 

[Trivial Psychic]

So, since this is a spoiler thread, I won't bother to hide my observations and theories.

We know that at the end of Clone Wars, Maul was running his Shadow Syndicate off Mandalore, though having just lost his brother Savage Opress to Sidious.  We don't know exactly why Sidious left Maul alive, what his plans for Maul were, but some back-story we've been provided with indicates that Ashoka Tano was recruited by the Jedi to lead an assault on Mandalore, where Maul was defeated and driven off Mandalore, opening the door for the Empire to seize control of the planet.  Anyway, the next time we saw Maul was at the end of Star Wars Rebels season 2, alone on Malachore.  So somehow, he retained control of his Shadow Syndicate, or at least part of it, and renamed it "Crimson Dawn", and then would later have it destroyed or pulled out from underneath him, and get marooned on Malachore.  I know this is a bit of a stretch, but perhaps this is supposed to tie in with the upcoming Kenobi movie?

[Cyborg17]

So, since this is a spoiler thread, I won't bother to hide my observations and theories.

We know that at the end of Clone Wars, Maul was running his Shadow Syndicate off Mandalore, though having just lost his brother Savage Opress to Sidious.  We don't know exactly why Sidious left Maul alive, what his plans for Maul were, but some back-story we've been provided with indicates that Ashoka Tano was recruited by the Jedi to lead an assault on Mandalore, where Maul was defeated and driven off Mandalore, opening the door for the Empire to seize control of the planet.  Anyway, the next time we saw Maul was at the end of Star Wars Rebels season 2, alone on Malachore.  So somehow, he retained control of his Shadow Syndicate, or at least part of it, and renamed it "Crimson Dawn", and then would later have it destroyed or pulled out from underneath him, and get marooned on Malachore.  I know this is a bit of a stretch, but perhaps this is supposed to tie in with the upcoming Kenobi movie?

  Not versed enough in the lore to fully understand whether this is trolling or not. 

Nevermind, just looked it up, and it's real. 

Uh, yeah, it could be a tie in.  I guess we'll see.

[CP5670]

I liked it overall, although not as much as Rogue One. The battles and action scenes are entertaining and they captured Han's cocky personality nicely. I liked Qian as well and she has more complex motivations than the typical Star Wars characters, she reminds me a bit of Kreia in KOTOR 2. Like Scotty said, it may not be particularly deep but it's fun.

[Lorric]

It fell short of expectations at the box office:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/entertainment-arts-44283427

[Blue Lion]

I'm just all Star Wars'd out. It could be great but I'm getting to the point where I'm thinking "I'll just check it on Netflix or something" I'm doing that a lot with superhero movies as well. Last one I saw in theaters was Wonder Woman. Waiting on the rest for DVD.

[mjn.mixael]

I'm still invested in the Marvel characters. I eagerly anticipate whatever the next chapter is for them irregardless of how cool it's become to hate on superhero movies.

Star Wars, though? I'm not invested at all. I was open to being invested after VII. VIII killed that. Rogue One literally killed off all it's characters, even the good ones. #notmysolo I may give Solo a watch when it's on Netflix or something. Anything Donald Glover does is probably worth checking out at least once.

[Snarks]

Watched it on Netflix, and it was pretty decent!

I was skeptical about there being anything of value to be taken from Han's character since I figured his story arc was completed, but Solo does a very good job of establishing what led to Han being Han in the original series. There was always this disconnect that Han would be just join up with the rebellion in the original trilogy, and TLJ's DJ was a fantastic subversion of that. Solo does a good job of negotiating between those two extremes. Just because we know where Han ended up doesn't mean there isn't anything interesting to be had about how he got there. At the very least, Solo explores that gray area outside of the light/dark side, something that adds a lot of depth to the universe.

[mjn.mixael]

I actually did watch it on Netflix, too. It was wildly middling. And of course if the nostalgia of Solo and Chewie isn't enough.. let's throw in some Darth Maul to bring you back for the next one. No one's ever really gone!

[Scotty]

I actually did watch it on Netflix, too. It was wildly middling. And of course if the nostalgia of Solo and Chewie isn't enough.. let's throw in some Darth Maul to bring you back for the next one. No one's ever really gone!

Darth Maul at that point had already been shown to have survived in the Clone Wars series.  He is (very definitively) killed in Rebels.

[mjn.mixael]

meh... doesn't matter. They could have used the opportunity to introduce some new villain. Instead they went right back to something that we've already seen. Doubly so since he was in Clone Wars and Rebels.

[Scotty]

meh... doesn't matter. They could have used the opportunity to introduce some new villain. Instead they went right back to something that we've already seen. Doubly so since he was in Clone Wars and Rebels.

You've already self-selected as "not the target audience", no wonder you didn't like what happened.

Mostly I'm just already irritated at having to hear "No one's ever really gone" as the new favorite mocking refrain.