This post will focus only on Solo: A Star Wars Story. Star Wars has always had controversy going back to the old, old Star Wars vs. Star Trek debate. It's funny that Solo was directed by Ron Howard as franchise creator George Lucas once recognized Ron's brother Clint during a casting session as Balok of the First Federation in the early Star Trek episode "The Corbomite Maneuver." I bring up this old argument only to point out when comparing the two as I've felt Star Trek (at least on TV. Harve Bennett dumbed down the franchise for the movies long before Star Wars fan JJ Abrams did...) that Trek was more intellectually stimulating while Wars was pure Good vs. Evil fun. Solo is a shining example of this and sunlight-deprived nerds are up in arms.
A friend pointed out to me the movie explained too many mysteries. According to the internet, the biggest, most controversial, reveal was where Han Solo's name came from. This was never a mystery worth my time to think about. Sure, he was a smuggler so "Han Solo" probably wasn't his given name but, until this movie, I honestly never thought about it. I will say though, it's really too bad Robert Vaughn wasn't still alive to play the role of that Corellian customs agent... (If you don't get that reference, your ranking of trivia master is severely tarnished...)
To me, the biggest gamble the writers made was throwing in elements from the Clone Wars cartoon. Because I had watched all 6 seasons of it recently I recognized both the name and look of the Pikes for instance. This was minor trivia that general audiences probably won't care about but there was a bigger reveal was Darth Maul is still alive. Again, watchers of the cartoon already knew this and why he's on the planet Dathomir. (It just occurred to me, I'm surprised no one I follow on Twitter mentioned it, that this planet was first introduced to me in the novel The Courtship Of Princess Leia so having Han's first girlfriend, Q'ira, go there is interesting to me...
Bottom-line: Solo is a fun romp that you can take your kids to without worrying of them having nightmares for months...
A friend pointed out to me the movie explained too many mysteries. According to the internet, the biggest, most controversial, reveal was where Han Solo's name came from. This was never a mystery worth my time to think about. Sure, he was a smuggler so "Han Solo" probably wasn't his given name but, until this movie, I honestly never thought about it. I will say though, it's really too bad Robert Vaughn wasn't still alive to play the role of that Corellian customs agent... (If you don't get that reference, your ranking of trivia master is severely tarnished...)
To me, the biggest gamble the writers made was throwing in elements from the Clone Wars cartoon. Because I had watched all 6 seasons of it recently I recognized both the name and look of the Pikes for instance. This was minor trivia that general audiences probably won't care about but there was a bigger reveal was Darth Maul is still alive. Again, watchers of the cartoon already knew this and why he's on the planet Dathomir. (It just occurred to me, I'm surprised no one I follow on Twitter mentioned it, that this planet was first introduced to me in the novel The Courtship Of Princess Leia so having Han's first girlfriend, Q'ira, go there is interesting to me...
Bottom-line: Solo is a fun romp that you can take your kids to without worrying of them having nightmares for months...
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