Movie Solo: A Star Wars Story (3 Viewers)

[CajunInVA]

I saw it last night. A very enjoyable movie. My son loved it, too.

Spoiler

You have to appreciate the arc they took to not make Han a drug smuggler. If you've ever read the Expanded Universe, Kessel was where "Spice" came from, which is the Star Wars version of heroin, I guess. His brag about Kessel run in 12 parsecs always hinted at the fact that Han was the equivalent of the guys in speed boats sneaking Columbian coke into the US.

 

[antipop]

i thought it was pretty good...i don't really care for the guy playing Han but the rest of the movie carried that just fine

 

[Booker]

So this story has been out for a couple of days now, that Kathleen Kennedy will be leaving Lucasfilm later this year.

Star Wars Han Solo FLOP and fan boycott: 'Kathleen Kennedy GONE by September'?

Although industry pundits and some sites support the studio head, there has been an extraordinary backlash against the Star Wars franchise and specifically Kennedy herself since the divisive Last Jedi hit cinemas. The remarkably poor performance of Solo is being attributed in part to a massive ongoing fan boycott of Star Wars movies.

The buzz is that they'll frame it as her stepping down in September due to her own fatigue with the series, but that this decision came from Disney. The thing that makes me think there may be some truth to this is that there hasn't been a denial or statement of support.

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

So this story has been out for a couple of days now, that Kathleen Kennedy will be leaving Lucasfilm later this year.

Star Wars Han Solo FLOP and fan boycott: 'Kathleen Kennedy GONE by September'?



The buzz is that they'll frame it as her stepping down in September due to her own fatigue with the series, but that this decision came from Disney. The thing that makes me think there may be some truth to this is that there hasn't been a denial or statement of support.

I think that is unfair to Kennedy. I think we all can agree that TLJ didn't meet the expectations of many fans, but that was no reason to punish Solo, which was actually a pretty damn good movie. The fanboi's have been raging against Disney because they believe Disney is pushing an agenda that the fanboi's do not agree with. They complained that TFA was nothing but ANH reboot and when they took a risk on TLJ, they raged about how that wasn't their Star Wars.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

So this story has been out for a couple of days now, that Kathleen Kennedy will be leaving Lucasfilm later this year.

Star Wars Han Solo FLOP and fan boycott: 'Kathleen Kennedy GONE by September'?



The buzz is that they'll frame it as her stepping down in September due to her own fatigue with the series, but that this decision came from Disney. The thing that makes me think there may be some truth to this is that there hasn't been a denial or statement of support.

this sucks
this is going to further empower the manbaby fanbois and they'll be even more insufferable

 

[Saint by the Bay]

I think that is unfair to Kennedy. I think we all can agree that TLJ didn't meet the expectations of many fans, but that was no reason to punish Solo, which was actually a pretty damn good movie. The fanboi's have been raging against Disney because they believe Disney is pushing an agenda that the fanboi's do not agree with. They complained that TFA was nothing but ANH reboot and when they took a risk on TLJ, they raged about how that wasn't their Star Wars.

I'm not a fanboi and I couldn't care less about the cultural stuff.

I just don't think the movies have been great, with the exception of Rogue One.

For these films to be financially successful they need people like me to see them multiple times. That's the only way to maximize profit on blockbuster movies with their enormous budgets.

Kennedy has absolutely failed to produce movies that create that kind of excitement. With the exception of Rogue One I saw each of these movies in theaters once. That's unheard of for me, I see most of these types of movies at least three times in theaters and I'm a Star Wars fanatic.

In addition, there has been so much chaos with writers and directors being shuffled on and off films and massive reshoots on some of the films (costing massive $$$$).

The fact of the matter is the franchise is underperforming and a chaotic mess under Kennedy. That's unacceptable, especially for Disney.

 

[billinms]

When the studio loses money on a Star Wars film, whatever the reasons, there will be changes made. Solo may lose $50 mil+.

 

[Booker]

this sucks
this is going to further empower the manbaby fanbois and they'll be even more insufferable

Yeah, coming right on the heels of the bullshirt that Kelly Marie Tran had to deal with, it seems like people are being rewarded for bad behavior. That said, I tend to agree with Saint by the Bay on this, that between the director issues, TLJ, and the tone-deafness to the backlash against TLJ (which probably only encouraged more backlash) the property has been mishandled. The manbaby fanbois may be loud and obnoxious, but that shouldn't be an excuse to ignore the legitimate issues with the state of the franchise that have nothing to do with casting women or minorities, or perceived political agendas.

They complained that TFA was nothing but ANH reboot and when they took a risk on TLJ, they raged about how that wasn't their Star Wars.

I saw TFA three times and loved it, even if it was bit of a clone of ANH. TLJ felt like a Spaceballs spoof of the Empire Strikes Back -- instead of the Empire being in a high speed pursuit of the Millennium Falcon, you had a slow speed chase that was only missing the white Ford Bronco and the LAPD motorcade; instead of the young force sensitive protagonist going to learn from the master, you had the master learning from the force sensitive protagonist. Not to mention all the slapstick, all the characters being turned into morons to advance a stupid plot, and what felt like a lack of continuity with the previous films.

 

[BooBirdSaint]

the legacy of 1977 has generated billions of dollars of revenue and 10 movies (I think). Hollywood doesn't care about fanboy noise. If the franchise can survive episodes 1-3 it can survive Solo (which I haven't seen yet but will because I don't care about proper color while of Stormtrooper uniforms) They are fun and my kids like them much like I did the first (which my kids thought 4 was boring)… Bring on a Wookie Story or the Land of Lando!

 

[Sun Wukong]

There are a couple of things here re: the rumors about Kennedy possibly departing.

One, that is not confirmed. The source for it is an industry newsletter that HAS broken big executive stories in the past, so they're not without merit. But they're also often just reporting on rumors. So we'll see.

I agree that it would look like they're rewarding the toxic fans for their toxic behavior. And I find it especially odd since Kennedy isn't actually a creative voice. She runs Lucasfilm, but she's not sitting there coming up with plots and mandating characters and all of that.

I think a better bet would be to hire someone to be the Kevin Feige on the creative end. A true fan with a vision for what they want. Let Kennedy do the business end and have a strong voice as creative head. This is what I thought the Story Group was going to be, but if Rian Johnson's comments are anything to go by, they don't really exert any kind of power. They mostly just fact check and say "Yes/No" when asked certain questions. And I guess they have a bigger role in publishing, animation, etc. where there seems to be more long term planning. Speculation is that Kiri Hart (SVP of Development) may be the favorite to take over if Kennedy bolts. I would maybe be interested in that. She has a background in story development and writings and is in charge of the Story Group. She may prove to be a more decisive voice narratively.

I do agree that the franchise has been mishandled in some ways, although not as much as others do. I am unrepentant in my enjoyment of TFA. It's flawed, but I still think it was a great first step. Rogue One is great. I really enjoyed Solo. TLJ is a movie that I was kinder on closer to release, but subsequent viewings since the Blu-Ray release have made me re-evaluate it more towards the negative. I just fundamentally disagree with so many of the story choices made now, and I think it created a difficult situation for Ep IX. Which is further exacerbated by the Carrie Fisher situation.

But I think the problem isn't that Kennedy is mandating too much. I think she's giving too much free reign. I think contrary to what some people believe, there's not enough oversight on her watch. There should have been a strong voice in the studio to tell Rian Johnson "No, absolutely not." on some of the choices he wanted to make. There should have been somebody watching Lord and Miller and not getting to the point that they had to re-film an almost completed movie with a new director. There should have been some plan laid out from the beginning, at least for the ST, about where this was all going. When Johnson was doing interviews saying "Yeah, they basically let me do whatever I wanted and there was nobody to really tell me where to take the story," I kind of knew this was an issue. There was no road map. Maybe you don't need one so much for the anthology movies, but the ST absolutely needed one.

Basically, I'm not really sure Kathleen Kennedy has a good direction in mind for what Star Wars is or where it needs to go. I think she's given directors and writers too much rope, and some have hung themselves with it. Contrast that with Kevin Feige at Marvel who had an absolute idea of what he wanted done, then once that was on the tracks he started allowing some more creative freedom. He established the mold and then started to bring it people to chip away at it some. Yes, this caused strife with people like Joss Whedon, Alan Taylor, and Edgar Wright along the way in regards to feeling creatively stifled, but Feige was adamant that the template had to be established before risks could start being taken. And it's worked out exceedingly well for Marvel both financially and creatively.

Star Wars needs a ship righting in that regard. There just needs to be a stronger plan.

Also, a movie a year is too much. They should differ from Marvel in this regard. I love Star Wars, but it should be a bit more rare than Marvel movies.

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

Things may not be all that great in the Star Wars universe, but it could've been a whole lot worse.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">As far as I&#39;ve seen, these are the first specifics George Lucas has shared about what his vision of Episodes 7-9 would have been. This comes from <a href="Insight Editions (@insighteditions) | Twitter">@insighteditions</a> awesome companion book to &quot;James Cameron&#39;s Story of Science Fiction series&quot; on AMC: <a href="Livio Ramondelli on Twitter">pic.twitter.com/Wtlw8zlrqv</a></p>&mdash; Livio Ramondelli (@LivioRamondelli) <a href="
View: https://twitter.com/LivioRamondelli/status/1006384885668253696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
">June 12, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Jeff Miller]

So this story has been out for a couple of days now, that Kathleen Kennedy will be leaving Lucasfilm later this year.

Star Wars Han Solo FLOP and fan boycott: 'Kathleen Kennedy GONE by September'?



The buzz is that they'll frame it as her stepping down in September due to her own fatigue with the series, but that this decision came from Disney. The thing that makes me think there may be some truth to this is that there hasn't been a denial or statement of support.

I don't by it,
1) the movie has had bad press for over a year when Lorde and Miller were fired
2) the movie had more bad press when it leaked that Ron Howard was basically reshooting the whole movie
3) the fallout of fan disappointment to the Last Jedi is a real thing, but instead of boycotting Last Jedi blurays, they stayed away from Solo
4) moving from xmas to summer was huge mistake. look at what's currently coming out in Dec. Aquaman and Mary Poppin's returns. They could have easily owned the xmas holiday.
5) the YouTube hate machine did everything they could to destroy this movie, before anyone saw it.
6) this movie was never going to be a financial success because they had to shoot it twice,

You don't replace the head of a studio for one under performing movie, and a bunch of internet idiots that can't get over that Ria Johnson didn't give them the Luke Skywalker love fest they wanted.

But Kathleen Kennedy has made one big mistake. There is no direction or plan for the movies or the over arching story. Its the exact opposite of marvel that has their storylines planned out for 4 years in advance. Hell even DC has a framework to implement that is more then what Star Wars has had. There is no plan for Star Wars. JJ Abrams made one movie. Then Johnson did his movie, and they were expected the next guy to take it from there.

So instead of a cohesive story that ties together, you getting 3 different writers doing their own chapter with no coordination between where a character or story point starts and ends.

Who were Ray's parents? they never said because at the ed of TFA, they didn't know who they would be.
Why no clue as to Snoke's backstory? because no backstory exists. they have no idea who he is.
Why did Luke run away from his family? at the end of TFA, they hadn't decided yet.

That is Kathleen Kennedy's failure. Her only plan was to higher a director and let them figure it out on a movie by movie basis. Hell even Dave Filoni did a better job with Rebels.

 

[DCSaints_Fan]

I'm not a fanboi and I couldn't care less about the cultural stuff.

I just don't think the movies have been great, with the exception of Rogue One.

For these films to be financially successful they need people like me to see them multiple times. That's the only way to maximize profit on blockbuster movies with their enormous budgets.

Kennedy has absolutely failed to produce movies that create that kind of excitement. With the exception of Rogue One I saw each of these movies in theaters once. That's unheard of for me, I see most of these types of movies at least three times in theaters and I'm a Star Wars fanatic.

Rogue One was the worst of the new batch IMO. The characters were weak, except those Jedi temple disciples, and the story was confusing. Its only redeeming quality were the action scenes, but nothing I hadn't seen dozens of times before.

 

[Sun Wukong]

Rogue One was the worst of the new batch IMO. The characters were weak, except those Jedi temple disciples, and the story was confusing. Its only redeeming quality were the action scenes, but nothing I hadn't seen dozens of times before.

How was the story confusing? It was literally completely straightforward with not a single twist or misdirect in sight.

 

[Sun Wukong]

That is Kathleen Kennedy's failure. Her only plan was to higher a director and let them figure it out on a movie by movie basis. Hell even Dave Filoni did a better job with Rebels.

Probably not the most popular decision around, but I would actually love if Dave Filoni became some kind of overarching creative director for Lucasfilm. He was basically Lucas' protoge towards the end there, and developed a reputation for knowing when George's idea were good and when they were stupid, and not being afraid to speak up on that somewhat. He knows Star Wars inside and out (which, it has become apparent, Kennedy does not. I hate to keep going back to the Marvel well for comparisons, but one of the reasons Feige has been so successful is because he was a real fan that had deep knowledge of the material he was adapting.), and he has some interesting ideas about where things can go as well. Basically, I feel like he has enough fidelity to the past to not wreck things, but also is forward thinking enough to move the franchise along.

He isn't perfect. The bad episodes of Rebels were really bad. But on the other hand, the best episodes of Clone Wars were some of the best Star Wars content since the original trilogy.

I'm probably just pipe dreaming. He's the animation guy, and it's tough for people to break out of that into live action, let alone major creative roles. But I would be totally OK with it.

P.S., that idea for microscopic Whills sounds god awful. It literally sounds like Lucas was thinking "You don't like midichlorians? WELL TOO BAD, BECAUSE HERE'S A WHOLE TRILOGY ABOUT HOW THEY CONTROL THE UNIVERSE!" Just....no.