Year: 2018
Director: Ron Howard
Checking the reviews and box office receipts, and considering that I thought The Last Jedi was PANTS, I’m supposed to hate this. But with the benefit of lowered expectations and a quarter-full cinema, I actually had a blast. True, there was a huge amount of box-ticking at work. Has there ever been a film whose remit is to explain a single, throwaway line in another film, made over forty years ago? Probably not. And there’s a shitload of ‘this is how X happened!’ — from the Falcon’s distinctive shape to the way that Lando pronounces ‘Han’ — which is no doubt intended to be ‘fan pleasing’, but is in fact a little bit icky, oh, and it’s way, way too long.
But actually, if you can ignore all that — and you can, dead easily — then what you have here is a fairly cookie-cutter action movie, but one that’s done done really, really well.
Good points? A train heist set-piece that’s worthy of anything in the Mission: Impossible franchise; a really good performance by whatsisname in the title role, properly ‘doing’ Harrison; a funny turn from Fleabag lady; a fantastic Paul Bettany, being badder than he was in Gangster Number One; Donald Glover; more great action scenes, some brillig switcheroos in the final act, a nice dark atmos, similar to Rogue One, nothing — fucking *nothing* about — Jedis or the Force or any of that boring stuff that began as window-dressing but has now taken over the franchise.
Thumbs-up from me. Second-equal with Rogue One in the reboot league.
Might appeal to people who enjoyed:
The Offence, starring Sean Connery and Ian Bannen.
I agree it’s second to Rogue One in this new line of Star Wars films. But that’s not saying much as both of the other ones were god awful.
It wasn’t good enough for me. I think they should just have put the franchise stuff to one side and made a full on heist movie – oceans 11 in space. But it just kind of drifted on and was a bit dull. I wouldn’t watch it again in a hurry.
It was superficially likeable though. I liked all the characters.
saw it yesterday. Not a big Star Wars fan. Some good character and set designs. Some lousy acting – particularly in the opening scenes. The main girl is dreadful, Han isn’t much better. It’s very dark, waaaaayyyy too long. That big space squid – should have been awesome, just seemed a bit ho-hum.
Was Fleabag the voice of the robot? If so, she was good, yes.
My 9 year old son enjoyed it, I fell asleep, to be honest – not done that since Hotel Transylvania 2.
SPOILERS BELOW
Basically pointless but fun. I liked the last half hour best, from when they landed on whatever the refining planet was called, and everyone started changing sides every five minutes. Up until then it was far too formulaic, just a tick box list of things to put in a Han Solo movie (Han meets Chewie! Han meets Lando! Han flies the Falcon! The Kessel Run! I don’t care!) so even just a little flip was welcome. Up until then, it’s just not exciting enough. The opening speeder chase is lame, there’s no real jeopardy or even drama for any of the characters we know are in future films, and even the setpiece train heist didn’t come off for me.
Totally agree with @badartdog‘s comments about the palette – if any SW film should have been a breezy colourful romp, it was this one. The thing that annoyed me the most though was the constant fanboy pandering. There’s a few already mentioned, but also references to Zam Wessel, Aurra Sing etc were all just too much and made me think that this was what the angry nerds wanted from TLJ and got so upset about missing. Also made me angry and upset with myself for even realising they were references in the first place. Similarly, Darth Maul was just bloody stupid (and yes I have watched the Clone Wars so know the backstory).
By some distance the worse of the new films, I think. After half an hour or so I was trying to decide if it was actually worse than Attack Of The Clones or not, but it managed to pull itself back from that.
(Also a bit sad that this is the first SW film not to have R2 or C3PO in, although that would have taken crowbarring even more desperate than the first half of the script already managed)
I just thought it was ‘Meh’ and I really liked the Last Jedi. Properly because it wasn’t pandering fan fiction like this is.
I’ve also got to agree about the palette choices. This is one ugly looking film. It looked like it was filmed on a rainy day in Grimsby.
A question to those who’ve seen it: reckon this would be suitable for a 6-year-old?
Not because of the guns, violence or scary monsters (oh no) – I’m more interested in whether he might be able to follow it, with a little narration from his old man?
Sometimes he struggles with movie plots, but it’s ok if I’m able to break things down in simple terms while we watch. It also helps if there’s a lot of action set-pieces and not too many talky bits. Rogue One was a bit of a lost cause from that point of view and I didn’t even attempt to take him to Last Jedi.
However from what I’ve heard this one seems a bit lighter, more easy-going? I’m hoping it occupies a similar space as, say, Antman or Spiderman: Homecoming does in relation to the Avengers movies.
(No spoilers in your reply please, I successfully scrolled past the one above!)
If you’re going to do the narration, can you do it nice and loud so that all the people in the surrounding seats can get the benefit?
*tiptoes away snickering in the manner of a pantomime villain*
Yeah, I think so. Our eight-year-old had no problems. The plot is all MacGuffins anyway.