I finally made it to see Solo: A Star Wars Storytoday with my friend Vinny, and we both enjoyed it.
Solo is a fun, action-packed summer popcorn flick that can be enjoyed whether it’s your first Star Wars experience or if you’ve seen all nine previous live-action films plus all six seasons of Clone Wars and three seasons of Rebels.
Alden Ehrenreich may not be Harrison Ford, but he ably brings a younger version of Han Solo to the screen. (Solo primarily takes place 10 years before the events of the original 1977 Star Wars film.) He’s got good chemistry with his co-stars, particularly Joonas Suotamo (Chewbacca.)
Veteran actors Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton and Paul Bettany created wonderful new characters in the Star Wars universe, though Newton’s Val was shamefully underused. Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian and his co-pilot L3-37 (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge) stole the show for me, though.
There are some amazing action sequences (including the best “car” chase in a Star Wars film) and a lot of fun Easter eggs and cameos.
I hope that Solo’s disappointing opening weekend won’t prevent us from seeing some additional adventures involving Ehrenreich’s Han, Glover’s Lando and Emilia Clarke’s Qi’ra.
Earlier this week, I received a signed photo from actor Marton Csokas who’s in a Broadway play with Uma Thurman that ends in early March. Csokas is probably best known to genre fans for playing Celeborn in two of the Lord of the Rings movies and Trevor Goodchild in Aeon Flux.
In an uncredited role, Csokas provided the voice for Geonosian leader Poggle the Lesser in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. And that’s why I wrote to him to ask for an autograph. He responded in less than a week, and I have my first new Star Wars autograph of 2018. Pretty cool
But you know what? I’m coming around to the idea that a Star Wars caper movie could be really fun. And in the little bit we see of Ehrenreich in these clips, he seems like he’s got Han Solo’s mannerisms down.
So yeah, I’m looking forward to watching Solo on Memorial Day weekend… though I’m not sure how well it’s going to fare among all the summer blockbusters. (Avengers: Infinity War comes out May 4, Deadpool 2 is coming on May 18 and Ocean’s 8 will be out June 8.) But hey, that’s Disney’s problem.
Now I’m totally going to be there to watch all of it as long as it is entertaining. But as far as collecting goes? I think it’s time to re-evaluate.
I have literally hundreds of Star Wars action figures, and in a couple of months it will be time to buy new ones for Solo: A Star Wars Story. Except maybe I won’t.
I will get whatever comes out for Episode IX to finish the sequel trilogy… and then I’m definitely out. I can’t display everything I have now… and it’s becoming increasingly clear that Star Wars will probably still be going long after I’m gone. (Although, based on Hasbro’s fourth quarter earnings report, I’m less confident about the long-term future of Star Wars action figures.)
I’m not sure where I am with autograph collecting, either.
I have a nice original trilogy collection (no Alec Guinness, Peter Cushing, Harrison Ford, Frank Oz or Ian McDiarmid, but I do have all of the other main characters and a lot of minor ones.) I have an interesting prequel trilogy collection (Jake Lloyd, Ahmed Best and Temuera Morrison are the only main characters, but I have a lot of the minor Jedi and other colorful characters.)
I have no one from the sequel trilogy. Spencer Wilding is the only one I have from Rogue One. The principal characters either aren’t available or aren’t affordable. (Sorry, Felicity Jones, you were great as Jyn Erso but I couldn’t swing the $200 you were charging at New York Comic Con last year.)
So is it really worth pursuing autographs from the casts of these new films? Or am I better off trying to add more from the original and prequel trilogies? I haven’t really decided yet.
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