No, it wasn't stellar. I always have problems with movies that tell a preexisting backstory. Think of the 'the Thing' prequel that came out a while back. It was all storytelling by the numbers, and some of it was really forced. You're always going to know how it ultimately ends, so there's no real suspense in the dangers they try to come up with to fill in the general outline. Same thing here. We all know that Han, Chewie, and Lando make it out alive to at least episode 6, so really, what's the point? Whoop-dee-doo, big-ass gravity well with a huge ass space octopus that the Falcon has to outrun. I guess there's no real danger to anybody here since we're not in an alternate timeline and we already know where, when, and how Han Solo eventually dies. Introducing the other characters and making them the real story might have made it better, but they didn't do that. But they did that in Rogue One, and that's why it was such a stellar movie. We knew ultimately what was going to happen, the Death Star plans get to the Rebels, but what happened to the players responsible? We had no idea who was involved and how they did it, and that's what made Rogue One so much fun.
The Game of Thrones people are going to be haunted by the fact that they were on that show for the rest of their careers, kind of like how the original Star Wars cast is haunted by the fact that they were a part of Star Wars. So yeah, whenever we see Emilia Clarke, all we're gonna think is Khaleesi. Whenever we see Peter Dinklage, all we're gonna think is Tyrion Lannister. That's what happens when you're a part of something iconic. You can't escape it. From now on, Robert Downey Jr. is Tony Stark. And he always will be. Period, end of. But I guess he's at a stage in his life where that's ok. He did it right. He had a career, a decline, then a resurgence into an iconic role. And he made a gazillion dollars off of it. Seriously, he's set for life now. You could say the same thing about Alec Guinness.
The film was ok. I kept thinking that these anthology filmmakers really like smartass droids. They must have stolen the idea from Interstellar. Anyway, you're not gonna beat Empire. A New Hope. Rogue One is up there with the first 2. Then comes ROTJ. I'll put Solo in the middle and I'm currently putting the prequel trilogy ahead of the sequels. You can pick and choose the order, but really, what it boils down to is that all 5 of them are inferior films compared to my top 4. The prequels could have been a lot better, but whatever. Scrap the sequels, rewrite new sequels and make them vastly different.
There's rumors that there could be a sequel to this one. I say if they make Han and Chewie part of a larger crew full of characters that we don't know, but end up giving a crap about and find out what happens to them instead of trying to make us worry about Han and Chewie, then maybe it could work. But I doubt it. Han and Chewie are the bankable characters, and that's what the filmmakers are going to focus on.
There's a backlash among fans because of the sequel series with Rey and all of the other new ones. It's because of the Last Jedi, really. That's why the Solo film came in second behind Deadpool 2. The fans are boycotting this film. All told, they're probably gonna boycott future films as well. People are calling for the immediate removal of Kathleen Kennedy. If the Lucasfilms organization doesn't turn this ship around, then I don't see new Star Wars films remaining a bankable commodity for much longer.
Personally, I think they should get away from the main story and the main characters and reinstate the expanded universe and make some movies about shit other than Han and the Skywalker line. There's an entire galaxy with a rich history to explore. Make some films using that stuff as inspiration. That's my 2 cents.
