Star Wars Rise of Skywalker Review part III

After the Goonies-esque recovery of the dagger and what was left of OChii (This definitely seems to be a pattern as we’ll see later) and the ‘death’ of Chewie, the trio-along with new droid, the lamp-like and nervous BTO (voiced by Abrams no less), we end up on Kimiji, which seems to be sort of a snowy, sort of seedy planet under heavy First Order patrols.  It’s here we meet Zorri Bliss, who takes up Phasma’s role as popular TV show actress whose masked face is only briefly revealed in kind of smallish role.

 

In this case it’s Keri Russel, who was in one of J. J Abram’s early shows, Felicity.

 

She also appeared in Abram’s Mission Impossible III (His first film).

She plays Zorri Bliss, a spice runner who Poe used to hang around with, explaining why he knows how to hotwire a speeder and do hyperspace skipping. Although other sources have him be the son of two rebels including an A-wing pilot and serving in the New Republic X-wing squadrons, apparently he had an akward phase where he worked in the more shadier parts of the Star Wars galaxy.

After a tense showoff in which Rey overpowers Zorri and her gang, she agrees to help them out, by taking them to Babu Frik, another member of the gang who does work on droids.

Pretty sure Babu is a practical puppet here. It’s interesting that ROS seems pretty reliant on practical creature effects, even more so than the other Disney films it seems. Even Maz-a CG creation in the last two sequels-is actually an animatronic this time. Maybe Abrams saw the work with baby Yoda in the Mandalorian and thought maybe a bit less CG might be in order? Even the space horses later on actually seem to use real horses as part of the effect (Similar to how the Banthas were basically dressed-up elephants).

Babu is voiced by actress Shirley Henderson, whose high-pitched voice also wound up as Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter and Ursula in Doctor Who.

 

Yeah, let’s not talk about her DW appearence.

Anway, Frik will need to wipe 3PO’s memory in order to have him translate the Sith stuff. There’s a great scene with 3PO here taking “one last look” at his friends and repeating Poe’s phrase about “everything we’ve done” although it honestly was kind of spoiled by the trailers. It’s here we get the “red eye” Threepio briefly, who in a deep voice recites the phrase on the dagger, giving the location of the second wayfinder: A moon in the Endor system (But not quite *that* moon).

However, turns out the Knights of Ren have tracked our heroes to Kimiji, and Ren’s star destroyer is now in orbit. There’s a short scene between Zorri and Poe on the rooftop, where she briefly shows her eyes, and Poe tells her about the events of the last film and how nobody helps. It’s kind of curious that John William’s score for this scene is somewhat similar to that from “Attack of the Clones” where Anakin is told his mother is missing. Sort of the “things are hopeless” theme I guess?

As the group decide to head to rescue Chewie-and also get the dagger back (as Rey senses it has some other importance-like the diary in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, yeah the map may be important, but there’s also some extra instructions that might come in handy). Zorri gives them a sort of Captain’s pass thingy. Also 3PO is kind of funny as he seems to have the same basic persona, but doesn’t of course remember any of his friends.

Here the film sort of goes into the “corridor fight” scenes that are pretty much in every Star Wars film, with the characters battling or sneaking around Stormtroopers as they rescue Chewie. Rey, in the meantime, goes into Ren’s quarters and retrieves the dagger, which seems to reveal painful memories for her, and has another one of her force projection things with Kylo, which soon becomes a lightsaber duel, with the various debris from both locations telephoning between locations. Although it’s Vader’s helmet going through this force portal that clues him into her whereabouts-his quarters.

 

Kind of makes you wonder though, did he just leave the helmet on Kimiji to later get blown up, or bring it back onboard the Destroyer where it also likely got blown up? Oh well, part of the plot of this sequel trilogy is that things that seemed to be forever lost like the Anakin/Luke lightsaber or enough of the Death Star II to be partially salvagable are around, then maybe Vader’s helmet made it through that too. “Nobody’s really gone” indeed.

Eventually Chewie, Poe and Finn are cornered by Hux, but are then saved by him, revealing he’s the spy, who went from crazed true believer in The Force Awakens to just wanting to get back at Kylo Ren in just a few years. He leads them to the docked Falcon, although he asks Finn to shoot him to make it “look real”.

Pryde doesn’t buy it and shoots Hux on the spot, pretty much making him the new First Order #2 (or #3 if you count Palpatine).

 

 

Rey however, waits to confront Kylo Ren who’s got a new TIE whisper (or just quickly repaired the old one). He finally reveals that she’s actually a Palpatine, in pretty much the kind of “I am your father” moment of this trilogy, although nowhere near as shocking as that reveal was way back then.

He reveals they’re sort of a “Force dyad” a fact that he’s keeping from Palpatine, a sort of unique force phenomenon, I guess because they’re both the grandchildren of Sith lords.

 

Rey looks like she’s considering jumping down to Kimiji instead of joining Ren, much like Luke’s choice in ESB. However, like with Luke in ESB, she’s rescued by the Falcon, although thankfully for her the Falcon is parked right outside and she doesn’t need to hang around for a while like Luke used to do. Poor guy had just lost a hand too.

It also delivers a burst of it’s engine which messes up the stormtroopers but Kylo manages to hang on.

 

 

I’m kind of a bit reminded of that scene in Back to the Future II where Doc and the Delorean rescue Marty.

…..and just like Back to the Future II, in the next phase of the film we’re about to visit a familiar location from a previous film . Sort of. Same system, different moon, but same, somewhat less than fully operational battle station.

Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker Review Part two

Lando tells them where to find the ship containing the Wayfinder, and also that he and Luke were looking for it themselves. While Han is usually paired with Lando in most Star Wars stuff for obvious reasons we never quite saw a lot of Luke and Lando hanging out together outside of the Expanded Universe material that’s set between ESB and ROTJ, where Han was out of the picture. It’d be kind of cool to have some future Disney novel, comic, or even video game fill in the blanks about Luke & Lando planet hopping to find Jedi artifacts and clues about the Sith.

When asked to help out the resistance, Lando is reluctant, saying his flying days are over. However there’s apparently cut stuff from the movie that says Lando has suffered a family tragedy-His baby daughter was kidnapped and introduced into the First Order’s Stormtrooper corps. This’ll become relevant later.

 

This leads to a chase scene that’s a fun little thing with flying Stormtroopers where the characters all say “They fly now!”. Although Flying Clonetroopers are seen in the Clone Wars and various other Star Wars stuff I don’t think we’ve really seen any flying Stormtroopers in the films apart from the EU. There’s also a new Stormtrooper vehicle that’s a mix between a treaded vehicle and a speeder bike.

After the final Stormtrooper dies in a sort of goofy way, the group slips into some quicksand near a ship that Rey thinks looks awfully familiar. Thankfully, this scene isn’t as goofy as another quicksand scene from another somewhat diminished Lucasfilm film series….although Finn does seem to say he’s always wanted to tell Rey something.

Turns out there’s a bottom, a cave system. There, they find what’s left of the Sith hunter- a skeleton-and a dagger. Unfortunately it’s written in some archaic Sith langauge that C-3PO can’t translate since the Old Republic senate presumably banned the language or something.

We soon find the predator of the Sith guy-a giant snake monster. ROS continues the tradition-although one kind of lacking in “Revenge of the Sith” and “Last Jedi”-of the heroes being threatened by hostile local wildlife-The Dianoga in Star Wars, the Wampa in ESB, The Rancor *and* the Sarlacc in ROTJ, The trio of sea monsters in TPM, the arena monsters in AOTC, AND the Raktars in TFA. Phew.

Thankfully Rey is able to tame the savage beast by healing it’s wound and they get out of the cave, but the First Order is nearby with the Knights of Ren, Kylo himself and a bunch of Stormtoopers. The crew powers up the Sith Hunter’s ship and we’re introduced to a new droid, D-0, who use to work for him but is fairly docile itself, although not quite fond of people considering who his master was.

However, Chewie gets captured, and then Kylo shows up with his new TIE fighter, the Whisper which is more or less souped up TIE interceptor, almost a bit of a downgrade from the Silencer from Last Jedi, with a more standard “eyeball” middle. Especially since Rey makes quick work of it, destroying the wings.

 

 

Ren of course recovers but now they have a force tug of war over a troop transport apparently containing Chewie. If you recall in the Last Jedi, that didn’t go too well for the old Skywalker lightsaber (although Rey was obviously able to fix it).

This doesn’t go too well either as Rey uses force lightning (a bit of a clue what’s coming) which destroys the transport and Chewie.

In the original, Legends Expanded Universe, Chewbacca dies during the opening acts of the Yuzzhan Vong war in “Vector Prime”, something done by the new publishers at the time (Del Rey) to show that the Vong were a very serious, game-changing threat.

However, we soon see a scene on the Star Destroyer, where it turns out Chewbacca is alive, there was just some last minute switch or something. It’s pretty much the same fake out “Raiders of the Lost Ark” pulled with Marion and the Basket chase, although in that movie, Indiana found out Marion was alive at the same time the audience did, whereas here Hux (and presumably Ren) know Chewie is alive. Too bad we never do get any sort of interaction between Ren and Chewie apart from him shooting Ren in the first movie. I mean, obviously the two probably knew each other, and would Chewie forgive Ren for Han’s death?

 

 

Next: Kimiji, where fears are awakened, destinies are foretold, and secrets are at long last revealed (including Poe’s)-That’s from the ESB special edition trailer BTW 🙂

 

 

 

 

THE RISE OF SKYWALKER-thoughts *spoilers* part one

The Rise of Skywalker is supposed to be the final film in “The Skywalker saga” of episodes 1-9 (although we’ve heard that before). Presumably, there will be other, non-saga films at some point in the future (earliest possibly being 2022) but for now, that’s a wrap.

 

RISE takes the curious step of revealing that, like his plan in the prequels and plot to ensnare the rebels in ROTJ, it was Palpatine all along, more or less-or at least the Snoke/Ren part of the First Order. The “Aftermath” novels which are considered part of the Disney canon seem to state that it’s mainly got it’s start as an Imperial remnant that fled into deep space and hid, rebuilding, and was mostly led by a former Grand Admiral and General Hux’s father. How Snoke & Ren fit in isn’t really explained (Although there’s a current comic series out there trying ), although the movie does reveal and imply that Palpatine created Snoke, and perhaps trained him as well. It’s unclear what Palpatine’s plans were had Snoke survived TLJ.

Although TLJ pretty much inferred that the First Order had more or less reconquered a chunk of the galaxy thanks in part to destroying the Republic capitol world, Palpatine offers to give them more ships-Imperial Star Destroyers fitted with superlaser/Death star style weapons. He also wants Rey dead…sort of. Oh yeah, and he’s got a secret about her too.

 

Funny thing is, apart from the obvious weapon change, they’re pretty much the same type of Star Destroyer first seen in “A New Hope” but also in “Rogue One” and “Solo”. Disney must really like the design.

“Empire” redesigned the ship in a few ways, but the most notable is the smaller tower on top of the bridge, which is given a more streamlined, lass radar-ish look.

The Sith fleet also seems to have it’s own uniform designs, TIE fighters and Stormtroopers, although it’s a bit unclear if these are just First Order troops transferred over or people from this new Sith planet, Exegol. We don’t learn much about these residents apart that they dress up like Palpatine himself and talk in a language very similar to Darth Maul’s music in The Phantom Menace.

Despite being pumped up in merchandise, the Sith troopers don’t really make much of an impression. Neither surprisingly are the Knights of Ren, who reappear here. Rogue One’s Deathtroopers gave more of an effort (and have now shown up in the Mandalorian as well).

Palpatine returns in a scene that’s pretty much the reason why the film was given an epilepsy warning. After this pretty dark opening, we’re back with the Falcon, where Poe, Finn, R2-D2, Chewbacca and a resistance alien of some kind are getting some intel from a First Order mole  via a horned alien. (Who later winds up on the Supreme council’s table…minus his body).

Here we get the film’s first major action scene. In general, the ship gets a lot more to do here than it did in The Last Jedi, where it was largely just parked on Ach-To until the end of the film. We’re also given a new hyperspace trick, “hyperspace skipping” where the ship makes a few hyper jumps.

The TIE fighters also jump, something we’ve never seen in the films-the dialogue in “Star Wars” when the Falcon first encounter them at Alderaan’s debris seems to imply that TIEs are “short-range”, so the first order probably souped them up a bit.

After their little adventure we see Rey, who is Jedi training with Leia. Carrie Fisher died in 2016 and never filmed anything for Rise of Skywalker, however Abrams used what footage he could use from TFA and TLJ and somehow made it work with no obvious problems. It’s actually way more convincing than the partially CG-ed Tarkin and Leia in Rogue One.

Poe and co. arrive with the bad news: Palpatine is definitely back. We also see Rey actually have a conversation with Poe who she’s mad at for damaging the falcon with the skipping, but Poe hits back with BB8 being accidentally damaged during her Jedi training sessions. There’s a bit more bickering between the three in this film; whereas we only saw a bit of that in TFA with Rey and Finn, here they’re pretty much all kind of bickering,  somewhat similar to the Luke, Han and Leia dynamic in the very first movie (and some parts of the prequels between Obi-Wan and Anakin) Here we’re also introduced to Dominic Moyhagen’s Resistance character, who’s not given much development but a line about Sith magic and cloning or something which I found kind of funny, considering one of his other famous roles, which also involved a thought-dead Dark Lord rising again to finish what he started-he just needs one more thing to do it….

Rey, from her reading of the Jedi lore, figures there’s only one way to get to the Sith planet-items called the “Wayfinder”-one of which captured by Ren already-and another on some other planet-Pannasos-that Luke was apparently looking for, but didn’t find.

Curiously, the Wayfinder prop is a glowing pyramid that very strongly resembles the “Holocron”. Holocrons were small holographic devices introduced in the 1991 comic series DARK EMPIRE, and are meant as teaching devices to Jedi and Sith. Although DE was later erased from canon (although a lot of DE’s plot points are shared by this film!) the holocrons showed up in Clone Wars and Rebels. While the Jedi Crons are normally cubes, the Sith ones are pyramids. Although in this case, the Wayfinders are really just plug-ins for ships, and don’t do any hologram stuff.

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We get a nice scene with the three main heroes-along with Chewie and Threepio-decide to head on the Falcon together to find the Wayfinder. In particular there’s this nice exchange between 3PO and R2D2 where he calls him his best friend. The two actually haven’t had much interaction in the last two movies-R2 didn’t reactivate until the end of The Force Awakens, and then he was off to Ach-To while 3PO stayed with the fleet pretty much. They’re separated again here, but still it’s better than a lot of what we got with the duo in the last two films.

 

Panassa is yet another desert planet, something there seems to be an abundance of in Disney’s take on the Star Wars galaxy (Although Geonosis from Lucas’s prequel trilogy was kind of a desert planet too, although more Mars-ish)

 

We get another scene with Kylo, who is now back with the Knights of Ren (It’s not really explained anymore about what they are, or where they were during Last Jedi) although one Stormtrooper says “Cool!”. Ren decides to put his old helmet back together.

He meets with the supreme council about the new Sith fleet, which includes the returning general Hux, some nameless First Order generals and a new, really loyal bad guy, Allegiant general Pryde, a veteran of the original Empire, so naturally he likes the idea that the First Order is getting his old leader back. Ren and Hux of course still don’t get along, and Ren of course is not pleased about the spy news. He also force chokes AND levitates a voice of dissent (not Hux).

 

Passsana is having a celebration that happens every 42 years (a nod to how long Star Wars has been going on itself). It’s being held by the Aki-Aki, who sort of an elephant/walrus type alien species. It’s an interesting and colorful scene, although of course it complicates their search for the Wayfinder.

Here, Ren goes into a force bond with Rey, talking a bit more about how he knows about her parents. To find out where she is, he rips off her necklace(!) Yep, the force can teleport physical stuff now.

Granted, it’s not entirely without setup. Ren’s wet hand in TLJ, although it can possibly be interpreted as tears by some, could also be spray from Ach-To.

After the Bond ends, a Stormtrooper shows up but is quickly impaled in the visor by an arrow by a mysterious masked man, who beckons the heroes into his vehicle. Turns out to be….wait…this is interesting…Lando!

Next: Continuing the breakdown of the story, my thoughts, trivia etc. as Rey begins to uncover secrets about her past, Poe gets secrets found about his past, and we get a fake-out “death”,

 

Star Wars Episode 9:The Rise of Skywalker trailer thoughts

So the final episode in the Skywalker saga-or so they say-will be here in eight months. It’s a bit unclear what Disney’s plans are beyond this and various TV series they have in development, although future movies are planned, there’s not a lot of details around them.

Like “The Force Awakens” and “The Last Jedi” before this, we’re shown somebody breathing heavily once again as our establishing shot. We’re on a desert planet again, which is presumably either Jakku or Tatooine.

Looks like Rey managed to fix the Skywalker lightsaber.

….and is facing off against a TIE fighter of some sort.  While it sort of has the regular spherical cockpit, the wings are very similar to Kylo Ren’s TIE Silencer from the last film.

 

Despite the resemblance of the wings, the ship’s hull is pretty much your classic TIE, so this isn’t the Silencer.

 

It might be an updated version of the TIE interceptor, a ship first introduced in Return of the Jedi and with it’s laser-tipped wings is pretty much the Empire’s answer to the Rebellion’s X-wings. They’re also much faster.

Perhaps the most ?? shot of the trailer is a ship descending onto what looks like a city. Some have noticed the ship seems to resemble the one from Rey’s flashback.

Here’s somebody holding a medal. Pretty sure that’s intended to be the medals from the victory celebration at the end of A New Hope.

 

There’s some action with Poe, Finn and the Threepio on some sort of transport, which seems to be pursued by Stormtroopers on speeder bikes, quite possibly on the same desert planet.

Here’s another shot of the two, same desert again. It’s worth noting that Finn’s look here has dropped Poe’s jacket.

In fact, it looks a lot like an old Han jacket concept!

Speaking of Han, Poe’s look bears some resemblance to Han’s look in a deleted ROTJ scene where the crew return to the Falcon after rescuing Han from Jabba.

 

Speaking of ROTJ, here’s Lando once again in charge of the Falcon.

 

Lando wears a similar yellow shirt to the one he wore in Solo.

Here we have BB8 and new droid D-O (Or “Dio”). Who I personally think kind of looks like a desk lamp on wheels.

I just had to use this meme.

Kylo decides to put his helmet back together, although it’s unclear why.

We also get a brief shot of him in a forest attacking something with First Order Stormtroopers.

Kind of reminds when we first “met” him in 2014’s trailer.

The trailer’s most bittersweet moment is of course Leia and Rey having a hug. It looks like they weren’t kidding about using TFA footage of Carrie, as the scene seems to be sourced from the end of TFA with some changes to the background and Leia’s outfit. By the way, the music heard during the trailer is Leia’s theme as well.

The trailer’s only real space/aerial battle shot, with a damaged A-wing passing by what looks like a Star Destroyer.

And of course, the big one…the group (Minus, strangely, R2-D2…R2-D2 where are you?) looking on….

…..what looks like a big chunk of the Death Star’s superlaser in the sea(!)

But most importantly, Palpatine’s laughter is heard(!). Also, could this be Endor? Doesn’t look quite Forest moonish. Pollution from the Death Star somehow? Then again, the old Ewok movies also portrayed Endor as not being entirely forest. Pretty sure there were Oceans from the orbital view of the planet too.

 

 

The Underwater Death Star ruins are actually a concept seen in The Force Awaken’s concept art, although it’s unclear what role they’re playing in the story. The concept of an Underwater base in Episode 9 has been rumored for months, although it turned out to be *a* Death Star.

 

 

Could the Sith Lord somehow be alive in some form, perhaps in the ruins of the station, as well? There’s actually a storyline in the old, now non-canon Dark Horse comics-“Dark Empire”-where it’s revealed that the Emperor’s spirit, after getting thrown into the chasm by Darth Vader, managed to possess a waiting clone body in the Imperial world of Byss, slowly rebuilding the Empire in secret for half a decade until finally striking at the Rebels/New Republic with a new weapon, “World Devastators”, and even manages to turn Luke to the dark side, although Luke does so with the intent of being a double agent (Which didn’t really work out well for Anakin, either). Although he initially appears as his aging ROTJ self, Palpatine later gets a new younger clone which is more than a match for Luke. Although this clone eventually is killed too, another Clone shows up and causes more problems for our heroes in the Second Dark Empire series, as well as it’s conclusion, Empire’s End.

 

With Ian Mcdiarmid apparently confirmed to be onboard, it looks like this is more than just some cameo. But how does it fit into the larger sequel story? Was all this Palpatine’s plan all along somehow?

 

And what does The Rise of Skywalker exactly mean? The Rise of Luke’s legend, something implied by The Last Jedi’s ending, with the stable kids building mock ups of illusion-Luke’s stand-off with the Walkers? The Rise of Rey, who somehow is a Skywalker after all? Luke’s return from the dead? Or maybe even….Ben’s rise back to the light?

 

 

 

Solo Part VI-Double double cross *Spoilers*

The group lands on the ‘refining’ planet Savareen, and Lando is pretty much upset by the cost of the trip-his droid co-pilot, and the damage to his ship. “I hate you” he says to Han, to which Han replies “I know”.

 

The scene is of course a callback to the classic Empire Strikes Back moment…

 

Which of course was also given another inverse callback in “Return of the Jedi”.

Shortly thereafter, the Cloud Riders show up, and Lando gets the hell out of dodge.

However, it turns out that the Cloud Riders are in fact a Rebel cell, and Enfys is actually a teen girl, played by Erin Kellyman.

Not only that, but one of her lieutenants is Teazel, one of Warwick Davis’s many Star Wars characters, making this the first of Davis’s characters that he’s reprised since Wicket. Weazel was one of Watto’s buddies at the Pod Race, but apparently he fell on some hard times once the Empire took control of everything and decided to join the Rebels.Also he played a different character in “Rogue One”, which was also part of a Rebel cell, although a somewhat more messed up one (Saw’s faction).

The concept of Han having an early, if small, role in the formation of the Rebellion is something that’s also used in AC Crispin’s trilogy, which had Han’s former girlfriend ultimately become one of the first leaders of the alliance, and killed while stealing-you guessed it-the Death Star plans. (The comic series Underworld, which I covered a few weeks ago, also dealt with that).

Basically Han agrees to help the Rebels by giving them the Coaxium, and fool Vos with a fake shipment. However, Vos already knows that it’s bogus, thanks to Beckett.  However, Han already anticipates the betrayal, and the Cloud Riders are able to ambush Vos’s men on the group. A fight then breaks out while Beckett flees with Chewbacca, and Vos has these interesting red daggers, another case of the not-quite-lightsabers the film uses. Although the red color not only invokes the name “Crimson Dawn” but also might be a small hint as to who runs Crimson Dawn….

 

Qi’ra eventually saves Han by killing Vos, and Han leaves while she says she’ll catch up.

However, she decides to make a holographic call to the real leader of Crimson Dawn-none other than Darth Maul, in a scene that perhaps was the most confusing to casual moviegoers. Film-wise, Maul is seen cut in half in “The Phantom Menace”.

However, the Clone Wars series brought him back, revealing that he wound up with some robot legs, and that he also had a brother (Savage opress). After going nuts for a bit, he was mentally healed by his mother on Dathomir, and then set about doing various organized crime things during the Clone Wars, (and has a few rematches with Kenobi)one of which brought him to the attention of his former master, whose plans had evolved beyond Maul at this point.

 

After this, Maul continues his organized crime activities, and that’s the point where we are in “Solo”. The rest of Maul’s story is pretty much already been told, in “Rebels”-he winds up on the planet Malachor. After escaping, he eventually winds up on Tatooine again, once again facing his enemy, Obi-Wan, who kills him before he can reach Luke.

Qira just decides to leave with Vos’s ship/fortress, probably realizing that with her duties with the Crimson Dawn revealed Han would never love her again, or perhaps knowing that crossing Maul-who orders her to Dathomir-would be a very bad mistake. It’s kind of unclear what happens to her. It’s possible there will be “Solo” sequels but it’s not looking good with the Box office of this film. Maybe a novel or comic down the line will deal with her fate, if the movies can’t.

Han, in the meantime, confronts Beckett….and of course shoots first. The two have a short conversation, but Han shoots him (first!), although Han seems  somewhat agonized by the decision and holds him as he dies…

Something he definitely wasn’t later on in the timeline with Greedo. (Then again Greedo was pretty much fried anyway). Although whether Han shot first or not depends on what version of Star Wars you’re watching.

After declining Enfy’s plea to help with her rebellion, (something which he’ll of course, eventually reverse-makes you wonder if they ever met again?) he decides to have a rematch with Lando on a sort of jungle planet (Lando here is trying to charm someone with another anecdote that uses terms from the old Lando novels, again). Here we get a callback to ESB, with Han hugging Lando, although in this case, Han uses the opportunity to take Lando’s cheating device literally off his hands….and he’s able to win the Falcon.

 

 

BTW Lando’s outfit here is even more loud than his other one, with a kind of tacky pattern on it showing what appears to be some sort of glider underneath two suns. (Couldn’t find any in-film pics so I settled for this).

Now taking their rightful place as pilots of the Falcon, the two set upon a job that Beckett hinted at, with a gangster on Tatooine.

Of course it doesn’t take much thought to know who the gangster is….

So that’s Solo. Unfortunately, it’s probably one of the weaker Disney Star Wars efforts. While it’s got a decent cast, some nice additions to Star Wars lore and nicely incorporates elements from the “Expanded Universe” into it, but Alden Emmerich doesn’t quite have the charisma of Harrison Ford or the presence, which I think unfortunately hurts the film. Also, although it doesn’t really incorporate much of the Jedi/Sith/force aspects of the larger saga, it still does feel a bit ‘recycled’ in some aspects, a criticism often applied to Disney’s films-the Kessel Run sequence in particular seemed to be a bit of a “Greatest hits” thing. It’s a bit unclear if any of these problems were due to the film’s director drama, or some other aspects. Unfortunately, SOLO wasn’t a huge hit, and Disney seems to be recessing their Star Wars release strategy at this point, although Episode 9 is still on track for a 2019 release and there are other projects in the pipeline apart from the “Story” films.

 

Solo Part V-Kessel run!

 

Although they manage to clear Kessel, the Empire has decided to pop up and block the Maelstrom with a Star Destroyer. It’s a pretty cool image that appeared in the trailers. Say what you will about Disney’s handling of the franchise, but they’ve really managed to get some cool Star destroyer imagery in these films. The Empire’s arrival is signaled by an ominous DUN, DUN DUN DUNNNN!!!! music, used in Star Wars and Rogue One at the beginning of most Death Star scenes.

 

And they’re definitely not letting Han and co. through, as they release TIE fighters. Among these is the TIE brute, a new model of TIE fighter that doesn’t particularly look as different as Rogue One’s Striker and Last Jedi’s silencer, seeming more like a downgraded version of the the TIE bomber from ESB and (briefly) ROTJ.

 

Han decides to go around the Destroyer, launching on the fabled Kessel run. Unfortunately, to me, this scene sort of plays a lot like a sort of greatest hits kind of thing for the films. First, you’ve got Beckett using the Falcon’s manual cannons, which of course we “later” see in A new Hope, Force Awakens and Last Jedi. It even uses the same “Here they come!” music, although with a bit more drums….and the cannon is somewhat not quite a ‘quad’ yet, but a single and mostly useless one.

Then we get the Falcon trying to evade the TIEs in an asteroid field; naturally, of course, playing the Asteroid chase music! It’s a great piece of music of course, and it’s nice to hear it again in a Star Wars film (While “Here they come” shows up in ROTJ and TLJ again, ESB was the only other film to use this theme)….but still, couldn’t come up with something more original?

It’s here that Chewie takes his rightful place as Han’s co-pilot as well, set to the triumphant Star Wars theme. We also learn that Chewie’s 190 years old, which sticks with most non-film sources saying he’s about 200 at the time of the OT.

Lando plugs what’s left of L3 into the Falcon’s computer to help them navigate, allowing for her to pretty much become the ‘brains’ of the Falcon, so we know who Threepio was ‘talking’ to in ESB.

Finally, we get to the big finale-which involves a giant space monster. While monsters-including ones out in space-have been a sort of Star Wars trope for a long time, it still feels a bit ‘greatest hits’, especially after the last two parts of the chase.

 

Although “Solo” does add something new, or rather, something reworked from the novels; the Maw, a massive black hole that soon snares both the monster and the Falcon. I’m pretty sure this is the first time we see or have a black hole mentioned in a Star Wars film, although they’ve been around quite a bit in the EU-especially this one, the Maw. In the Jedi Academy novels (now non-canon) it’s revealed that the Maw is host to an isolated Imperial weapons factory, which had a prototype version of the Death Star (something obviously completely retconned by “Rogue One” and even further back, “Revenge of the Sith”) and also a super-powerful “Sun crusher” which has torpedoes that create supernovas. (One such torpedo destroys Carida in the trilogy; Carida is actually mentioned earlier in this film as one of the Imperial academies).

The Maw pretty much ‘eats’ the giant space monster, and almost the Falcon, but by ejecting some of it’s extra weight and a little coaxium, manages to escape the Maw….in 12 parsecs. Sort of. Of course, all this wear and tear pretty much gives the exterior of the Falcon it’s “classic look”. Sort of.

 

Solo Part IV

Kessel! We first see our characters go through the Akkadese maelstrom, a sort of big gas tunnel. Funny thing is, it almost sounds a lot like the “Antares Maelstrom” the way it’s pronounced, which puts me in the mind of a quote from another “Star” franchise.

 

 

 

Here’s some sort of character downtime, where we get a look at the much cleaner interior of the Lando-era Falcon. We also learn why the holo-chess is a bit flickery later on-Chewbacca hits it, thinking the “pieces” are in fact, solid.

We also get Qi’ra and Han reminisce on old times-and share a kiss-in Lando’s closet, which of course is full of many capes and outfits. She also states that she’s reluctant to restart her relationship with Han because she’s done terrible things for the Crimson Dawn syndicate (Not really elaborated on, but it’s a criminal organization so probably some bad stuff).

I wonder if the Cloud City outfit is in there?

 

The white interior of the Falcon and the clothes put me in mind of yet another sci-fi franchise; the Doctor Who series, where the Doctor keeps a closet of multiple outfits handy in the TARDIS, which comes in helpfully when the regeneration alters his personality-and fashion sense-sometimes, not for the better.

I also wonder if this is the same area where Han and Leia first kiss later on. I’m not about to dig out a technical manual or anything to look that up. Kind of makes sense though, that Han would scuttle the closet once he gets the ship. Han basically has two main looks in the OT-the vest and jacket (The jacket also made a comeback in The Force Awakens), so he probably has little need for a fancy closet.

We also learn that Han is familiar with the YT-1300 design because his father worked on the docks. That’s pretty much all we learn about Han’s father (Who is of course Kylo Ren’s paternal grandfather, and probably didn’t end up anything like his maternal grandfather)…..that would be an awkward family visit.

We also learn Lando was raised by a single mother as well, a slight detail from the old Lando novels (not the only mention they’ll get). We also get a bit of an awkward conversation between L3 and Qi’ra, and how L3 and Lando seem to have feelings for each other.

Finally, we come to Kessell, where the group pose as slavers selling Han and Chewie to the mines. The mines actually look fairly cheap for a Star Wars film, just kind of a regular mine.  Sorry to bring Star Trek into this yet again, but they don’t look all that different from the Rura Penthe mines in “Star Trek VI” (although with out snow).

Here we get a little bit of an easter egg-Becket’s disguise here is pretty close to the one Lando wears to infiltrate Jabba’s palace in ROTJ.

Chewbacca briefly splits to help out another Wookie, a sort of more hairless one (possibly from being in the mines so long)….who is played by none other than Anthony Daniels, AKA C-3PO! When Daniels was cast, everybody naturally assumed he’s be playing 3PO in a cameo similar to his “Rogue One” appearance. Nope! This is the second time we see Chewie among others of his own kind, after “Revenge of the Sith”. Of course, The Holiday special set the precedent (and some assumed from the trailers that the other Wookie was a member of Chewie’s family, as seen in that special)….but that’s best forgotten.

L3 causes the droids in the control room to revolt while Becket and the others steal the “Coaxium”. While some have been mixed on L3 as a character, I really liked that the droids in this had a sort of  boxy ‘retro’ look, like they could’ve walked out of the 1977 film…

or even one of the knockoffs, such as “The Black Hole”.

Chewie also rips a guard’s arm off, the first time we really see him do such a thing, although JJ Abrams did intend for him to do that to Unkar Platt in a scene deleted from Force Awakens.

So all hell breaks loose, and the group are soon shooting for their lives. Lando, meanwhile, talks about the chronicles of Lando Calrissian to a holographic recorder, I think talking about the Mindharp of Sharu. Pretty much puts the old Lando novel ‘more or less’ back into canon, I guess, if you substitute L3 for Vuffi Raa.

Unfortunately, during the escape, L3 is fatally shot down, one of the saddest droid ‘deaths’ in the series along with K-S20 (R2 and 3PO were frequently damaged in the series, but ‘got better’ for the most part). While K-S20 sort of had a brave sacrifice and his ‘light’ went out, L3’s is far more shocking, as she starts talking in ‘malfunctioning’ language and seems to be in great ‘pain’ as she ‘dies’.  Lando is also injured as well….which of course now means it’s up to Han to take his rightful place…..

 

Next: Kessel Run

Solo My thoughts Part III *spoilers*

There’s a bit of a nice scene with Han and Qi’ra before Dryden shows up and sort of spoils the reunion. Basically, Vos isn’t too happy that the Coaxium was lost. It’s a bit like that scene in the special edition of “A New Hope” where Han talks to Jabba, except Vos here is a bit more intimidating (Han seems to not be too intimidated by Jabba here, even stepping on his tail, even if that of course was added as a CG joke by Lucas), but still kind of a bit cartoonishly evil.

 

 

After a bit of negotiating they agree they’ll get some unrefined Coaxium from Kessel-Kessel of course the planet mentioned multiple times in A New Hope, as the place where there are “Spice mines” that 3PO worries will be their punishment, and of course Han’s famous line about making the Kessel run in twelve parsecs. Although the planet has been featured many times in Star Wars expanded media, “Solo” is it’s first on-screen appearance.

Of course Dryden’s hand in this can not be seen since he as an alliance with another criminal organization around that area….so Han and co. need to do things a bit incognito. Although he does send Qira in as their chaperone, which does kind of tie her to Vos if she’s discovered, so that’s not exactly a plan that’s 100% foolproof. Plus they need a ship/pilot.

Enter Lando. Gambler, card player, scoundrel. You’ll like him.

We shift to a scene on the same planet, with another, far more run-down lodge/cantina, which looks a bit more like the more divey places from the other Star Wars films than Vos’s ship.

This bar also has something a bit new-droid fighting. While we see droids in the other films in competitive sports (attack of the Clones) and being tortured (Return of the Jedi) I think this is the first time we see them as a sort of “battlebots”.

 

It’s here we meet Lando, one of the highlights of the film, played by Donald Glover. Glover has plenty of Billy Dee’s mannerisms down, and we also learn that Lando is a bit of a cheat, using a device on his arm to rig the card games. There’s also a nod to Billy Dee William’s weird pronunciation of Han in the OT (Which sounds more like “Haan”). I also feel this is one of the scenes where Alden has more of the old style Harrison Ford swagger.

This is also the first time we see “Sabacc” a card game mentioned in the EU but never seen in “canon”. The old EU frequently portrayed the cards as actually small electronic devices, which would shift values electronically-as seen in this artistic rendition from the Shadows of the Empire card set-the cards appear to be lit up.

But the Solo version of the game seems to be somewhat more like your old fashioned card game, and also uses symbols that might be a bit more familiar to Star Wars fans.

Han tries to get Lando’s ship, but this isn’t the point where he wins the Falcon. We also meet L3, a female droid who is Lando’s co-pilot, but who also has a thing for droid’s rights, a topic that’s sort of been implied a bit in the films but never really explored (“We seem to be made to suffer, it’s our lot in life etc.”). L3’s an interesting design, she basically looks like an R2 unit with a more humanoid body. Lando likewise also had a droid pilot in the old EU as well, although in the end he turned out to be some kind of strange alien (The old Lando novels were kind of weird, although they’re actually sort of referenced in this film a bit later! So I guess there’s a “canon” version of them, but with L3 instead of the droid/alien thing Vuffi Raa) She breaks up the droid match, which kind of embarrasses Lando and provokes an angry rebuke from the guy running the fight…

Who turns out to be this film’s Clint Howard cameo. Clint is of course, Ron Howard’s brother, who has had small roles in many of his brother’s films, as well as several other TV and movie credits, including memorable roles in “Star Trek” “Seinfeld” and “Arrested development”.

This isn’t the first time he’s shown up in something Star Wars related-he also played an Imperial officer in a commercial for “Kinect Star Wars”, the somewhat infamous game with, among other things, the Han Solo dance game.

Yep, that was a thing.

So Lando agrees to help Han and crew go to Kessel in exchange for a share. We’re given a somewhat weird scene with L3 asking the group not to look at her as she uses an R2-style buzzsaw to open the impoundment area. She looks a bit…different, with the mandible gap filled out and in noticeably better condition than later on.

 

The ship also appeared in “Revenge of the Sith” as well, in a “blink and you’ll miss it” cameo. (Falcon like ships are also seen in “Attack of the Clones” but according to Lucasfilm, this is the actual Falcon). Funny thing is, the “Revenge of the Sith” version is pretty close to the OT version, which means Lando must have fixed up the Falcon a bit, only for Han to kind of mess her up again. Some of the blue paint scheme is still a bit visible though.

 

 

However, we’re shown that Enfy’s Nest has planted a tracking device on the Falcon, which seems to me to clearly evoke this scene from ANH, where Vader and Tarkin talk about how they’ve let the Falcon escape so they can track it to the rebel base-although there’s no real escape here, and Enfys is not as nearly nervous about the plan as Tarkin was.

Next: The Kessel run!

Solo-My thoughts-part two *SPOILERS*

As Han and Chewie join Beckett’s crew, we then come to the world of Vandor, which is a snowy planet a bit like Hoth and Starkiller, but this time with a lot more mountains, making I guess you could say, “The Himalayan planet”.

 

We get a nice bonding scene between the crew, who are out to steal a train cart of Coaxium. There’s some real chemistry between Woody and Thandie here.

Here we come to the film’s next big set piece, as they attempt a heist of the conveyex, which, like the AT hauler, looks a lot like an offshoot of the Walker family. However, things get somewhat complicated. It’s a fun scene, with a lot near-misses for the characters. But things soon get even more complicated.

Chewie nearly falls off and gets crushed by the surrounding rock, which I’m not entirely sure, but it could be a slight nod to Lucasfilm’s other famous franchise where a character was stuck between a rock and a hard (vehicle) place….

 

 

 

A group of marauders, the “Cloud Riders”, arrive. The Cloud Riders are another sort of call back to the old Marvel comics. Although this group-who have armor that looks like a mix between Boba Fett and Phasma-are definitely not anything like the old Marvel versions, except for their use of airspeeders and speeder bikes.

We see Enfys gets into a brief fight with Beckett. She has a lighted (heated?) blade, so it sort of gives off a lightsaber aesthetic without actually being a lightsaber. She’s also got an interesting theme, a sort of  high-pitched, somewhat Eastern European sounding choral music which sounds a bit like a lighter Duel of the Fates.

 

In other words, pretty much exactly like these guys. (although there’s more of this to come)

 

 

And the Empire is complicating things too. Stormtroopers-“Range troopers”  on the train itself, which look mainly like somebody “kitbashed” the Rogue One stormtroopers and gave them a bit of a fur coat. They also get part of the old school Imperial theme from ANH.

….and probe droids (although these look a bit different than their ESB/ROTJ/Rogue One counterparts, far more heavily armed and given more of a sentry/security function), which prove too much of a challenge for Val, who is hopelessly pinned down and destroys the rest of the Conveyex’s rail, and herself. Exit Thandie Newton.

Rio also gets shot and dies, leaving Han to pilot the AT hauler, but the Cloud Riders also get the haul too. Han is forced to jettison their cargo (but rescues Beckett and Chewie), which results in a spectacular, mountain-destroying explosion, which looks and sounds a lot like Jango Fett’s seismic charges from AOTC. Maybe those things had some coaxium in ’em too. Although considerably how valuable they are in this film, I guess the stuff was less scarce before the Clone Wars and the Empire?

 

With two of his friends dead and the loot lost, Beckett now has a price on his head (Not unlike what will happen to Han later on) and has to face the guy who hired him, Dryden Vos. Vos’s ship shortly arrives, and has a main hall that looks like a cross between Jabba’s sail barge and the more classy Star Wars places like Cloud City and Canto Bight. It’s one of this film’s Cantinaesque scenes, complete with weird singer.

Vos himself is played by Paul Bettany, who unfortunately comes across as a bit one-dimensional.  BTW that Mandalorian costume back there is just for show, it doesn’t really do anything 🙂

Bettany was a late addition to the cast, replacing  Michael K. Williams as Vos when Ron Howard took over the film.

Here, although Beckett tells Han to sort of lay low-similar to Han’s own warning to Rey year’s later (“Don’t stare at any of it”)….but he can’t help it when Qira suddenly, and unexpectedly, taps him on the shoulder…

Next: Reunions and Lando!

 

SOLO: My thoughts Part one *SPOILERS!*

Solo is the second of the Star Wars Anthology, or “Story” films. This time, like with “Rogue One” we’re once again in the Episode III-IV gap, but this time at an earlier point, and tells the story of Han Solo, a character whose background has been explored in multiple “Expanded Universe” media (Now mostly non-canon) but mostly ignored by the films apart from the fact that he was a smuggler who worked for Jabba the Hutt, and wasn’t much for causes, just money. At least at first.

 

The film starts in Corellia (Pretty much a planet producing a ton of Star Destroyers at this point-we see them being assembled in many shots), establishing Han (presumably in his teens?) working for Lady Proxima, who pretty much controls a bunch of kids/orphans/ne’er do wells in the slums of the planet. She’s kind of like Fagin in Oliver twist, in other words. However, Han manages to get “Coaxium”-a valuable “Hyperfuel”-and plans to leave with his girlfriend, Qira and get off planet. Her den sort of has a slight “Mad Max” look to everything.

Well, now we know what exactly TPM’s hyperdrive was leaking….

….and exactly what TLJ’s fleet was running low on. Interesting sort of addition to the lore, I guess.

Han manages to escape using a bit of a bluff (Similar to one Leia would use in ROTJ) and we get our first chase scene with Han and Qira. Although there have been many, many chase scenes in Star Wars films with fighters, pods, speeder bikes, airspeeders and of course the Falcon, I’m pretty sure this is the first one to actually use landspeeders, pretty much the Star Wars equivalent of a car.

Although they’re able to make it to a spaceport OK, getting through and onto a ship appears to be the rough part. This is also the only part of the film to really feature your traditional stormtroopers as well…speaking of….

Han and Qira get separated, and she’s taken back to Lady Proxima while Han, out of options, decides to enlist for the Imperial navy as a pilot (This is also the origin of his last name-the old books revealed he came from an old royal family line or something, but here it’s kind of just an Imperial designation, not unlike Finn)….the Imperial propoganda commercial even includes a somewhat lighter version of the Imperial march, the first time I think it’s been used “in-universe” so to speak.

but like Finn, Han doesn’t become a pilot, but actually a Stormtrooper(!) this is actually a break from previous origin stories for the character, which made him a TIE fighter pilot. (Although Han’s imperial background wasn’t mentioned in the earlier films, it was included in Lucas’s own backstory for the character and elaborated on in various “Expanded Universe” stories).

No wonder he and Finn hit it off-they both have similar backstories-although in a weird way, Han’s backstory also echoes Rey, as he urgently wants to get back to Correlia once he manages to get a ship, much like Rey wanted to get back to Jakku so her family could find her (In both cases, fate-or the force?-has other plans)

Kind of funny that Han’s look here isn’t all that far off from his disguise in “Return of the Jedi”. Heck, there’s even AT-STs in this scene, too!

 

Han notes a group of three troopers who seem out of place, and sees this as his opportunity, especially after telling off his superior officer.  These scenes in particular have a dirty, war torn look that’s actually not something we’re used to seeing from the Imperial side of things, who usually look a bit cleaner (if still a bit worn at times).

 

They initially reject him, and this leads to Han getting caught and forced to fight a certain Wookie-who else? (It’s also implied Chewbacca actually eats unfriendly humans!)

Han manages to persuade Chewbacca to help him escape, as he can understand Chewie’s roars and vocalize them to a degree to talk to Chewbacca. Although not much is made of this, or why Chewbacca seems to understand English or whatever the Star wars version of it is for the rest of the film.

It sort of makes a change from the original version of the story, where Han frees Chewbacca from slavery and that’s the reason he loses any future he had with the Empire. Now, it’s mainly just a mutual jailbreak.

 

We’re introduced to the three criminals again, who steal an AT-Hauler (Used to drop AT-STs, and sharing many design similarities with it’s big brother, with a bit of the folding wings of the Imperial shuttles) and become part of the crew.

 

The head of the crew is Beckett, played by Woody Harrelson, kind of playing the sort of rogue role you usually see him in these days. His partner-both in crime and romance- is Val (Thandie Newton) who, despite her increased profile these days in film and TV (Westworld), doesn’t really do that much.

Rounding this out is Rio Durant, a kind of cool six-armed Orangtuan like alien, who’s a bit like Guardian’s Rocket Racoon, but a little less snarky. He’s voiced by Jon Favreau, who previously voiced Mandalorian baddie Pre Visla in the Clone Wars, and now has been given the helm of an upcoming post-ROTJ Star Wars TV show.

But like Thandie, his time in the film is limited, despite what the trailers might’ve given the impression of. I’ll get into that in my next installment….