What did y’all think of this film?
Why was it such a box office bomb?
How did it effect Lucasfilm’s grand strategy?
I think now that the sequel trilogy is over, this movie is definitely the one that interests me the most. It got no love but didn’t get much hate, and it was forgotten really quickly. It’s kind of unique that way. What lessons do you think we can learn from Lucasfilm’s first financial failure in the Disney era?
Did we do this already?
Hated the trailers but wound up liking this one surprisingly. And I say this as someone who literally hates the entire sequel trilogy. Rogue One was pretty nice but I was really surprised to like this one when I never liked Han Solo as a character
It was a bomb at the box office because it came out straight after The Last Jedi and walked right into that firing line for all the flack that was getting.
I personally thought it was ok but I'm not a huge Star Wars fan. I can see how it was way too fanservicey for the SW hardcore though. Like they squeezed into the story every single situation Han Solo ever talking about or loosely referenced in the entire OT.
The main reason is that no one asked for it.
>didn't get much hate
LOL, user, you need to reevaluate your life
I mean, people are still angry about TLJ but I don’t really hear anything about Solo anymore. Maybe they complained at the time but it doesn’t seem to elicit emotional responses as much as the film that came out 6 months earlier
I was surprised to hear Rich Evans share that very sentiment. He said it was bc there was no lightsabers, no empire, etc but instead it focused on a rather undercooked element of the setting. Actually I think it shares that with The Mandalorian, but i missed out on this boards discussions of that series so idk what people are saying about it
Interesting. I didn’t consider that it was its proximity to TLJ that might have been responsible for its financial failure regardless of the merits of the film itself (whatever they may be). But still, ROS made over $1billion and I think the consensus is that it’s exceptionally mediocre, so I’m not sure what to make of that.
This makes me ask: do you think that The Mandalorian’s proximity to RoS has affected its popularity?
I watched it last week, here is what happened:
>watch Solo first time
>heh, this guy looks nothing like Harisson Ford, that characters are mediocre, besides Lando, but it has a good plot and nice cinematography
>see what other people thought
>characters good, plot was shit
Am I a pleb?
>How did it effect Lucasfilm’s grand strategy?
Definitely reduced the number of movies they were gonna make.
>Like they squeezed into the story every single situation Han Solo ever talking about or loosely referenced in the entire OT.
This is why I didn't like it personally too.
But it doesn't explain why it's a mediocre film as such. It could be a good film while still explaining 100% of Han Solo's backstory in 2 hours. But in reality it's just meh.
>But still, ROS made over $1billion and I think the consensus is that it’s exceptionally mediocre, so I’m not sure what to make of that.
Think of it like this:
Shill talking points prior to Episode 9 was that Episode 9 would do better than Last Jedi because the third Star Wars film always does better than the second.
Episode 9 did worse than Last Jedi.
Sure, it seems like they made their budget back on the film, but remember that Age of Ultron made its budget back, but was seen as underperforming and it got a huge shakeup that led to Feige taking over Marvel Studios completely.
hahaha I actually liked Lando but desu that’s probably only bc I like Childish Gambino irl. I think that it’s interesting that people thought the characters were good and the plot was bad - kind of a reverse of rogue one, eh?
That’s what confuses me. I mean, MCU definitely had their share of disappointments (relatively speaking, I suppose, idk if any of them actually *lost* money) but Marvel still pushed forward with their master plan. Why would Lucasfilm slow down so much after 1 hiccup even when their crappy sequels have covered the cost of the Lucasfilm acquisition?
Recently watched it again and didn't hate it as much as the first time. Ehrenreich looks and sounds nothing like Harrison ford but hes still a pretty good actor desu. The woke droid was cringe and some moments were pretty lame (like han getting his last name and the storm trooper recruitment ad). Haven't seen any of the cartoons so the Darth Maul return really made no sense to me. Donald Glover as Lando was pretty kino though, he should have his own disney plus spinoff series
>But in reality it's just meh.
Has Lucasfilm made a Star Wars film that was more than ‘meh’ since the Disney buyout?
>woke droid was cringe
wasn’t that the point though?
Can we expect a shakeup at Lucasfilm after the sequel trilogy? I mean, Filoni has quietly been doing impressive work but he’s not running the big screen stuff. I guess the real question is, does Disney consider this sequel project a success or failure?
>the third Star Wars film always does better than the second
You mean financially?
>What did y’all think of this film?
Not bad, not great. The train heist was fun, I liked Woody Harleson's character and the contrast between him and Han and I liked the scene where Han learned to shoot first.
The annoying social justice robot was should have been played for a gag, Lando being moved by its death while the audience is glad that its finally dead was a misstep by Opie. I also hated the muted and brown color pallette, if the film was bright and colorful it would have looked much more appealing.
I'd say Rogue One was good, Solo was okay but still better than any of the three Disney trilogy misfires.
>Why was it such a box office bomb?
Fans were still pissed over The Last Jedi and the general audience was skeptical of another actor playing Harrison Ford's part. I think making it a cartoon and hiring a voice actor that could do a really good Ford impersonation might have been a better idea.
>How did it effect Lucasfilm’s grand strategy?
They realized that cranking out spin off movies every year wasn't going to work. That likely lead them to turn the Boba Fett movie they had planed into The Mandalorian TV show which has turned out quite well for them so far. The pivot towards Star Wars TV series away from yearly movies was likely a reaction to Solo's failure.
Last Jedi underperformed relative to Force Awakens. If you consider how Disney reacted to Age of Ultron underperforming relative to the first Avengers film, it's not a stretch to assume they had about the same reaction with Last Jedi's performance.
On top of that there were rumored production problems on each project except for Last Jedi:
-JJ not getting along with Kathleen or the Story Group
-Rogue One needing a reshoot of the final part (and possibly other problems we're not aware of)
-Trevorrow having problems with production on Episode 9 to the point where he was either fired or bailed on the project
-Solo having massive, massive problems
And maybe others I don't remember.
Then when Solo came out and not only underperformed, but was a box office disaster, that put a hold on all the movie projects.
>even when their crappy sequels have covered the cost of the Lucasfilm acquisition?
It didn't. Remember that the sequels cover the cost of making the sequels, and the marketing. Plus they don't get the full worldwide total. Did you really think Disney would literally get $2.066 billion from the Force Awakens box office? $1.132 billion of that was international and they get just a fraction of that.
Rogue One was really good in my opinion. The rest were shit though.
I liked Rogue One, I'd give it like 7/10.
Same with the Mandalorian.
They both remind me of those Expanded Universe books I'd read as a kid. Nothing great, but enjoyable rides with some memorable characters and locales.
>The pivot towards Star Wars TV series away from yearly movies was likely a reaction to Solo's failure.
Fascinating theory. If true, then it indicates that Solo’s failure proves that Lucasfilm really can learn and adapt from its mistakes.
I guess the pivot towards high end television lowers costs and the smaller scale probably allows for more creative freedom by Filoni, so they can pump out a quality product.
Interestingly, Marvel seems to be making this very same pivot, although they ended their MCU on a very high note. So I wonder how much of this is studio strategy and how much of it is Disney’s corporate strategy built around their new streaming service.
Never saw it, never will
I'd say with Marvel it's definitely part of the Disney+ thing, plus Feige taking control of the shows now.
Star Wars they had no choice on because they probably knew 9 was going to underperform.
If you are somebody who enjoys good cinema, I’d tell you to skip it. If you are a huge Star Wars nerd or just have an interest in media industry and corporate strategy, it’s worth a study.
I think with both Star Wars and Marvel there's similar reasoning going on. With Star Wars their trilogy ended with a wet fart and they have to figure out where to go next. With Marvel Infinity War was very successful but they've killed off or retired most of the characters that drove the MCU's success this far and they need to figure out where to go next.
So they've got two series they want to keep in the public consciousness but they don't know what big plot line they're going to use for their next big series of films. And at the same time they've got a new streaming service. So they can release somewhat smaller budget series on their streaming service while they figure out what to do next.
Its a good strategy particularly for Star Wars where they've alienated much of the fan base and need to try to win them back.
I didn’t take into account production problems behind the scenes - Disney is very hush hush about that sort of thing, but it definitely changes the calculus. I heard that Joss Wheadon was miserable making Avengers 2 but I’m not sure if it poisoned the whole studio. I’ve heard here that Marvel made some behind the scenes shakeups after Ultron but they kept going with their plan, whereas Lucasfilm scrapped their whole spinoff plan altogether.
I had assumed that the Sequel Trilogy was made to cover the cost of Lucasfilm acquisition (not only at the box office but with merchandise and other revenue), and that after that cost had been recouped they would begin a more interesting and risky media strategy. Do you think that Star Wars merch and other revenue streams fell flat as well? Has this derailed their initial plan?
I think TLJ is the Antichrist incarnate but Solo snd R1 are legt decent.
The main reason I liked it was all the Chewie. He's the heart of Star Wars.
>I didn’t consider that it was its proximity to TLJ that might have been responsible for its financial failure
Are you retarded? Srs question.
Interesting analysis, I guess Marvel and Lucasfilm ended up in the same place but with 2 very different paths.
>they can release somewhat smaller budget series on their streaming service while they figure out what to do next
That is probably their best move, and if Mandalorian is any indication then it seems to be working. Haven’t heard much about the Clone Wars finale but people were very excited about it before it dropped so we’ll see. I think we can expect more interesting content from Filoni, and more risk taking. If you are right, then this is a vital and interesting crossroads for Disney
I mean, yeah, I’m a little retarded. I guess thinking back to 2017 (I think?), I remember the hate but I honestly didn’t think that people would actually stop watching Star Wars. I mean, people went to see Rise of Skywalker, but it did disappoint, so maybe. I guess I made the same mistake that Disney did huh?
>Do you think that Star Wars merch and other revenue streams fell flat as well?
Its well documented that the toy sales for Star Wars tanked. No one wanted to buy the new characters. Star Wars is a series primarily for young boys, it has space ships, gun fights, sword fights, aliens and monsters. And Kathleen Kennedy marketed that series as a feminist epic for little girls with a female lead.
You can see with the success of the Mandalorian that making Star Wars that catches the public imagination really isn't rocket science. You remake old westerns and samurai movie plots and set them in outer space and people will come along for a fun adventure. You make a joyless film where you shit on people's childhood heroes and the audience checks out.
Man those expanded universe stories were such fun pulp entertainment when I was a kid, and honestly they’re a goldmine for smaller budget stories.
Also, I think the yuzhaan vong story is a whole box office trio logo waiting to happen
>Haven’t heard much about the Clone Wars finale but people were very excited about it before it dropped
They're finishing up the old footage they had prerecorded before Disney canceled its last season. They had the audio recorded and rough animation story boards done when it got shut down.
So far the first two arcs are okay but not great. They're up to the quality the show had before it was canned but not amongst its best. I'm happy to have more though.
What happened with Marvel was there was a lot of conflicts between Feige's camp (Marvel Studios) and Ike Perlmutter's camp (Marvel Entertainment, which at the time had to approve everything Marvel-related), and Age of Ultron and Civil War production were the final straws.
Because Age of Ultron underperformed, Feige was able to go over Ike's head and convince Alan Horn and Bob Iger to give him control of the movies completely, and since Feige was the one who set up a lot of the planning for the films, that's why they still went ahead with what they did.
>Do you think that Star Wars merch and other revenue streams fell flat as well? Has this derailed their initial plan?
Probably. It may not be as bad as Youtube channels are making it out to be, but there's hints that things were not doing well up until Mandalorian. Plus on top of that Galaxy's Edge doesn't sound like it was doing that well last year, in a year where people should've been hyped up for Episode 9. And after Episode 9 was released I don't really see continued demand for it the way there was still continued demand for Baby Yoda stuff after Mandalorian's first season ended.
I was a fan of that show. I watched all of Rebels too but I’m not sure I would call myself a fan. It had its moments but it was too...kiddy, I guess. They made a 3rd series about the Resistance too but I don’t like the animation on it, I couldn’t get through the first episode. Is it worth watching?
Untalented cast, horrible pacing.
>They made a 3rd series about the Resistance too but I don’t like the animation on it, I couldn’t get through the first episode. Is it worth watching?
I watched it and it grew on me. The second season is definitely better than the first. The main problem it has is how much of an idiot the main protagonist Kaz is played out to be. In the first start of the first season he spends a lot of time doing slapstick stupidity which you'll roll your eyes at.
On the other hand the series does some surprisingly interesting things. For example one of the heroes is sympathetic to the First Order because the Empire had fixed up her home world and given her father a job and everything went to shit after the Empire fell and she ends up having a really interesting story line through the end of the first and into the second season.
I think its worth giving a chance. Maybe skip a few episodes though.
I think Lucasfilm is ripe for a similar sort of coup...
Lord and Miller cut when?
>Rogue One was pretty nice
it's been the best film since the OT
Is Disney cool like that?
Sorry, was meant for you
The same sentiment but more baby Yeed. I think it's the most rewatchable of the new ones, it's flaws are easier to forgive. You have to hate watch TLJ, and Rogue One is boring until the Battlefront cutscenes
Get yours today!
>Rogue One is boring until the Battlefront cutscenes
damn you, I lol’d, but you right
Alright screw or, I’m quarantined anyway, might as well see what they’re up to. desu what disappoints me most about the sequel trilogies is a lack of expanded universe content from the post-OT era. I wanna see what the New Republic is. Why did the sequels never ever explain that to us? I’m not saying we need prequel level detail on the political situation but cmon, what was the outcome of the whole rebellion man?
I'm amazed they didn't have those things ready to go for last Christmas. Years of them cranking out Rose Tico action figures that stink up the shelves and then they actually produce a character that kids will like and they don't have the sense to crank out toys of it for Christmas.
It was really uninteresting. Even as someone who still loves star wars, I didn't bother seeing it until it was almost out of theaters.
It wasnt BORING exactly, but was like drinking water. I left the theater and had to remind myself "oh yeah, I just saw a Star Wars movie" which was a very surreal feeling. It really shouldn't have been made
Supposedly they didn’t want to spoil the big reveal in chapter 1 of the Mandalorian...supposedly
I think maybe this is part of why Disney is rolling back the spinoff films, because at a certain point they experience finishing returns, a Star Wars movie is no longer a special experience, the hype is unsustainable.
That being said, I’d this was the first Star Wars movie you had seen in a decade, would it have left a bigger impression on you? or was it just the films mediocrity that left you feeling that way no matter what the context of it was?
Well I can see the logic in wanting to cultivate a female audience for Star Wars, I mean you could impress the fan base by a lot and that’s an investment in the brand that would last for decades, if you get em young enough. Incidentally, does anybody know if this worked? Like even anecdotally, have they succeeded in raising a new generation of female Star Wars fans? or was it just a giant bust? Or did they alienate enough male fans that it was a net negative influx of the consumer base?
>I’d this was the first Star Wars movie you had seen in a decade, would it have left a bigger impression on you? or was it just the films mediocrity that left you feeling that way no matter what the context of it was?
Probably a combination of both. It didn't help that the public image of the franchise was at an all time low, directly following episode 8 even though I think that movie gets too much hate
talented cast, excellent pacing, and the cheque cleared on time
What happens to all those unsold action figures?
>For example one of the heroes is sympathetic to the First Order because the Empire had fixed up her home world and given her father a job and everything went to shit after the Empire fell
Yo why wasn’t this type of stuff at the core of the new trilogy? like, why is nuance so bad? idk I get that the original
Trilogy was really simple and focused more on the spiritual than the political, but like the sequels didn’t even do that right...but I guess that’s what secondary content like this is for
Average scifi film
Terrible Star Wars film. Just as I said in the other thread... this is the story nobody wanted and nobody needed. Han in the OT is a gigantic bullshitter, that's part of his charm. Remember on the Death Star him and Chewy did the thing with the handcuffs? That was funny as fuck. Giving him an explicit origin story is the antithesis of what makes the character likable.
And top if off with a face that doesn't even look like him, and give him some benevolent origins? Might as well watch paint dry.
I hope that someday they retcon this into a shitfaced rambling that Han does in Mos Eisley somewhere.
>Like even anecdotally, have they succeeded in raising a new generation of female Star Wars fans?
No its failed. Like I said Star Wars is about fighting and aliens and monsters. Very few little girls like things like that. They've got this concept in their mind of genderless consumers that they can market the exact same media to and it just doesn't work.
The girls that will actually like Star Wars will like it for what it is without being pandered to. Just put in a few strong female characters they can identify with like Leia or Ahsoka and stick to formula and you're golden. Pushing a Mary Sue female central protagonist and beating the audience upside the head with "the force is female" nonsense didn't get them a new audience it just alienated the old one.
>Giving him an explicit origin story is the antithesis of what makes the character likable.
>And top if off with a face that doesn't even look like him, and give him some benevolent origins?
Yes! Somebody gets it! Why did they make him so noble? I mean, you could make him a nice guy who becomes all bitter and jaded, or make him a rogue yet likable bastard from the start. But he’s just a nice guy the whole movie and we have to assume that he becomes the Han we know sometime after the end of the movie? then what was the point of the movie? I dunno, maybe I’m missing something
>Yo why wasn’t this type of stuff at the core of the new trilogy? like, why is nuance so bad?
I agree with you entirely. If they'd made Kylo a morally grey sort of antagonist (pic related) who wanted to use the power of the First Order to bring peace and order to the galaxy with an iron fist and not just have him pursue power for its own sake it could have been really interesting.
Kylo was the only interesting character they had in the new trilogy and rather than running with him they had him just be Rey's foil for three films.
What was good about it? Where did it succeed where Solo failed? Did Solo do anything better than Rogue One? I think this since they only did 2 spinoff films it’s worth comparing them, bc opinion seems split on these two but I think more people agree that R1 was better. the box office numbers sure attest to that
It's two reasons: One was that they didn't want to reveal Baby Yoda early (if Hasbro went into production in time for the show, then Baby Yoda would've been leaked), and second is that all the fucking ST stuff pegwarming on store shelves made them less confident about the SW stuff. Sales for their Star Wars stuff was bad in 2018 a year TLJ and Solo were in theatres.
I know that growing up my sisters were bigger Star Wars fans than I was, so you might be on to something. I mean, it seems like a doable project, to boost the female fandom. Nobody said it had to be ‘little girls’ either, but I guess they’re the ones you could market the most merch to. Hate to keep comparing to Marvel but you’d be surprised how many women buy tickets to those films, women you wouldn’t expect.
>Pushing a Mary Sue female central protagonist and beating the audience upside the head with "the force is female" nonsense didn't get them a new audience it just alienated the old one.
Hmm I guess so, although I sure see a lot of promotional material that highlights female fans. Was there a way they could have made these films appeal to a wider audience without alienating other elements of their consumer base? Are there successful examples of this in the past?
>What was good about it?
Solid action scenes throughout, good visuals (aside from CGI Peter Cushing), some interesting ships, characters were simple but had enough to keep them interesting for what they had to do.
Its basically The Dirty Dozen in space, a simple but good concept.