I actually...thoroughly enjoyed it?? Easily the best of the new Star Wars movies to me, not that that's saying much
Spoiler
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I didn't think there was a real weak link in the cast honestly. Glover definitely stole the show as expected, but I thought Han's actor definitely held his own and Clarke was surprisingly decent. Way better here than in GOT, she actually got to show some emotional range
Thought Han starting the whole Rebellion was pretty silly since he works much better as some random cocksure smuggler who happens to get himself caught up in something way bigger than himself in A New Hope. So I didn't like the decision of placing that much importance on this mission but I'm not exactly surprised either
Darth Maul showing up was random af?? Kinda cool that he might feature in a future movie I guess? Since he was one of the few decent things in the prequels. No idea how tf he fits into this tho
And yeah, Lando was great and I want way more of him if they make a sequel, which I'm surprisingly hoping they do. I liked the beginning glimpses of their relationship. Also the L3 droid was pretty fun but I'm kinda glad it died when it did cuz it probably would've got old quickly
I do think they sped things up a biiit too much with Han doing ALL the things that we knew about in A New Hope. Getting the Falcon, befriending Chewie, Kessel Run, his signature pistol, going to meet Jabba, etc. I dunno exactly how long this is set before ANH but it feels like he did almost nothing in the interim now (:
Liked it! It was fun. I really have no major complaints about it tbh. There's definitely something to be said of expectations and hype. Mine couldn't have been much lower going into this so I was pleasantly surprised and came out of it really not mad that it existed at all
The tone was good, felt different enough. I liked that it was part heist movie kinda (would've liked more of a heisty vibe). Ron Howard has absolutely no unique directing style that I can think of but he did perfectly fine here, the action sequences were well directed
I can't hate on Alden Ehrenreich at all really. I thought he did his job well enough and any misfire was just a poorly written joke more often than not. He didn't bring a TON to it but he was good. I'd like to see him do it again with less pressure/better production so he can LET THAT HAIR DOWN a bit the second time. (I do still think Jack Reynor would've been great though)
Glover was great ofc, I loved him. I want more of him. Agreed Boc that Clarke was way less cringey that I thought she would be. I actually kinda liked her in this. Woody and Bettany were both good too. Didn't like the droid actually, I thought the EQUAL RIGHTS stuff was p forced but it was fine
Agreed that they ticked off a lot of boxes and maybe some were a bit forced but it's whatever, I can see why they'd wanna do that. I thought for sure we'd see Chewie get his bowcaster at some point which would've been a little goofy
And I'd also like another one which is probably the most surprising thing for me when I came out of it. I wouldn't say no to more Han/Chewie/Lando going on missions, seeing what happens with Qi'ra, getting Maul/Jabba/Fett involved. Maybe even Obi Wan at some point? It's sorta the Marvel approach, it's kinda fun here despite being mostly totally unnecessary. Everyone has been wanting an Obi Wan movie, a Boba Fett movie (which is now happening), and a Darth Maul movie so I can see them all happening and tying into each other around this time period if the timelines all work out
I heard there was a big scene where everyone GASPED so I've been super curious to see what it was. I figured it would have to be a cameo so the whole movie I kept thinking Darth Maul made the most sense and was waiting to see if I'd be right. I thought for sure that resistance leader was gonna be Maul when she took off her helmet, so when the Maul scene came I was pretty excited. I know you said it's random Boc but he's a huge part of the animated series from what I've seen (which is canon..I think?). He seems to tango with Obi Wan a whole lot in that so I would love an Ewan Obi movie on Tatooine with Darth Maul getting heavily involved, that'd be really cool
