Get Up Off Your Butts And Go See "Solo: A Star Wars Story"!!!

As I am preparing to see "Solo" a second time, it has come to my attention that almost all of you haven't seen it for the first time yet, which is a damn shame. Look I understand your desire to punish Disney for that whole "Last Jedi" fiasco, but trust me here "Solo" is a great movie and you will love it.

From We Got This Covered

As you surely know, Solo: A Star Wars Story‘s Alden Ehrenreich has made a deal with Lucasfilm to portray everyone’s favorite scruffy-looking nerf herder in at least two more movies. Whether he gets the chance to do so or not though depends mostly on how the film performs at the box office, and in that regard, things aren’t going very well right now.

We heard earlier today that the Anthology pic only managed to pull in $83.3 million on this side of the pond – not to mention it bombed in China, too – which is tremendously disappointing and way under expectations. It’s the first true flop for Lucasfilm and has no doubt thrown those sequel plans into question.

But if there’s one person who’s not letting the numbers get him down, it’s Ron Howard. Taking to Twitter earlier today, the director found a silver lining in the situation, saying that though it didn’t quite soar as high as the studio hoped, Solo was still a personal best for him in terms of openings.

As for why exactly the pic did so poorly, well, when you combine the divisive reviews and production troubles, plus the fact that many people weren’t interested in seeing anyone else other than Harrison Ford portray the titular character in the first place, it isn’t exactly surprising that Solo: A Star Wars Story bombed at the box office.

Personally, I’m of the opinion that Disney is perilously close to devaluing the idea of a Star Wars event movie if they’re going to keep up their annual release schedule. Sure, the last couple have been great, but there’s a serious chance of audience fatigue if we hit the mid 2020s and we’ve had 7 or 8 movies in as many years. Even releasing Solo so hot on the heels of The Last Jedi feels a bit cheap. And judging by the box office numbers, that’s a sentiment that many share.

Here is my take on Solo (Again):

By Ken Hulsey

Disney is way better at making Star Wars prequels than sequels.

Let's just cut to the chase, Solo is a really, really, really good movie. I absolutely loved it. It was just the thing I personally needed to wipe the awful memories of "The Last Jedi" from my dorky brain. It is an all-around solid movie with a great story, acting and effects. It also contains enough plot twists and a special cameo that I really want to talk at length about, but can't in fear of ruining the movie for you, to make the movie highly entertaining.

Here is the bottom line, Alden Ehrenreich was really believable as Han Solo. This is of course the most important aspect that makes "Solo" as good a movie as it is. Ehrenreich owned the role and put his own unique take on it. He captured enough of Harrison Ford's mannerisms to effectively portray the character without making his performance an over exaggerated impression. It was very easy for me to accept Ehrenreich as Han Solo and by the end of the film I was completely sold and am now quite looking forward to the future installments with him portraying one of my favorite movie characters.

The rest of the cast was excellent from Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke (Just try to keep your eyes off her ... holy smokes) to much talked about Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian. Glover doesn't steal the show, which is actually a good thing, but ads a whole new level of charm and wit to the suave Calrissian.

Visually "Solo" is an amazing feast for the eyes. I marveled at just how good the special effects were. Star Wars films have always been a showcase for effects and I have to say that this movie looked as real as real could be. This movie will be able to stand the test of time much better than the prequel films, which in my opinion, are starting to look very cartoonish as time passes.

Here's where I rank Solo in the pecking order of Star Wars films. I would honestly put it behind "Return of the Jedi" and in front of "The Force Awakens". Okay so here we go:

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. A New Hope
3. Rogue One
4. Return of the Jedi
5. Solo
6. The Force Awakens
7. Revenge of the Sith
8. Attack of the Clones
9. The Phantom Menace
10 ... Those Ewok movies
11. The Holiday Special
12. ... Star Wars toy commercials
13. The Last Jedi

Actually you could insert anything Star Wars related between twelve and thirteen, which shows just how much I loath "The Last Jedi."