TL;DR: This movie works both as an origin story to please fans and as a standalone adventure for someone who has seen none or a few of the films from the franchise. Possibly big movie fatigue had set in as, while I felt like I should've loved this, I did not. Still a very enjoyable experience in an early summer movie season filled with high quality blockbusters.
Edition watched: 3D IMAX
I have to start out by saying that coming on the heels of Avengers: Infinity War and then Deadpool 2, this movie was following a couple of tough acts. I mention this because I felt there was a certain level of "big movie" fatigue. Several of our friends who did every opening showing of Star Wars movies with us previously passed on this showing, and the IMAX had just a few dozen people in it at the premiere showing. Just as contrast, Avengers was basically sold out for 3 straight days in the IMAX (even those front seats that give you wall-eye when you leave the theater).
I think this run of good "big movies" very recently had maybe inured me to feeling the highs of well done blockbusters because I feel like I should've absolutely loved this movie, but I did not love it and I can't point to anything in the movie itself as to why. That said, I still really enjoyed this movie and I do think a wide audience will too.
I found the story to be very clever. It melded several origin-type stories together with the major obvious ones but also several minor ones (and I am not referring to Lando). As a movie franchise fan, I got my money's worth simply in the meeting and development of the Han and Chewy relationship. I both enjoyed and appreciated how it was handled and I did not feel like anything was missing (I have not read books or comics). It wasn't too unbelievably sappy, which is something I was afraid it might be, but it still built a foundation for their future relationship.
As a non-fan, one of us had only seen 2 of the previous movies and she didn't even remember who Han Solo was till we reminded her, yet she liked the movie the best. At no point did any of us feel like the movie leaned on previous knowledge of the franchise and we all felt this worked very well as a stand-alone movie. Two of us were actually disappointed that there were only brief flashes of things which tied into the primary story lines.
I felt that the mix of story and character building with action and tension was spot on, giving that roller coaster felling that well-paced action movies give you. Glover was excellent as Lando and he did steal scenes for me. I found Ehrenreich portrayal of Han, without question a difficult task to appeal to the eyes of a franchise fan, to be at times lacking that roguish air that Ford brought to the role. If I was forced to point to something in the movie as the reason I didn't absolutely love it, it would be Ehrenreich, as few times he just didn't behave like the Han I know would have. Chewy was fantastic.
Edition watched: 3D IMAX
I have to start out by saying that coming on the heels of Avengers: Infinity War and then Deadpool 2, this movie was following a couple of tough acts. I mention this because I felt there was a certain level of "big movie" fatigue. Several of our friends who did every opening showing of Star Wars movies with us previously passed on this showing, and the IMAX had just a few dozen people in it at the premiere showing. Just as contrast, Avengers was basically sold out for 3 straight days in the IMAX (even those front seats that give you wall-eye when you leave the theater).
I think this run of good "big movies" very recently had maybe inured me to feeling the highs of well done blockbusters because I feel like I should've absolutely loved this movie, but I did not love it and I can't point to anything in the movie itself as to why. That said, I still really enjoyed this movie and I do think a wide audience will too.
I found the story to be very clever. It melded several origin-type stories together with the major obvious ones but also several minor ones (and I am not referring to Lando). As a movie franchise fan, I got my money's worth simply in the meeting and development of the Han and Chewy relationship. I both enjoyed and appreciated how it was handled and I did not feel like anything was missing (I have not read books or comics). It wasn't too unbelievably sappy, which is something I was afraid it might be, but it still built a foundation for their future relationship.
As a non-fan, one of us had only seen 2 of the previous movies and she didn't even remember who Han Solo was till we reminded her, yet she liked the movie the best. At no point did any of us feel like the movie leaned on previous knowledge of the franchise and we all felt this worked very well as a stand-alone movie. Two of us were actually disappointed that there were only brief flashes of things which tied into the primary story lines.
I felt that the mix of story and character building with action and tension was spot on, giving that roller coaster felling that well-paced action movies give you. Glover was excellent as Lando and he did steal scenes for me. I found Ehrenreich portrayal of Han, without question a difficult task to appeal to the eyes of a franchise fan, to be at times lacking that roguish air that Ford brought to the role. If I was forced to point to something in the movie as the reason I didn't absolutely love it, it would be Ehrenreich, as few times he just didn't behave like the Han I know would have. Chewy was fantastic.