"The Force Awakens" (with SPOILERS)

The trailer looks awesome ... except for Han. The few lines of his they showed make me worry that the acting coach Ehrenreich needed to have on set wasn't very helpful.

I really don't understand the casting decision. Ehrenreich doesn't particularly look the part and, apparently, he can't act. Not sure why they chose him. I don't know if Taron Egerton can do a Corellian accent, but I would have liked to see him try.

 

Agreed. If Ehrenreich really is that bad, it's going to completely ruin the movie. One of the many things that helped make the original trilogy so good was having a great actor like Ford in that role.

 

Someone else playing Solo was always going to be an huge hurdle to overcome. One of the reasons I'm surprised they did this flick so early in the Disney run.

Not enough of the performance to judge so far. Probably by design.

Will be interesting how it's received at Cannes.

 

I agree with that, but it feels like they punted on acting for looks, much the way Bryan Singer did in hiring Brandon Routh to take over Christopher Reeves' iconic role. The guy LOOKED like Superman. But he was more wooden than Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker. I don't think Ehrenreich is by any stretch a dead-ringer for a young Ford, so what's the point in hiring him if he can't act either?

 

First reviews and social media buzz seem positive for Solo.

'Solo: A Star Wars Story' — First Reactions from the Premiere

 

I feel like it's not that surprising that Ron Howard may have turned this into a good movie. Always felt like the complaining about this was getting out of hand.

 

You are probably right, but you've got two standards at play here. One is making it a good movie. The other is making a movie the die-hard Star Wars fans will like. I have faith in Howard's ability to do the former. I'm not sure the latter is even possible,

 

Pleasing hard-core Star Wars fans seems impossible. The seemingly coordinated bitching and moaning over Last Jedi is weird.

Seems to be a lot of vitriol for Kathleen Kennedy. That she destroyed Star Wars and ruined childhoods, etc.

First, I don’t understand that level of fandom.

Second, I think Kennedy had helmed three really good movies. Especially after the last days of Lucas.

 

Lando movie coming, though I wonder if this is more about "we want to be in business with Donald Glover" than it is they actually have a good idea for a movie:

Donald Glover’s Lando Is Reportedly Getting ’Star Wars’ Spinoff

 

It's about time. I'm far more interested in Lando than Han, who had a fully-developed character arc across four movies.

 

WAPO and NY Times movie critics were NOT impressed.
WAPO was luke-warm and trying to be kind. NY Post reviewer gave it 1 star.

 

Yep, mixed reviews as more come out.