#nothing that outright spoiled anything but enough to make me start suspecting certain things way sooner than I otherwise might have

[thecindercrow]

I finished Ghost Trick

[corellianangel]

Fan Review: Solo: A Star Wars Story

May contain minor/some spoilers after the cut.

I suspect that Solo: A Star Wars Story might be a bit like its title character. A bit rough at the start, maybe shady, pretty good-looking, and definitely out to get your money. But, as it goes on, it becomes more and more apparent how good and truly nostalgic and lovable it is.

This is a film that “nobody wanted.” Which means...what? I wanted it. When I saw Star Wars ANH, I wanted to know all about that cool Solo guy. And finally, 41 years later, I got my wish. And yeah… I’m mostly happy. After Last Jedi, I was pretty much done with the franchise, so it’s not like I went in with high hopes.

Solo is a relatively low stakes reprieve from the “we must save the world/galaxy/universe” all-or-nothing epic trope that has plagued us for the last few years. This is an adventure, a coming of age, and a western heist. Stakes are high, but only for the characters you are relating with onscreen, making it a curious addition to this year’s blockbusters.

Make no mistake; This is a love-letter to original trilogy Star Wars fans. It’s Han Solo in an Indiana Jones style adventure ( and what could be more fun than that).

4 out of 5 stars.

The first minute of Solo is exactly how a movie about the titular character should begin. But then it immediately lags, then even more so under ill-paced exposition. As soon Han goes solo though, it gains momentum. Then a short few minutes later as Woody Harrelson appears, things get rolling outright.

Alden Ehrenreich takes a bit of time to slide into Han’s scuffed boots, both onscreen and in our fan hearts. But when he does, it works wonderfully. He’s not the sexy gruff cynic Harrison Ford portrayed. No, he’s a “Kid,” who's got dreams. He’s a romantic. He’s wide-eyed, immature, and even petulant at times. But like Harrison’s portrayal, he’s arrogant, talented, goofy, jealous, easily embarrassed and will gladly spin a terrible lie. And oh yes… he can turn it on. Not at first, no… that’s really awkward ( more on that with Emilia). He’s not Harrison Ford by a long shot, but when given the chance later in the film, he makes a scene his own, and it’s HOT.

Unfortunately though, Alden is easily five inches shorter than 6’ 1” Harrison. And it’s glaringly obvious (especially to me, as I am quite a tall person). Sadly, Alden’s 1” platform 2”+ heel boots can only add so much. Otherwise, I’m satisfied with his portrayal. Alden’s a great actor, he had huge boots to fill, and I think he’s really been treated unfairly by the fans. Give the kid a chance, he might win you over.

Donald Glover IS Lando Calrissian though.  He’s sexy, sauve and even a bit silly ( in all the right ways… make no mistake).  I daresay Mr.Glover has taken Billy Dee William’s place in my heart as the epitome of Lando. Whether he’s coming on to Han, or Qi’ra or some unspecified alien species, he’s a pansexual on the level of Oberyn Martell from Game of Thrones. An arrogant playboy badass, who loves all the finest things. He is willing to enjoy everything life has to offer, and why not? It’s hard not to love him as a result. Lando movie, anyone?

Tobias Beckett is everything Han wants to be. Beckett is also in love with fellow crook Val, and his attachment to her is cemented firmly in a couple of scenes, which unlike the Han/Qi’ra scenes–have great chemistry. And Woody Harrelson’s portrayal of yet another grizzled mentor is stunning. I found him much more appealing than Harrelson’s equivalent character from Hunger Games. Though the mantel is starting to wear. Don’t get me wrong. I adore Woody Harrelson. His being in this film gave me a reason to think I might just like it. I’m just not sure I want to see him as yet another badass mentor after this.

When Thandie Newton appeared in Beloved back in 1998, I was an instant fan. I’d seen her before in a few other flicks, but she blew that one out of the water as the title character. Since then she had worked steadily in a number of critically acclaimed roles. I was absolutely thrilled to see her in this as Val. And utterly heartbroken that she was totally underused. When Val is onscreen, she overshadows everyone else, even Beckett. It’s a shame we don’t see more of her than we do. Boo!

Emilia Clarke as Qi’ra…Hmm.  She’s cute, charming, and tries her hand at swordplay here. But honestly, the Queen of Dragons is a poor fit. The original casting call was for anything other than yet another white brunette. And with amazing ladies like Tessa Thompson in the running, why oh why did we end up with Emilia? If not racism (God, I hope not); Ang’s answer: Think $$$, from Game of Thrones fans in theatre seats. I can think of no other reason. Her chemistry with Alden is tepid at best ( and any of that comes much, much later). I feel bad for Emilia here. I think she was miscast, and that tarnish will always stay with the fans. ( P.s. : the three adult heterosexual males I watched the movie with, were over-the-moon smitten with her. To each his own. I guess…)

On to the non-humans...

Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca is physically brilliant. He’s stolen my heart as Chewie from the lovely Peter Mayhew (sorry Pete) over the last three movies. But honestly, we discover nothing new about Chewbacca in this. Zero. It’s rather unfortunate. I wish I could say more. But we learn more about Chewie in episode three than this. A missed opportunity. Sorry Chewie. For some reason Disney put your character in the doghouse here.

L3-37 is another definite weak spot in Solo. We have a snarky female droid (yay!) as a droid-rights advocate (cool!).  But it’s so completely overwrought. Only Lando’s constant eye rolls save this character from being as ridiculous as Jar Jar Binks. Which is another shame, because I felt she fills in the current canon equivalent of Lando’s copilot droid Vuffi Raa, from the EU/Legends novels from waaay back in the 1980’s, (interestingly they are both pilots, are both self-aware droids and have vaguely parallel fates) Some editing issues arise as far as L3′s character is concerned too. She’ll be leaning, casually watching,  while droids are being slaughtered in front of her, but only interferes with other robots later in the same scene? Why?? Were the first dead droids not good enough for her to save? It’s inconsistent, poor editing; and that really hurts the character. Sorry Phoebe Waller-Bridge, you did great job with what you had. I’m not sure that the script/editing was as good as you deserved.

The spaceship the Millennium Falcon is 100% a full character in this too. Without giving too much away, she represents her pilots as they sit at the helm. She’s treated with more respect - reverence even -  in this, than any other film. And I can say this is her movie as much as it is Han’s. Millennium Falcon fans, you are in for a treat!

And the bad guys...or one guy anyways....

Paul Bettany is chilling and utterly convincing as the gangster Dryden Vos. He also has much better chemistry with Qi’ra than Han.  I’m fairly certain this is mainly due to Paul’s astonishing acting ability.  He first came to my attention as the title character in the darkly funny UK crime film Gangster No.1. I was floored by him then and he’s still blowing me away, even as the rather challenging character Vision in the MCU. Bettany does not disappoint in Solo either. He took over this role with zero preparation, with the weight of replacing another respected actor at the last minute in an extremely troubled production. And the optics of having a white European actor taking over from an African-american are...ermm...not the best. He pulls it off, though. But I can’t help but wonder what Michael K Williams would have brought to the role. Vos is a soulless psychopath under Bettany, not unlike his character in Gangster No.1.  Would Williams have brought the tragic–almost romantic deep spirit and inner strength he brought to his gangster Chalky White in Boardwalk Empire to Vos instead? It’s rather sad we will never know.

I don’t think I can say much else about the other antagonist(s) without spoiling a bunch. But let’s just say...wow! Well done! Surprises and fan service all around!

There is something missing here too. We never see Han as an imperial pilot. Nor the promised Shakespeare-inspired comedic comic book characters that Ron Howard teased last fall.  These gems may be reserved for DVD releases, but I feel Han’s missing academy stint is definitely a gap in this story. And the movie lacks because of it.

Importantly, I do recommend seeing this in IMAX 2D as it is a very dark and muted film.

The usual amazing, special effects, costumes and sets we’ve come to expect from the Star Wars film franchise are all present here.  The styling is different from the previous films, as it takes place about halfway between Episode Three and Rogue One.  It’s neat to see the evolution of the Empire’s gear. 

And the easter eggs are everywhere; prequels, Rebels, Clone Wars, Star Tours ( the Disney Park ride), the comic books from the 1970′s and 80′s, the EU/Legends Han Solo novels by Brian Daley, the Lando Calrissian novels from the same era are especially referenced numerous times. Even the Indiana Jones franchise gets a significantly placed nod.

To say the least, the fan-service is strong with this one.

But not the Force. Not at all. None of that simple tricks and nonsense here at all.

Because I’m a pretty hard-core fan, I pre-bought two showings on initial release. The first time I saw Solo, I was unsure if I actually liked it, but it seemed to be a decent film.  The second viewing ( the same night) was an absolute joy. Times three and four were with different groups of adults, and they all had a blast. Five was with a group of 13 year old girls, and they all enjoyed it too.

So let’s call my rating of Solo then, 4 out of 5 stars. 

Honestly I don’t get the backlash against it.  Don’t take your Last Jedi hate out on this. It’s a fun ride with decent jokes and no space-boob-milk monsters—honest!

And if you think Solo offers nothing different, new, or imaginative. You are 99% correct...Remember, we got that full package of “different and innovative” in Last Jedi. If that’s your schtick, watch that one instead then.

Oh, and one more thing- that 1%?... two words:

Shower scene.

[brooklynislandgirl]

REY IVERS

The Name Game || Accepting

R: When’s the last time they had a birthday party?

It has been nearly a year since the little sand gremlin has come to live with her and she’s fairly certain she’s curbed the girl’s teeth so far. She still isn’t entirely sure that she’s ever wanted an apprentice or that she does even now. But she has never directly disobeyed the Living Force before and in outright taking the child from Luke, she hasn’t yet.

She also promised herself that she would do things differently than all the failed masters before her.  She doesn’t know when the girl was born. Rey hardly knows more than a guess at her age, which biological scans confirmed. So rather than celebrating the day of her birth, which neither of them are an authority on, Keni instead chooses to mark the girl’s anniversary of arriving on Zelos.

Breakfast for the girl is sweetened tea and pastries from the village market. Her gifts are not precisely wrapped in any specific way and might not be remarkable to anyone who has never been a Jedi. First, they are Rey’s and Rey’s alone. From the ribbons in a modest riot of colours, to the new robes. But there is...one. It is a small mechanical bird on a branch, all made in native metals. When the key in the base is turned, the bird sings a lullaby. One Keni remembers only as what her father would sing to her when dreams came heavy to her mind. The same one she would hum to Anakin ~because she isn’t a talented singer~ when his heart was so heavy she thought it might give out there in circle of her arms. It is one of the few things that hold any real meaning for Keni that isn’t touched by remembrance of the Order.

It’s funny to think that she should be so nervous over the opinion of a child.

E: Are they the happiest they’ve ever been?  

Keni hasn’t been happy for years, that feeling went to it’s grave when she lost her heart. The best she strives for most days is to not feel grief. To be content in knowing some day the Force will reunite her with her lost loves.  This she doesn’t speak of, and rather prefers to ignore the question when it is brought up to her. Conversely, her father has much to say about the subject because he has the unique perspective of being quite the same as his daughter, and can better explain her than she can herself. How she’s merely a ghost of her former self, and how he misses the young woman she used to be.

Y: What movie could they watch over and over again?

Not that Rey ever does but sometimes if she is up and about late at night there are sounds that come from her Master’s sleeping area. The flicker of old holovids. That jump and jerk from age, dancing beneath Melakeni’s delicate fingertips as she traces the line of a tired smile here, a stray curl there. She watches them as fervently as the Faithful pray.  Clips of the Hero without Fear, as they called him, the Jedi hero of the Clone Wars. She relives those moments, lets the faded images remind her of different times and all the emotions of them.

But she never finds the epiphany she’s chasing within them, no matter how many times she goes back or pauses a particular frame. Nor does she invite discussion of them come the morning.

I: In general, are they organized or messy?

The phrase “one could eat off the floors” while disgusting is not untrue. There is not a single mote of dust courageous enough to brave landing on any of the immaculate surfaces within the lodge. Rey could pick any single object in any individual room and move it a single fraction of a centimetre and Keni would notice immediately the second she comes inside.

It is neither a hold out from having been a Jedi, they didn’t have anything to really worry about keeping orderly ~except for the pillows she collected from a source she’d never named. Neither is it something that she had experienced before having gone to the Temple, her fathers staff always took care of such things. The truth might lie closer to her need for control over her immediate environment, enforcing her will in the least destructive way possible, combined with a lifetime of being a healer and needing to work in sterile spaces, a luxury she did not often have during the wars.

V: They’ve been arrested, who is their one phone call to?

Her lips curl back slowly, reminiscent of a snarling Loth-wolf. Perhaps intentionally, perhaps a legacy of the saga of Melakeni’s life long before the little sand gremlin came into the narrative. Perhaps it is a little jaggedly feral combination of both.

“I promise you that if someone were to come and try to arrest me...there would be screaming.”

When she was a child still able to carry wonder about the Order she would have immediately said she would call upon her Master. She cannot now recollect when last she had seen him but the man certainly had an undeniable Presence. Not unlike her father when he is moved to genuine anger. There was always something dark, palpably menacing about her Master and she feared him and loved him in equal measures. But time has a way of moving on. During those best years of her life, she wouldn’t even have to think before automatically reaching out to Anakin. Not that she could imagine him being so far away, especially after the rise of the Empire. But they needn’t be within thousands of star systems to feel one another as closely as if they were side by side, hands locked together with forever entwined fingers. No, they were rarely two individuals within the Force and she learned to live that way. Which made the breaking of it so excruciating. She hasn’t felt truly alive since.

And now? Now she has herself. Let whomever the girl can imagine come and take her. Keni has nothing left to lose.

E: Are they the happiest they’ve ever been?  

Knees pressed against the bottoms of his shoulders, skin slick with sweat and tears. Arms wrapped around his neck as her head lolls back between her own shoulders, a groaned sigh of bliss escaping between her teeth. He shifts to press kisses against her exposed throat, damp curls framing his face and his neck, dark gold in the dimmest of light.

They are drunk. Not in the traditional sense although they’d maybe indulged a little beforehand. Tiny sugar crystals still cling a little to the corners of his mouth. She doesn’t ask him if they feel like sand, she imagines they do and she doesn’t want to spoil this moment.

They move one entity, without conscious thought. He sprawls his impossibly long limbs in such a way to stretch and yet curl up around her and instinctively she rests her head against his chest. Listens to the sound of his heart as it starts to slow.

The Force between, around, within them is replete with every shade of love they have ever shared, deepened by this stolen moment of quiet peace and togetherness. In this moment between them there exists no Empire and no galaxy beyond the door and windows. There exists no demands or sorrow. In this moment, Anakin is as whole as he can be, and she has no words to express how that makes her feel.

It will too soon be over. 

So she memorises the taste of him in her mouth, and the heat rising off his skin and soaking into hers. She memorises the exact blue ~darkened now as he struggles to keep them open~ of his eyes as she puts a hand down for leverage and rises up above him to get a better view. Her hair falls into his face, the curtain of night with no stars or moons to give a sense of time.

“Keni? Are you okay?” The question rumbles up from his depths, deep and full of concern and she can see the lines start to gather at the corners of his mouth, his eyes. The seeds of fear that he has done something wrong. That guilt that is only a step or two behind him when it hasn’t choked his entire being like weeds.

“Of course. I am in love with you and I am happy. Maybe for the first time. Maybe for always. How could I be any better?”

In true Anakin fashion, he starts to list things he think she might enjoy more until she laughs and silences him with a kiss. The Living Force in that moment is blindingly bright. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Keni shakes her head and glances down at the girl. The question had been innocuous. Knowing that is what keeps her from snapping jaws at her apprentice. “No. But I am content. Finish transplanting those seedlings into the new pots and you may have the rest of the day to yourself. Be sure you come in before the sun sets.

Keni sets her own trowel down and goes to the small sink in the corner of the green house, where she washes her hands before disappearing out the door without further conversation.

R: When’s the last time they had a birthday party?

“The Order did not promote such frivolous things.” 

This is not a lie, nor is it spoken of with any particular vehemence. The truth of the matter is that celebrating a being for simply being born took focus away from them as a servant of the Force, and served as a breeding ground for jealousy, arrogance, guilt, unhappiness. Any number of paths to the Dark Side. And perhaps there is truth in it but Keni suspects that the Council might have simply wanted to avoid uncomfortable questions about any particular padawan or Jedi’s ancestry and history outside of their indoctrination.

To admit to having a birthday was to acknowledge that there had been a parent or parents who had brought the child into the world. That there had been a time when the Order was not the most important thing in their lives, that they had not always lived and trained on Coruscant. And then questions would arise. Because of course they would. Questions that had no particular answer, that could not put the Masters in a particularly noble or concerned light.

And there is a tiny shade of dishonesty to her answer. Anakin and she were different than many of the others. They had childhoods that didn’t begin with the Temple. They could remember the small treats and special moments that Shmi sacrificed for. That her father had organised like a battle plan. And while those celebrations were diametrically opposed, they were similar in the fact that they’d been expressions of love.

And thus, secretly they celebrated together. It might only be a whispered wish in passing. A certain look on a certain day. Or it might be as extravagant as an actual gift smuggled in careful fashion to one another, no matter how far apart they happened to be.

“If you are curious, I was born at the cusp between Autumn and Winter. A time when the veil of the Force thins to allow easier communion with the dead, and when the sun wanes to give power to the moons.”

S: How do they tell someone they’re sorry?

It sounds like dead leaves bustled along the ground by a particularly cool wind. Once it might have been described as husky, warm, comforting. Her laugh might have once gone so scandalously far as to reach her eyes and give the brilliant, pellucid colour a preternatural vibrancy. Regardless, though, it’s still a laugh. One that doesn’t mock Rey but is sharp and brittle and not a little unpleasant. “For the sake of the four moons, child, what makes you think I have ever been sorry enough to apologise...for anything?”