Here we are, just over half-way through 2019, and already Disney have given us three Marvel Cinematic Universe entries, and alongside Dumbo and Aladdin, three live-action*1 retoolings of classic animated tales, too. Is this a sustainable rate?
GENERATIONS To be absolutely clear, this film is a straight-up remake of 1994's The Lion King, songs and all, a piece beloved by generations and now presented in a new, shiner form. First and foremost, credit is undoubtedly due for the way the movie looks. It is flawless. And while we should be able to take that as a given with any Disney output by this point, it really can't be emphasised enough: This is an animated film and film and It. Looks. Flawless. This level of CGI was barely imaginable only a couple of decades ago, and yet here we are.
But are the visuals enough? Well it's certainly true that Jon Favreau's new rendering doesn't add anything to the original story. It even takes away some of the cartoonish, excitable charm perhaps, but audiences coming to this version as their first will still have a great time. The story and characterisation are clearly laid out*2 and there's no shortage of action, spectacle and laughs. Then again, how much does this need to add to the existing mythos? Well, only as much as The Lion King ever 'needed' to be remade in the first place. Which is to say not a lot.
NEMESIS The big draw is the return of James Earl Jones as the voice of Mufasa*3, and he does well opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor as his nemesis, Scar (although the latter often sounds distractingly like the former, particularly in later scenes where they aren't sharing the screen). Meanwhile, Big Simba is voiced by Donald Glover, with Beyoncé as lioness Nala. And it's here that the movie stumbles once again. If anything, the photorealistic nature of the visuals can't accommodate the expressive nature of the the pair's voices. While both are demonstrably great performers, their relaxed - almost street - delivery just doesn't gel with the lions they're portraying. It's not unlike like that time Favreau had Bill Murray be the voice of a bear when it clearly should have been John Goodman.
Pumba and Timon remain a highlight, voiced by Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner respectively, in a turn which echoes Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key in Toy Story 4. And I confess that I did get goosebumps during their rendition of The Lion Sleeps Tonight, if only because I'm a sucker for a capella*5.
OCTONAUTS ROLLERCOASTER ADVENTURE Truth be told though, I think I'd have found a non-musical version of the film more engaging (although looking back, that's exactly what I said about the original, too). Sure, the tunes are iconic and award-winning and well-known, but their inclusion in 2019 seems to hold the whole thing back, resulting in nothing more than a pristine remake, rather than bringing anything new on a narrative or emotional level*6.
The Lion King is entertaining and it looks utterly amazing, but active enjoyment will hinge on your feelings toward the hand-animated version. And even then this will feel like less to some degree. The bottom line is that with visuals this lifelike overlaid with human voices, we're all in Johnny Morris's fever-dream, now.
Oh and Circle Of Life is basically The Power Of Love.
There. I said it.
But all those desert dunes with not a dewback in sight? For shame, Ian Disney, for shame…
*1 Yeah, yeah. Let me join the chorus in saying that while The Jungle Book had a live-action Mowgli, the rest was essentially CGI, and so by extension The Lion King is a flat-out animation. But I'll get to that... [ BACK ]
*2 Although let's be fair, The Lion King's storyline itself has always been pretty slight. 1) Little Simba gets tricked, 2) Little Simba goes away for literally years and turns into Big Simba, 3) Big Simba comes back, 4) Big Simba has a fight, 5) That is the end thank you very much for your money. There are no extra layers or interweaving subplots in either this or the 1994 version (although Favreau has managed to make his one thirty minutes longer, all the same). It's just a very linear series of events with some basic life-lessons about not being a dick. [ BACK ]
*3 Look, I get that the lions talk, and I get that they still growl and roar in some places to give emphasis. But there are sections of sound-mixing here where the growling and the talking noticeably overlap each other. They're not blended, they're just running at the same time. Are these special lions with two sets of vocal cords, then?*4[ BACK ]
*4 Although the keen-eared among you will recall that there are scenes in the first Star Wars trilogy where Darth Vader's ventilator can be heard separately breathing in and out behind his speech. And bear in mind that when you or I talk, we're only breathing outward. This implies that Vader has a secondary set of artificial lungs to take care of this body functions, while his own damaged ones can just about handle the 'barking-orders' stuff. Perhaps Mufasa's twin-throats are an homage to Darth Vader?. I should coco... [ BACK ]
*5 No, not that a capella, I mean good a capella. The kind where I don't want to stab someone during or after it. [ BACK ]
*6 But keep in mind, my main bugbear with The Jungle Book was all the promo-press touting the movie as 'a re-imagining', rather than a remake. Which could have worked until Disney just left two of the songs in for the hell of it, meaning that they were remaking their own version after all. Unless those were the original songs penned by Rudyard Kipling, of course... [ BACK ]
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Well, thank the maker for the variation of weekend movie scheduling. Solo is back at my local for (presumably?) one final, off-peak blast before retiring in wait for September's DVD/Blu-ray release. This means I get to take another spin in the Falcon on a satisfyingly huge screen, and shorten the amount of time spent wondering "did I hear that line right? Did Han Solo from out of The Star Wars really say 'crap'?"*1
But the other question, one for which there is no shortcut in answering, is what will be the legacy of Solo? Not the real-world legacy of underwhelming box office performance and the righteous indignation of fanboys web-wide (one suspects those topics are far from being finalised), but how will this movie go on be seen within the narrative framework of Star Wars?
Ron Howard's entry to the canon is unusual for a prequel-type film in that it reveals little in the way of surprises to the audience, and features even fewer ret-cons in the process. As previously noted, the broad sequence of events for Han meeting Chewbacca and rescuing the wookiee from Imperial captors, and for Han winning the Falcon in a game of Sabacc... well, they're largely the same as the Legends continuity. The background faces might change, but the direction of the narrative doesn't.
Arguably one of its main strengths is that a viewer could sit down and watch Solo as their first Star Wars movie, enjoying the movie for the adventure romp that it is without their brain insisting on making connections to other stories throughout. And considering how iconic the 'legacy' characters are in this, that's one hell of an achievement.
But after we'd seen Rogue One for the first time, we knew that we'd never watch the opening ten minutes of A New Hope in the same way again. When Vader steps into the corridor of the Tantive IV after the Stormtroopers have taken care of business, we know that's because the dark lord is still getting his metaphysical breath back*2 from the slaughter at Scarif. And we now have to stifle our laughter when Leia insists she's on a diplomatic mission.
But with a decade between Han standing on the Savareen cliff-edge and then slouching at a table in Chalmun's cantina, what are the moments in the Original Trilogy which suddenly make sense after this new movie?
On the plus-side...
• Well, we can now crack a smile when Han boasts of the Millennium Falcon making the Kessel-run with a record-breaking distance measurement, rather than one of time. Although as above, the explanation for this was pretty much the same in the Legends continuity. The Kasdans could have ret-conned the Kessel-run into some kind of planetary drag-race (fitting, with Ron Howard's previous directorial form), but obviously thought better of stretching the fabric too far.
• While Harrison Ford and Peter Mayhew always sold it perfectly anyway, we've now seen the beginnings of a bond between best friends who've been hanging around and getting out of scrapes for ten years. It's not clear in the rebooted timeline whether the 'wookiee life-debt' will come into play (that was always an Expanded Universe thing), but I don't think we've seen the pivotal 'okay, I'm all-in with you now' moment in their relationship during Solo's run-time.
• Now that we know L3-37 is part of the Falcon's droid-brain configuration, listen closely and you'll notice the whirring sound she makes (twisting her head before the jump to Kessel) is the same as the Falcon emits when jumping to Hyperspace in the OT. And while I'd like to say that this explains C-3PO's observation in The Empire Strike Back the the ship has an unusual dialect, I don't think he's referring to L3. While she was certainly abrupt and opinionated, L3-37 is one of the most clear and articulate communicators we've met. I suspect Threepio had been talking to one of the other two droid-brains which collectively navigate the ship.
...but then again...
• Most of Han's cynical personality traits aren't in-place by the end of Solo, and nor should they be. This film is the door-opener to another corner and timeframe of the galaxy, not the singular transformation process by which 17yr old orphan becomes exactly the grumpy pirate we meet on Tatooine. Not designed to follow straight on like Rogue One does, this just means that the character-gap will be more apparent than ever if a viewer watches Solo and ANH in close proximity.
• And because of this length between chapters, the gaps in the old scripts which are now filled tend to be more curiosities (ie the Kessel-run) than events which show the OT in a new light. Because of this (and the various real-world marketing niggles), I suspect this new film will be remembered as the first slightly 'forgettable' Star Wars movie. Not least because a whole load of people haven't yet seen it.
• And because of the lack of narrative punch, I don't think Solo will be revisited too often by casual fans until further entries in the canon make it interesting or necessary to do so (ie another movie featuring Crimson Dawn).
Okay, so…
I don't think it's unfair to say that Solo's legacy will be far greater inside the Galaxy Far, Far Away than outside it. From all the narratively-significant 'new' characters we meet, only Qi-ra and Enfys Nest are left alive to continue the story after the credits roll. And the same thing can be said of Rogue One of course, but the Star Wars publishing schedule is far from linear.
Stories will be retrospectively told about Woody Harrelson's ramshackle pirate gang, about the ongoing war on Mimban, about the Cloud-rider swoop gang, and most pertinently about the rise of Crimson Dawn. And this last thread is a one which will continue into the future of course, with Qi'ra and her boss continuing to be a thorn in the side of everyone, after her promotion.
And let's not forget that we now have a definitive foundation for an in-universe decade's worth of multi-media buddy japes and cantina-stories. And those have already begun, because there's a concept we can't get enough of - a man and his wookiee…
The Star Wars's.
Yes.
Yes, all.
Best? Debatable.
Most memorable? Pehaps…
No, but we'll discuss it at great length.
By which I mean, *I'll* discuss it at great length.
There isn't.
Down with this sort of thing.
Level 0: It is Star Wars.
…but if you wanted to go round the houses with it, Solo stars Woody Harrelson, who was of course a regular in Cheers, as was John Ratzenberger, who appeared in 1988's She's Having A Baby which also starred Paul Gleason, a participant in 1993's Loaded Weapon 1 along with Tim Curry, who rocked up in the 2010 comedy Burke And Hare with Michael Smiley, who was in The Other Boleyn Girl with Natalie Portman, who appeared in the 2009 documentary Milos Forman: What Doesn't Kill You, as did... Woody Harrelson.
*2 As opposed to his 'actual' breath. We all know he's got a machine which does that for him. [ BACK ]
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
What a shoddy Star Wars fan I am. The Solo movie has been in cinemas for five weeks and I've only seen it eight times*1. There are reasons behind this ranging from manic IRL scheduling through to my own enforced laziness (due in no small part to the manic IRL scheduling). But this weekend appears to hold the final screenings at my local (although Monday's new listings will tell), so barring me perhaps being able to catch the film on an as-yet-unplanned jaunt to the capital, this is probably the end of the line for me and the Corellian captain on the big screen*2…
One last pass to catch the things which make me smile. Like Qi'Ra's warning to Han at the spaceport that they could be "sold to Crimson Dawn or the Hutt cartel", the very same organisations which the pair of them go on to work for anyway.
One last pass to catch the things which make my jaw drop. Like cinematographer Bradford Young's 360° tracking shot of Han's stolen speeder during the Corellia docklands chase. Then later, the similar pan-around of the Millennium Falcon as it skids into a crash-landing on Savareen.
One last pass to catch the things I suddenly notice for the first time. Like what appears to be a droid/vehicle made from an AT-AT's leg/chassis framework, moving in the water on Corellia. And the stripped down landspeeder in the factory alley there. And the guy sitting at the card table in the game at the end, wearing a modified X-Wing pilot's helmet. And the dude standing behind Lando in the same game wearing a breastplate from repurposed Snowtrooper armour.
After careful consideration, I think I love every single frame of this film. No caveats, no exceptions. There are parts I'd like expanded, but that doesn't mean I don't love what's there. Bravo Lucasfilm, bravo.
In fact, I only have one question: where the hell is my Therm Scissorpunch 3¾" action figure, Hasbro..?
The Star Wars's.
Yes.
Yes, all.
For some, quite possibly.
No, but I'll insist that you tell me every single thought of yours about it, then I'll critique those as well.
There isn't.
I don't like it. I don't agree with it.
But I accept it..
Level 0: It is Star Wars.
…but if you wanted to go round the houses with it, Solo features Jon Favreau, who rolled up in Disney's John Carter along with Dominic West, who starred in 2010's Centurion along with Riz Ahmed, a player in Channel 4's zombie-drama Dead Set which also starred Andy Nyman, who was in 2007's Death At A Funeral with Alan Tudyk, who has lent his voice to various episodes of Robot Chicken with Seth Green, who appeared in 1995's Notes From The Underground alongside... Jon Favreau
*1 Yeah, I know it seems excessive to normal people, but I caught The Force Awakens eleven times in its initial run, Rogue One for nine screenings and The Last Jedi on ten separate occasions. What was notable watching Solo this time is that my screen held 18 viewers as the BBFC card came up. Which is more than attended the 3D midnight screening on day 0, but there you go… [ BACK ]
*2 Although the blu-ray is pre-ordered, obviously. [ BACK ]
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
One of the most satisfying jokes in Solo is Imperial recruitment officer Drawd Munbrin (Andrew Woodall) saying assuringly to his newly approved cadet "Good luck Han Solo, we'll have you flying in no time". We then cut to an exterior battle-scene on another planet - day or night, it's hard to tell - and join who we'll find out is Han Solo, hurtling briefly through the air before unceremoniously landing in a welter of mud, sweat and shrapnel.
And as Han picks himself up, concentration struggling against the noise and confusion which surrounds him, I thought 'is this the first time we've seen this?'. Is this the first time we've seen the unrestrained chaos of actual 'war' in Star Wars?
There have been plenty of battles of course, but they've been relatively short-lived confrontations and with a clear victor at the end. The previous movies' set-pieces tend to show one party arriving on-planet with the intention of destroying the other (Hoth, Endor, Naboo, Geonosis, Scarif, two Death Stars), and are settled (more or less) within the confines of that film. But with Solo we're dropped onto Mimban in the middle of a prolonged onslaught, as Imperial forces struggle to subdue the indigenous resistance fighters of a planet that the Empire are mining to death. There's no easily attainable objective for either side, no shortcuts in the meanwhile, and Han does the sensible thing of getting out while he's still alive. We leave Mimban as we found it, no closer to a conclusion but for the dwindling body-count on both sides.
Even back in the animated Clone Wars series where we dotted around the galaxy's conflict hotspots, the location was acting as a pivotal point in the overall war (or that planet's role in it) or being used as a backdrop while something happened as an aside to it all. The closest we've ever come to witnessing a miserable, protracted assault was Clone Wars Season 4's 'Umbara' story-arc, where the Besalisk Jedi, General Krell, went a bit Colonel Kurtz and the story played out as an homage to Francis Ford Coppola's seminal war film.
But Mimban. The fire, the screaming, the mud of a thoroughly destroyed landscape. The dug-in trenches which look like they've been there long enough to represent an absolute stalemate in the fight for planetary supremacy. The barely-concealed weariness of brittle commanders attempting to organise cynical troopers, personnel flying through the air, AT-ST walkers using those nimble legs to actually leap across the battlefield. All that's missing in the realism stakes is the blood and bad language you'd expect to find there*1.
While video games almost always make for appalling big-screen adaptations, I can't shake the thought that this is what a Star Wars: Battlefront movie could look like. Still at a 12A rating, but with the driving intensity you usually only find when you've got a controller in your hands.
Can we have more of this, please..?
The Star Wars's.
Yes.
Yes, all.
For some, time will tell.
I shouldn't imagine so.
There isn't, and I'll be honest with you, I'm not entirely happy about that. Which I'll admit is something of a small hill to die on, in the current state of Star Wars fandom.
Level 0: It is Star Wars.
…but if you wanted to go round the houses with it, Solo features the voice and mo-cap work of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who was in 2011's Albert Nobbs with Bronagh Gallagher, who starred in Made In Belfast with Shauna McDonald, who rocked up in 2013's Filth, a movie which also featured Kate Dickie from out of Game Of Thrones, which showcases Gwendoline Christie who appeared in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, along with Celia Imrie, who appeared in the TV series Blandings with... Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
*1 And while the only creatures that appear to actually bleed in the Galaxy Far, Far Away are ANH's aqualish and TESB's wampa, bear in mind that The Last Jedi was the first Star Wars movie to feature the word "bastard" in its script, while Solo adds "butt", "crap" and "arse" to the ongoing lexicon. We'll have Disney up to Inglourious Basterds-levels in no time at all ;)[ BACK ]
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
One of the (many) joys of a new Star Wars movie is the soundtrack, and Solo is no exception. For the most part, Mr. John Powell is on scoring-duties this time around, the anthology movies falling outside of John Williams' remit as composer for the saga-episodes. And as Michael Giacchino demonstrated on the Rogue One soundtrack, this gives the standalone films a sense of their own identity at a fundamental level.
So this score is probably the one I've warmed to soonest in the modern, Disney-era of the franchise, and that includes Williams' own work for The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. With the numbered episodes, there's the mix of familiar themes and new pieces, which I found particularly jarring with TFA. TLJ fares a little better as a secondary level of callback then comes into play covering Episode VII, and the amount of new material subsides. But I also struggled with Giacchino's Rogue One for a while, as it was stylistically different from what had come before in the GFFA (as was the film). I'd had Rogue One down as a great film score in itself, just not Star Wars. Of course given time, replays both in- and outside of the movie, and the arrival of TLJ, it bedded itself in.
But on to Solo. John Williams does return briefly to the fold for track 1 here, The Adventures Of Han Solo, setting the main musical motif for the feature and finally giving Han Solo his own theme after all these years*1. And ironically enough, Powell's arrangement and usage of Han's theme arguably makes for a more Williams-esque soundtrack than the composer's own previous two stints. There's often a sweeping, almost operatic quality than John Snr doesn't seems to want to fully return to just yet.
Powell's use of percussion drives the whole thing forward, not just embellishing the more militaristic cues but adding style (and different styles) to the set-pieces. Elsewhere, Solo reminds me of Hans Zimmer's work on the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, dynamic and almost tribal in its execution. Zimmer is also evoked in the second half of track 5, Flying With Chewie (the bit where Han and the air-drying wookiee are talking on the gantry of the Imperial lander as it flies over the surface of the snowy planet Vandor). It's a refreshing change for Star Wars to be this 'casual', and I wish the score came back to it later (maybe next time). And I could be mistaken, but I'm sure I'm getting beats from Kevin Kiner's Clone Wars soundtrack in here, too. In addition to the percussion, Powell's choral cues fit in with Solo's visual aesthetic of the old-time Western.
A few 'legacy' themes from the original trilogy are referenced in the score of course, but when they appear they're relatively fleeting and entirely fitting*2. That said, grumbles have been heard at Blackout Towers about the Imperial recruitment holovid which plays in the spaceport on Corellia, using a modified version of the famous Imperial March in its soundtrack. This effectively makes some of the Star Wars music canon within the Star Wars galaxy, which feels a bit odd. Then again, bear in mind that the same thing occurred in Star Wars: Rebels, so this isn't a first*3.
The only thing that's missing, from my point of view, is the synth- and guitar-based tracks which were used in the initial trailers. They hinted that the film could possibly sound very different from what had come before, but in the end these were for promotional use only. A damn shame.
So the short version is (in case you hadn't guessed), Solo has a great soundtrack. One of the smaller points I love is that after the new theme which makes up track 1, it plays out more-or-less in order of the film's story (which happens far less than you'd expect with this sort of thing). That's another little aid to letting a new score bed in, as your memory of the movie can flow in linear order as you work your way through the CD*4.
Much like the movie itself, John Powell's score for Solo becomes inherently Star Wars™ because it's not trying too hard to be Star Wars™, and is arguably better than it has any right to be. But the end result is what everyone was hoping for anyway, so it's all good.
Welcome to the family, Mr Powell…
The Star Wars's.
Yes.
Yes, all.
In some cases, it's entirely possible.
No, but it's a film ripe for discussion.
Apparently not.
Level 0: It is Star Wars.
…but if you wanted to go round the houses with it, Solo stars Paul Bettany, who was in 2005's Firewall with Harrison Ford from the movie Six Days Seven Nights that also featured Temuera Morrison, a major player in 1994's Once Were Warriors, as was Rena Owen who went on to star in Absolute Killers along with Ed Asner, who performed voice-work in the animated Our Friend Martin, as did Samuel L. Jackson, who starred in Avengers: Age Of Ultron with... Paul Bettany.
*1 And while that's a lovely sentiment, we can't escape the fact that Han's new theme isn't in the four movies where the character has previously appeared. Williams hasn't reverse-engineered a previously innocuous but recurring signature for this (largely because there's no such thing in the world of Star Wars soundtracks), so his work on Solo would go some way to suggesting a musical foundation for further outings with Alden Ehrenreich's Han, even if it's appearances in other movies in the GFFA around that time, rather than outright sequels to Solo. [ BACK ]
*2 Contrast this with John Williams opening The Last Jedi by ending the main theme with a slide into the 'Tatooine' flourish from A New Hope's beginning, for approximately no logical reason. The first that that's happened in eight films and no, I'm not going to let that one go. [ BACK ]
*3 Normally I'd add the caveat that the Rebels TV show garnered a substantially smaller audience exposure than one of the Star Wars cinematic movies of course, but given Solo's troublesome box office performance, I think it's best if I don't alert you to that comparison at all. Oh, hang on... [ BACK ]
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
