No-spoiler Review of Solo: A Star Wars Story Expanded Edition

The expanded novelization of Solo: A Star Wars Story is a must read for any Star Wars fan. It builds on the story in the film in a way that enhances the story and enlivens the characters. Typically, I’m fine giving spoilers for novelizations of previously released films, because the majority of the story is already known. However, the impact of the additions in this novel is rewarding enough to preserve an element of surprise.

The novel follows roughly the same chronology of the film, with several very rewarding additions. Author Mur Lafferty does a masterful job filling in the gaps between Han and Qi’ra’s separation. For instance, Han’s time in the Imperial Navy as a pilot in Onyx Squadron provided an enjoyable view into both Han’s innate piloting skills and his irreverence towards authority.

More impactful, however, was witnessing Qi’ra’s pure tenacity and will to survive as she was left behind in the slums of Corellia. Her rise to power among Dreyden Vos’ entourage was nothing short of horrifying. Yet her ability to separate from her experiences, and do what needs to be done mark her as a true survivor. This background adds so much flavor to her reluctance to share any details about her past. Additionally, it provides incredible understanding about why Qi’ra chooses to abandon Han, as a way to protect him from her past.

Elthree was one of the most misunderstood characters in the film. It’s no secret that I didn’t care much for the prequel novel, Star Wars: Last Shot (see my review here). But the best thing that came from the novel was the depth of Lando’s quirky droid. Those who saw the movie without this context were left wondering whether Elthree’s droid empowerment rants were a stage for some political message, or just a comic relief. Lafferty was able to dive into the droid’s depth in a way the film failed to do. For example, the novel actually provokes empathy in regards to what a restraining bolt “feels” like for a droid. Additionally, Elthree’s journey towards immortalization in the Millennium Falcon’s navicomputer is described over several pages in a surprisingly meaningful way.

So many other characters in the novel receive a fantastic layer of depth: Chewbacca and how Han restores his ability to trust in humanity after years of oppression, Dreyden Vos and the depth of his malice, and Enfys Nest and her representation of a beacon of hope in a galaxy full of despair.

Last but not least, the addition of the epilogue in the novel was nothing short of brilliant. Without revealing too much, I can say that Lafferty was able to connect this seemingly loosely-connected origin story with the galactic struggle against Imperial tyranny in a way I never saw coming.

I can’t emphasize enough how impactful this novel was for me in my understanding of some of my favorite Star Wars characters. I fully recommend it as an engaging, exciting, surprising, and meaningful read.

Click Here to pick this up via digital, audio or physical form.  We would like to thank Del Rey/Penguin Random House for providing the review sample.

 

SOLO Concept Art

LUCASFILM LTD sent us some very cool Concept Art, check it out below and  remember SOLO: A Star Wars Story is now available on Digital HD and arrives on Blu-ray 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-ray™, DVD and On-Demand on September 25!

“Solo: A Star Wars Story” Arrives To Homes Digitally on Sept. 14 and on Blu-ray Sept. 25

Lucasfilm’s “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” directed by Academy Award®–winning filmmaker Ron Howard—the creator of unforgettable films, such as “A Beautiful Mind,” “Apollo 13,” “Parenthood” and “Splash”—took moviegoers on this summer’s wildest ride with the most beloved scoundrel in the galaxy, Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich). The action-packed journey explores Han’s first encounters with future friend and copilot Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) and notorious gambler Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), as well as his adventure-filled past alongside fellow street thief Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke) and career criminal Beckett (Woody Harrelson). Watch instantly on Sept. 14th as the Millennium Falcon sets course digitally in HD and 4K Ultra HD™ and on Movies Anywhere, and bring the adventure home on Blu-ray 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-ray™, DVD and On-Demand on Sept. 25. 

“Solo: A Star Wars Story” bonus content takes fans behind the scenes to experience compelling discussions with the star-studded cast and screenwriters Jonathan Kasdan & Lawrence Kasdan (writer of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi); a revealing feature on Chewie and his enduring friendship with Han; a close-up look at the original version of the Millennium Falcon and Han’s first time piloting the infamous ship; the creation of the film’s otherworldly settings and pulse-pounding action sequences; and eight never-before-seen deleted and extended scenes.

DIGITAL AND BLU-RAY BONUS MATERIAL (may vary by retailer):

  • Solo: The Director & Cast Roundtable

Sit down with director Ron Howard and the stars for an intimate and entertaining discussion of the film’s making.   

  • Team Chewie

See what it takes to bring your favorite Wookiee to life in this lighthearted look behind the scenes. 

  • Kasdan on Kasdan
    Iconic Star Wars screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan and son Jonathan share what it was like to write the movie’s script together. 
  • Remaking the Millennium Falcon
    Track the transformation of the most famous ship in the galaxy, from Lando’s swank and impeccable pride and joy to Han’s stripped-down hot-rod freighter with “special modifications.” 
  • Escape from Corellia

Get behind the wheel for the making of this high-octane chase through the streets of Corellia. 

  • The Train Heist

Explore the challenges and thrills of creating this action-packed sequence, including its remote location and spectacular effects. 

  • Becoming a Droid: L3-37

Meet the newest droid—and the talented actor who helps bring her to life. 

  • Scoundrels, Droids, Creatures and Cards: Welcome to Fort Ypso

Take an in-depth tour of the rough-and-tumble bar where strangers mix and gamblers risk all in the legendary card game, Sabaac. 

  • Into the Maelstrom: The Kessel Run

Join Han and Chewie at the controls of the Millennium Falcon to see how this legendary moment in Star Wars history unfolds.

  • Deleted Scenes

Proxima’s Den

Corellian Foot Chase

Han Solo: Imperial Cadet

The Battle of Mimban: Extended

Han Versus Chewie: Extended

Snowball Fight!

Meet Dryden: Extended

Coaxium Double-Cross

  • The Millenium Falcon: From Page to Park – An exclusive look at the history of the most famous ship in the galaxy, its origin and development, and how it will translate in one of the most anticipated expansions in Disneyland’s history. 

Directed by Ron Howard, the fun-filled galactic heist movie stars Alden Ehrenreich (“Hail, Caesar!,” “Tetro”), Woody Harrelson (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” “The Messenger”), Emilia Clarke (“Me Before You,” “Game of Thrones”), Donald Glover (“Spider-Man: Homecoming,” “The Martian”), Thandie Newton (“Gringo,” “Crash”), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag,” “Killing Eve”) and Paul Bettany (“Captain America: Civil War,” “Master and Commander”). Joonas Suotamo (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) returns to play Chewbacca.

Written by Jonathan Kasdan & Lawrence Kasdan, “Solo: A Star Wars Story” is produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Allison Shearmur and Simon Emanuel. Lawrence Kasdan, Jason McGatlin, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are executive producers.

To create the unique look of the film, some of the industry’s top talent was recruited, including Academy Award® nominee Bradford Young (“Arrival”), director of photography; two-time Academy Award–winning editor Pietro Scalia (“Alien: Covenant”); Dominic Tuohy (“The Mummy”), special effects supervisor; Rob Bredow (“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”), visual effects supervisor; and John Powell (“Jason Bourne”), score composed and adapted by.

They are joined by returning Star Wars veteran crew members: Neil Lamont, production designer; Neal Scanlan, special creature effects; David Crossman and Glyn Dillon, costume designers; Jamie Wilkinson, prop master; Lisa Tomblin-Fitzpatrick, hair designer; and Amanda Knight, makeup designer.

The legendary John Williams is credited with the “Han Solo Theme” and original Star Wars music.

 Watch instantly on Sept. 14th as the Millennium Falcon sets course digitally in HD and 4K Ultra HD™ and on Movies Anywhere, and bring the adventure home on Blu-ray 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-ray™, DVD and On-Demand on Sept. 25.

 

New LEGO Star Wars sets Inspired by Solo: A Star Wars Story hit shelves August 1st!

75215 – Cloud-Rider Swoop Bikes™
355 pieces | Ages 8+
Price: $29.99
Available August 1, 2018

Help Tobias Beckett protect the precious coaxium from Enfys Nest and Weazel on their super-fast LEGO® Star Wars 75215 Cloud-Rider Swoop Bikes! Each speeder has big engines for maximum speed and is armed with powerful stud shooters. Will Tobias escape before the greedy gangsters steal the coaxium? That’s for you to decide with this exciting LEGO Star Wars set!

* Includes 3 minifigures: Tobias Beckett, Enfys Nest and Weazel.
* Features 2 sleek swoop bike speeders with open minifigure cockpits and stud shooters. One also has a sidecar and space to store the included box of coaxium.
* Weapons include Beckett’s 2 blaster pistols, Enfys Nest’s weapon and Weazel’s blaster.
* Recreate amazing adventure scenes from Solo: A Star Wars Story.
* Combine with the 75217 Imperial Conveyex Transport and 75219 Imperial AT-Hauler for the ultimate high-speed train heist!
* Swoop bike with sidecar measures over 1” (5cm) high, 8” (21cm) long and 3” (9cm) wide.
* Swoop bike without sidecar measures over 3” (9cm) high, 7” (19cm) long and 1” (5cm) wide.

75217 – Imperial Conveyex Transport™
622 pieces | Ages 8+
Price: $89.99
Available August 1, 2018

Jump aboard the speeding LEGO® Star Wars 75217 Imperial Conveyex Transport with Han and Chewie for a daring raid! Dodge the gun on top and clamber onto the cargo wagon. Pop the sides to reveal the precious coaxium, but watch out for the Range Troopers with their magnetic boots—they could appear from anywhere! This LEGO Star Wars tracked locomotive is stopping for no one!

* Includes 5 LEGO® minifigures: Han Solo, Chewbacca, an Imperial Gunner and 2 Range Troopers.
* Imperial Conveyex Transport features an engine section with opening front revealing a wraparound tank track, opening driver’s compartment and a weapon store.
* Detachable, wheeled cargo wagon features opening sides and top hatch, a movable rotating gun turret with 2 stud shooters, a hitch at the back and studs on the side for the Range Troopers to walk on. Inside, there’s an access ladder leading to the top hatch and space for the 4 included coaxium containers.
* Tilt the train from side to side, just like in the movie.
* Make believe the Range Troopers have real magnetic boots and climb them up the sides of the train!
* Weapons include Han’s blaster pistol, Chewbacca’s sawed-off blaster rifle and the Range Troopers’ blaster rifles.
* Also includes 4 coaxium box elements in containers.
* Combines with the 75215 Cloud-Rider Swoop Bikes and 75219 Imperial AT-Hauler for the ultimate high-speed train heist.
* Hitch up multiple sets for an even longer train!
* Imperial Conveyex Transport with cargo wagon measures over 4” (12cm) high, 16” (43cm) long and 3” (9cm) wide.

75219 – Imperial AT-Hauler™
829 pieces | Ages 9+
Price: $99.99
Available August 1, 2018

Transport heavy cargo with the LEGO® Star Wars 75219 Imperial AT-Hauler! Sit Qi’ra in the cockpit and Beckett crew members Val and Rio Durant on the platform underneath, fire up the engines and lift off. Rotate the lifter arms and fly into position above the cargo. Then latch on and lift it into the air for another on-time delivery. If Dryden’s guards try and hijack the precious cargo, fire the stud shooters to send them running!

* Includes 5 LEGO® minifigures: Qi’ra, Val, Rio Durant and 2 of Dryden’s guards.
* Features rotating pylons with movable lifting hooks, an opening minifigure cockpit, side-mounted stud shooters and a platform underneath for carrying minifigures.
* Includes a buildable, opening cargo container with lifting beam.
* Load the container, hook it up and lift it away!
* Rotate the lifter arms for landing and flying modes.
* Weapons include 2 blasters, 3 blaster pistols and 4 rack-mounted blaster rifles inside the container.
* Combines with the 75215 Cloud-Rider Swoop Bikes and 75217 Imperial Conveyex Transport for the ultimate high-speed train heist!
* Recreate exciting scenes from Solo: A Star Wars Story!
* Imperial AT-Hauler measures over 4” (12cm) high, 12” (32cm) long and 4” (21cm) wide.

 

15 Cameos In Solo: A Star Wars Story

Via Screenrant.com:

In Solo, there are plenty of callbacks, Easter Eggs, and name-drops that refer to many characters from the most famous to the completely obscure.

Solo: A Star Wars Story has finally hit theaters. After a contentious production cycle and a highly publicized change in directors, the movie has made many die-hard Star Wars fans apprehensive. Could a story about young Han Solo deliver on the hype and magic of a typical Star Wars film? Well, the answer depends on who you ask. Thankfully though, the film does deliver on one thing: crowd-pleasing cameos.

Solo does a great job of exploring the deep-cuts of Star Wars canon. There are plenty of callbacks, Easter Eggs, and name-drops that refer to a variety of characters from the most famous to the completely obscure — including many surprising secret appearances. Some cameos are extremely obvious and easy to spot. Others require a more observant eye and some might be impossible to notice without a deep knowledge of the galaxy far, far away. The most voracious of Star Wars fans probably made it a mission to catch them all — but did you?

For this list, we’re going to be discussing as many cameo appearances in Solo as we can find. Not only are we including key characters, but famous actors, background extras and mentions of absent characters as well. Consider this your spoiler warning, as this list is not going to omit any of the juicy details about these surprise appearances.

Click below to read the full article.

HOW ‘SOLO’ CREATED NEW ‘STAR WARS’ CHARACTERS WITHOUT RELYING ON CGI

Via Thrillest.com:

In this age of superhero and space-adventure blockbusters, you might think that most of the aliens and robots appearing in Ron Howard’s Solo were computer-generated. And for good reason; CG characters can be made to do anything, and can accommodate last-minute design changes. But savvy audiences have in recent times lamented the unfettered rise of CG, and yearned for the “old-school” days of practical effects.

Which is why the filmmakers behind Solo were determined to do something a little different. They combined the best of both worlds for several of the characters by capturing an actor’s — or even an acrobat’s — on-set performance, and by puppeteering practical creatures. Visual effects studio Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and its partner studios would then add to or augment the performance digitally, but only where required.

Three of these hybrid creations in Solo were L3-37, Lando’s very close droid co-pilot; the four-limbed alien creature Rio Durant; and gang leader Lady Proxima. Thrillist asked Solo visual effects supervisor Rob Bredow how real performances and CG brought these characters to life.

Star Wars has done CG droids before; Rogue One featured K2-S0, which was voiced by Alan Tudyk but made completely digitally by ILM. L3-37, on the other hand, was a hybrid. Actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge was the voice of L3 and played the droid in a partial suit on set. She’d wear, say, just a head-piece, or have arm, chest, hip, and leg robot parts, while the rest of her body was covered in a green-screen stocking.

“We’d use that costume wherever we could,” says Bredow, “and then replace the rest with a digital version of L3. It was just very careful paintwork and very careful ‘matchmoving’ work to follow exactly how Phoebe was moving. What you see in the final movie is a real combination between a practical suit and a digital character, and that performance is 100% Phoebe.”

Even L3’s slightly unusual walk came from a practical origin, in that the costume department built Waller-Bridge some tailor-made shoes to make the character taller. “Rather than doing that via tricks with digital animation,” notes Bredow, “we thought, ‘What if we could get Phoebe to do this?’ We built special shoes so that she was actually standing on risers that were rounded on the bottom, and then she developed this walk that we did together.”

Click below to read the full article.

Solo Slumps in Second Weekend

Via BoxOfficeMojo.com:

There were no big surprises this weekend as Disney and Lucasfilms’s Solo: A Star Wars Story suffered a steep drop following a disappointing debut and the week’s new releases made hardly a dent. STX’s Adrift led the way, though fell short of expectations, while BH Tilt’s micro-budgeted feature Upgrade delivered solid results based on its budget and expectations. If there was a “big” surprise it came by way of Paramount’s Action Point, which wasn’t expected to do much to begin with, but flopped to the tune of just $2.3 million from 2,032 theaters. Meanwhile, a couple milestones were reached for both Magnolia and Pantelion on the backs of strong runs for both RBG and Overboard respectively.

With an estimated $29.29 million, Disney and Lucasfilms’s Solo: A Star Wars Story dipped 65% this weekend, a result that was to be expected following the film’s steady decline during the week after its disappointing debut last weekend. The film’s domestic cume ended the weekend just shy of $150 million. Internationally, Solo brought in an estimated $30.3 million for an overseas total that now stands at $115.3 million and a global cume totaling $264.2 million.