Film:
On 9/15/2018, I went to the Hoff Theater’s screening of Solo: A Star Wars Story. Though I had seen the film before, it was interesting to see it in a different setting, as my original viewing had been at Baltimore’s Senator Theater. The Hoff’s projector seemed to add a blue tint to most neutral-colored scenes, which I thought was interesting, though not especially compelling in terms of adding to the viewing experience. In addition, going into the movie a second time allowed me more mental freedom to appreciate the more technical aspects of the film that would otherwise be lost in a blur of CGI upon initial viewing.
Overall, the film was adequate, with Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian remaining the breakout performance throughout (though Paul Bettany chewing the scenery as crimelord Dryden Vos was even more enjoyable the second time around). The film doesn’t exactly hold up upon second viewing as much of the other franchise does, feeling eminently “safe” above all else. Coming from a die-hard Star Wars fan, where the film itself truly shines is when it abandons the preconception of the “Star Wars” aesthetic and delves into other areas of genre fiction (i.e. the entire heist sequence) or the sequence displaying the Empire’s military perspective, a scene so gloriously reveling in its over-the-top fascistic imagery that it invokes Warhammer 40K, inadvertently or otherwise.
In summation, the film was worth the time of initial viewing, but not worth the investment of repeat watching. However, there are details to be appreciated upon a closer look, so there is some value in revisiting the film, just not enough to justify the expenditure of its runtime.
