That time when Solo happened

From a year ago:

Solo is on Netflix.

In many ways, it is the opposite of The Last Jedi. Where TLJ attempted to subvert expectations and wound up upsetting many fans, Solo is all fan service. Yet somehow it still manages to be mediocre as a Star Wars movie.

I've been using a new word to describe films I am not content with. "Inoffensive." When I call a film inoffensive, what I'm saying is not that it is particularly good or bad--not that I liked or disliked it. Mainly I am saying that the film took no real risks, didn't offer anything new, didn't make a good case for its own existence. (Unless it's a Transformers movie, for which "inoffensive" is the highest compliment I can give this Bay-tortured franchise.)

Solo was a Star Wars movie that I neither wanted nor asked for, especially from the fan fiction studios at Disney. But then, I didn't ask for Rogue One, and I wound up liking that hasty little movie (or at least liking some moments in it).

Star Wars needs to have memorable "Holy Shit" moments. It gets harder to include those moments in this era of advanced CGI. Frankly, audiences are harder to impress. That's why the story needs to be better now than ever before. (Our emotions. Our emotions.)

Today, Star Wars couldn't get away with a prequel trilogy. (Some might say that it didn't before.) Hell, today Star Wars couldn't get away with Return of the Jedi, which I now acknowledge was not good Star Wars--merely mediocre Star Wars with a few awesome moments.

And I'll admit it--I've grown to be something of a snob about this sort of thing. You know, geeky things. I am continually frustrated when things don't turn out to be the best possible versions of themselves. After all, life is full of disappointment. What's the point of escapism if it just brings further disappointment?

But I know that making a film is no small undertaking. So many things can go wrong. It's a miracle that anything likable makes it into the final product.

So when I express disappointment in a film, I try to keep it focused on the story--not on the people who made the film. Not the actors.

In the past, even Star Wars movies I disliked had one or two moments I liked to revisit. The Darth Maul fight. The Coruscant chase. Order 66.

The Force Awakens didn't have such a moment for me. There was nothing for me to revisit, because the entire movie was a "revisiting" of the original Star Wars. The Last Jedi, at least, had one such moment--the reappearance of Yoda. Rogue One had the Darth Vader moment at the end, and I liked the big battle on Scariff. Solo...

Solo had a bunch of references to things I liked, but not a whole lot of actual things I liked. But it wasn't bad. It had its charms. It was just... forgettable. Mediocre.

Inoffensive.