When Ron Howard took over directorial duties for "Solo: A Star Wars Story," replacing original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, he knew the task at hand was enormous. After all, the "Star Wars" brand is as important, if not more so, for Disney than their cherished Marvel brand. He was seen as the ‘savior’ as trouble was brewing between Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy and Lord/Miller during production of the film. Howard had to steer the ship back in the right direction and have fans that were turned off by Rian Johnson's Episode 8 come back onboard this more by-the-numbers movie. Suffice to say, the underwhelming box-office clearly showed that not to be the case and "Solo," a film that no doubt had major flaws on-screen, was not saved by Howard.
Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast this past week, Howard looked back on ‘Solo’ movie and the mixed reception, both at the box office and with fans. Howard is a fan of the film he made and believes trolls destroyed its reputation:
“Whatever millions [Solo] made worldwide, those were the core fans, but it didn’t hit that zeitgeist point, for whatever reason. Timing, young Han Solo, pushback from the previous movie, which I kept hearing was maybe something. And some trolling, definitely some trolling. Some actual aggressive… It was pretty interesting. Not so much, a little bit the Twitter feed, yes, but it was especially noticeable prior to the release of the movie. Several of the algorithms, whether it was Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes, there was an inordinate push down on the ‘want to see’ and on the fan voting. And when you look at it, it’s like 3, 4, 5 — or whatever the rating is, I forget what the rating is on Rotten Tomatoes, whether it’s a scale of 1-5 or 1-10 — but pretty high, and then a series of 0s or .5s or 1s.”
Howard also claims that many supposed Star Wars fans are nothing more than ‘tagalongs,’ waiting to see what the zeitgeist says before having an actual opinion on the movies:
“I feel very good about the way it turned out. I love the way it played to audiences, which I witnessed and was a part of. So all of that I’m able to feel good about. Sure, I wish it would’ve done [better] and lived up to the box office and so forth, so that’s disappointing. Why? Maybe it’s the release. Maybe it’s the idea that it’s sort of too nostalgic, going back and revisiting an origin story for a beloved character may not be what the fans were looking for. It kind of seemed to me, looking at it, the opening — which was big, not as big as the others, it was probably my biggest opening, personally, it was still disappointing to them — I think those are the hardcore fans. It sort of tells you how many people are tagalongs who need to wait to see what people think and whether it’s essential, if it’s a zeitgeist movie or not, and whether it’s just ‘I love Star Wars and I want to see what’s next.'”
“I’m proud of #SoloAStarWarsStory and the cast & crew worked hard to give fans a fun new addition,” he tweeted when a fan asked if the backlash that stemmed from “The last Jedi” was partially to blame for the tepid numbers of "Solo" at the box-office. “As a director, I feel badly when people who I believe (& exit polls show) will very likely enjoy a movie… don’t see it on a big screen w/great sound.”
Howard's tweet raised interesting questions, especially about the continuous cycle of news and rumors that had to do with the problematic production of "Solo," which turned out to be a death sentence for the film's success.
Expectations were being tampered the minute Lord and Miller got fired and talk of Alden Ehrenreich needing an acting coach surfaced. Howard was handed the near-impossible task to take over Lord and Miller's work, they were fired near the end of production, and not only shoot newly written scenes but re-shoot plenty of already existing ones as well. The end result amounted to “Solo” making just $176 million domestically thus far and on its way to making half of what the other SW "spinoff," "Rogue One" accumulated at the box-office. One feels bad for the cast and crew that surely worked very hard for the film to be a success but only so much can go wrong during a film's production for it to work out in the end and "Solo," well, it might just take the cake as the most problematic shoot of the decade.
Criterion's December lineup has some great additions to the library, but the title that jumped out at me is Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man," which officially joins the Collection on December 8.