Apparently “mildly snarky” is my phrase of the day, and I apologize for using it in consecutive posts.  Also there will be the tiniest of spoilers for Solo in this post, but they’re quite a ways down.  This would be a good place to stop reading if you haven’t seen it and want to go in completely blind.

I added to my growing collection of IMAX commemorative tickets today by taking in a showing of “Solo: A Star Wars Story”.  This was one of the stranger ones I’ve gotten, if I’m quite honest, being a collectible ticket that doesn’t actually have the film’s main character on it anywhere.

Maybe there are a few different versions?  I know they did different tickets for The Last Jedi, where weeks 2 and 3 got new art.  I only went during week 1 and was pretty happy with the particular variant that was passed out during week 1, since it features both Rey and Grouchy Old Man Luke.

Anyway, I am not really here to talk about IMAX collectible tickets.

I am required, as a boy type person who grew up in the 70s, to love all things Star Wars.  And, to be clear, I liked the movie quite a bit, though  I kept being bothered by not being able to place where I’d seen the actress who plays Qi’ra before.

For the record: I have seen all seven seasons of Game of Thrones.  I have a problem with faces.  I’m not sure if it’s actually prosopagnosia, but I have literally walked past my own mother without recognizing her, so maybe?

Anyway.  Despite liking Solo, I do think they could have cut back on SOME of the callbacks to previous movies.  It’s great that they did an origin story, and I absolutely LOVE Splinter of the Mind’s Eye so I was gobsmacked that they set some scenes on Mimban, but…

Look, maybe I should just give an example.  If you ever watched The Empire Strikes Back and really wanted to know the story behind this incidental bit of C-3PO dialogue:

Well, then you will probably be just as happy as I was about Mimban.  On the other hand, there’s an argument to be made that maybe spending too much of your movie trying to explain EVERY off-the-cuff comment made throughout the original trilogy is not a great use of screen time.

I’ll still see it again, mind you.  I’m not actually THAT bothered. 🙂