Solo: A Star Wars Story came out in theaters on May 24 and the verdict is in: it tanked and it tanked hard. It made only $143 million worldwide on its opening weekend. For comparison’s sake, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story made $290 million worldwide on its global opening weekend.
How bad was Solo: A Star Wars Story? Justice League, the most recent bad movie based on DC comics characters, made over $279 million on its global opening weekend. Justice League turned Aquaman into one of the bikers from Sons of Anarchy and it still did better than Solo.
Rotten Tomatoes, the movie review aggregation website, shows Solo: A Star Wars Story is currently at 70 percent. When I was in high school, 70 percent was a C minus. Believe me, it’s a grade I know a lot about. That sounds about right from what I’ve seen of Solo.
I wonder if Solo would have done better in theaters if the co-writer of the movie hadn’t announced a couple of days before its release that Lando Calrissian was pansexual. It couldn’t have helped.
I don’t plan on ever seeing Solo. I try to avoid things I know will make me angry. I’m not against seeing bad movies. Solo is different. I have an emotional connection to the Star Wars universe. I’m not the type of person who allows himself to become offended by the actions of others, but if I did, I think Solo would offend me.
And I’m not against hating things about Star Wars. I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with Star Wars. I’ve always loved Star Wars, but there have been things about it that I hated. I wouldn’t have cared, let along hated the things I’ve hated if I didn’t love the movie franchise.
Recasting the part of Han Solo just seems immoral to me. I have a difficult time separating Harrison Ford from the character he played. Han Solo is an iconic character, mostly because he was played by Harrison Ford. He breathed life into the character, making him at least to me the most beloved character in the Star Wars franchise. Recasting Han Solo, let alone with a talentless hack like Alden Ehrenreich, was unethical and immoral.
Not as immoral as pansexuality, but it’s close.