Harrison Ford in Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Top 10: Han Solo Moments

 

WatchMojo’s got a timely list of everyone’s favorite scruffy-looking nerf herder’s 10 best moments from the Star Wars Saga.  WM does a really nice job putting together a highlight reel of Harrison Ford’s time with the character pulling its list from A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and The Force Awakens (nothing from Return of the Jedi?).


The list comes in the wake of Solo: A Star Wars Story’s pretty disastrous opening weekend.  Adjusted for inflation, it’s the worst opening in franchise history, and considering the film was shot twice, Lucasfilm had a lot of money wrapped up in its second spin-off.  Every franchise eventually has a bomb, but it’s usually a film that deserves to bomb.  In this case, Solo was doomed even before The Last Jedi’s controversy that alienated a large portion of the fan base that traditionally whips itself into a frenzy for opening weekends.  I wrote a column last summer, before The Last Jedi alienated me, begging Lucasfilm to keep Star Wars in December and to stop trying to put the franchise back in May, where it had traditionally opened under FOX.  Even though it’s uneven, Solo is ultimately a good film with a really nice cast that sets itself up for even bigger adventures that we likely now will never get to see.  I hope we do, but that would take some serious introspection on Disney’s part as to why exactly the film failed to connect.  Hopefully they’ll take the lessons they should learn, let future installments breathe, and realize their mistakes.  If not, they’re going to have a much more serious problem than a single Star Wars film that lost money.Harrison Ford as Han Solo

4 thoughts on “Top 10: Han Solo Moments”

  1. Solo was always destined to underperform by SW standards, but the goodwill shown by the public towards TLJ, prior to its release, was so immense that I really believe the film’s energy would have carried the franchise along, had it delivered. I used to see kids out in public, pretending to play with lightsabers while singing the SW music. Everyone I know loved TFA, and most of them were REALLY impressed with R1, and I am not in a community of nerds (far from it).

    Of course Solo had a bevy of disadvantages. The co screenwriter even came out a week before opening day and talked about Lando being pansexuel. And it was all over the media. I am personally not judgmental, but in what universe did Disney think most SW fans wanted to hear that? And did Disney think it would make parents want to take thier kids?

    Han has no great Jedi moments. He only matters because his hibernating body is the focal point of the film’s first third. Once he wakes up, he’s just kind of there. Ford was right, Han should have died in a blaze of glory, to complete his arc from selfishness to selflessness and give him a reason for being in the film. Of course, then Leia would have had no one. But there was no law that she had to be Luke’s sister. Maybe Yoda’s “Other” was Vader. Vader killed the Emperor, after all.


    Liked by 1 person

    1. Let me know what you think when you get to see this. Interested to get your take. I think over the Sarlacc Pit might have made the list, and scruffy looking nerf herder def should have. Obviously killing him in ROTJ would have been a bolder choice, but as badly as Luke and Leia have been treated, Han got a pretty perfect send-off movie in TFA. Ford must be relieved he got out of the pool when he did.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I can honestly say I never expected to see Luke Skywalker guzzle blue milk that he squeezed from the udder of a plesiosaur. And I would have thought that the moment Leia first used the Force onscreen would have been so amazing and iconic as to be unscrewupable. Kennedy and Company really lost thier marbles overnight. Ford got out by the skin of his teeth.


        My childhood self would have been been considerably less happy if Han had died in ROTJ, so I have to admit that against all odds Lucas knew what he was doing yet again. Oh how I wish we had gotten a sequel trilogy from him. It would have been unexpected as the prequels were, Maybe it even would have been out of the blue. But I guarantee Lucas would not have deconstructed his life’s work, and that the character development would have flowed from what came before.

        Like

      2. Also you could absolutely make an argument that the “He’ll get no such pleasure from us!” moment on the sail barge is one of the best Han moments.


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