Rapaz, o
Want to See do Han Soja no Rotten Tomatoes está
abaixo do
Audience Score de The Last Jedi. Numa situação como essa, não há o que fazer: é
Damage Control na certa!
S03E10 - Han Soja não é o herói que essa geração precisa, mas é o que ela merece!
How Disney’s ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ needs to appeal to different generations with different expectations
Alden Ehrenreich is Han Solo and Joonas Suotamo is Chewbacca in SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY
“Solo: A Star Wars Story” hits theaters Memorial Day weekend, and this fourth feature to come out since Disney’s $4.06 billion purchase of George Lucas’ pop culture empire may have more to prove than the preceding megahits “The Force Awakens,” “Rogue One” and “The Last Jedi.”
Warren Jaycox, owner of Galaxy of Comics in Van Nuys, holds one of the new Star Wars comics, which is being launched in conjunction with the release of the latest Star Wars movie, “Solo: A Star Wars Story”
The prequel, which is essentially the origin story of the franchise’s super-popular reluctant hero Han Solo, is the most obvious example of the fine line Disney’s Lucasfilm has to walk with history’s most beloved and successful film franchise. It must satisfy the legions of adult fans who grew up with “Star Wars,” many of whom get vocally upset when their expectations and childhood memories are challenged by new wrinkles in the new films.
But the new films and products spun off them also need to appeal to today’s kids, who’ve been raised on multiple slam-bang movie franchises like Disney’s corporate cousin Marvel’s superhero fare, and who prefer playing with electronic devices over the action figures that generated “Star Wars’” other, merchandising phenomenon/fortune.
“They need to expand, there’s no question,” observed David Weitzner, a movie marketing veteran who worked on Lucas’ original “Star Wars” release in 1977 (“It was a runaway freight train that no one could stop, and all you had to do was get out of the way,” he recalled) and now chairs and directs the summer program at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. “Otherwise it becomes tired and you do irreparable harm to the brand. So you’ve got to stay in front of it.
“But I think there’s this kneejerk reaction that we’ve got to keep the fans happy, we can’t disappoint,” Weitzner added. “C’mon. Give them good stories that are meaningful and impactful, and they will come for it.”
Alden Ehrenreich is Han Solo, Donal Glover is Lando Calrissian and Phoebe Waller-Bridge is L3-37 in SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY
“Solo” aims to please all sensibilities. Obviously, one of the big things it has to achieve is convincing old-schoolers that 28-year-old Alden Ehrenreich can come off as the space smuggler so indelibly associated with Harrison Ford’s iconic performances.
The film itself, already light on such “Star Wars” essentials as evil Empire overlords, lightsabers and talk about The Force, still strives to capture the original trilogy’s spirit. Perhaps that’s partly why Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy replaced “Solo’s” original directors, the subversive “LEGO Movie” team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, well into production last summer with the more mature Ron Howard, a Lucas pal since he acted in George’s pre-”Star Wars,” 1973 “American Graffiti.”
Light speed or burning out?
There could also be concern over some fans’ negative reactions to the critically acclaimed “Last Jedi’s” messing with a few of the franchise’s sacred cows as it tried to turn the main canon of movies toward the younger characters introduced in 2015’s “Force Awakens,” which is still the highest-grossing “Star Wars” movie (even though Ford’s older Solo got killed off in it). “Last Jedi” also opened less than six months ago; 12 months passed between the releases of Disney’s first three SW features. That coupled with, according to
Forbes, a drop by nearly half in retail orders for “Star Wars” merchandise in 2017 compared to 2016, has some wondering if franchise burnout may be setting in.
So, no burnout, at least according to film industry observers.
“I don’t have that sense,” Jason E. Squire, professor of practice at Lucas’ alma mater USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, said regarding movie fan burnout. “The advance ticket sales are extremely strong [for “Solo”]. We’re now, in effect, discussing where in the higher echelons of box-office history will this unreleased movie reside, right?”
USC colleague Weitzner agreed with Squire’s observation.
“Now we look at how these films are opening, be they ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Avengers,’ what have you, and we’re just expecting humongous grosses from these pictures time after time,” Weitzner noted. “I don’t know if it’s really fair, but I don’t think ‘Star Wars’ is suffering from fan burnout. Are they producing too many too quickly? I can’t really comment on that, but you can oversaturate the marketplace.”
Both professors were certain that, as long as opening weekend audiences find “Solo” entertaining, questions about Ehrenreich or director switching won’t impact attendance. Though it only had a 72 percent “fresh” (positive) rating on the movie review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes at the end of last week – considerably lower than the previous three films’ – remember critics loved “Last Jedi” and a lot of the faithful didn’t – but still went.
Then again, a Disney spokeswoman pointed out that, according to the brand performance data measuring NPD Group, “Star Wars” was still the top toy property globally last year and Number One in the U.S. over the holiday season, second domestically for 2017 overall. The ticketing service Fandango recently reported that the first day of “Solo” presales outdid that of 2018’s current box-office champ, Marvel’s “Black Panther.” Prognosticators expect the four-day opening frame to generate up to $170 million domestically which, while a few parsecs short of the $257.7 million record opening weekend Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War” registered three weeks ago, will still be near the all-time top 10 weekends if that number’s reached.
I don’t think ‘Star Wars’ is suffering from fan burnout. Are they producing too many too quickly? I can’t really comment on that, but you can oversaturate the marketplace.”
— David Weitzner, chair of the summer program at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts
Star Wars for generation iPhone
Erik Davis, a lifelong “Star Wars” fan and managing editor of Fandango’s movie and other media coverage, has seen “Solo” and loved it. He said it provides fan service aplenty — Hello, younger Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian (played by Donald Glover)! Finally take the long-referenced Kessel Run in a brand new shiny Millennium Falcon! — while also expanding the universe for younger viewers.
Davis isn’t sure how well that last part will work, though, especially for the merchandising realm.
“I have two kids that are 9 and 6, right in that wheelhouse for action figures, and I’m just finding that this newer generation is growing up with tablets and iPhones in their hands,” Davis said. “I had every single ‘Star Wars’ action figure when I grew up, but kids these days don’t seem to want to use their imaginations as much with action figures – because they watch other kids play with action figures on YouTube!
“I don’t know what that says, but I would not say that this is a ‘Star Wars’ problem, I would say that this is just a shifting generational issue.”
Davis did add that his children have seen each of the new “Star Wars” movies and like them, adding that they’re excited about the franchise but aren’t consumed by it like he was as a child.
New Star Wars merchandize, which is coming out with the release of the latest Star Wars movie “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”
Van Nuys writer Luke Y. Thompson, who covers toys and movies for Forbes and Nerdist and wrote the Forbes piece about the “Star Wars” toys, noted that numerous factors contributed to last year’s sales plunge, perhaps primary among them the collapse of the Toys R Us retail chain.
But he sees a generational factor, too.
“I think kids are less interested in toys, generally,” Thompson observed. “I don’t think you’re seeing adults let up on the habit. But kids, they want videogames, and Hasbro [the main “Star Wars” toy manufacturer] keeps trying these electronic tie-ins that don’t work too well.”
“Yeah, we definitely sell less of the newer stuff,” Warren Jaycox, owner and operator of the
Galaxy of Comics store in Van Nuys, confirmed. “When it comes to the toys, what I’ve noticed is that it really is the older collectors, rather than young kids, buying. I think part of the problem is toys are so expensive now. Parents come in with their kids and the kids might love the idea of these toys, but a lot of parents just kind of bristle at the cost.”
While the Porgs from “Last Jedi” were a hit, indications are that collectors are more into classic character toys than they are the newer “Star Wars” heroes, villains, creatures and vehicles.
Adam Pawlus is the “toy evangelist” for the Simi Valley-based online toy retailer
Entertainment Earth and runs the deep-dive “Star Wars” toy fan website
Galactic Hunter. He said that the premium placed on new “Star Wars” toys – both the kickstarter and decades-long giant of movie-based playthings – has evaporated in recent years.
A lifelong “Star Wars” movie fan as well, Pawlus attributes some of that to believers like him both not connecting as emotionally with the new films’ characters and not coping very well with the loss of ones they’ve loved since childhood.
“When you have a franchise that you live and breathe your entire life, then all of a sudden someone’s like ‘Here’s some new stuff,’ you’ve already got an idea in your head of what that should be,” Pawlus explained. “And it’s never going to match up.
“We had to see our hero Luke Skywalker die [in ‘Last Jedi’], and that’s really hard,” Pawlus continued. “A lot of us are being made to grow up by seeing our heroes not how we remember them from 30 years ago, and that is really hard to deal with. Chewbacca still gets to be Chewbacca, but now Leia has been taken from us through unrelated-to-narrative means, [Harrison Ford’s] Han Solo possibly due to lack of interest has exited the franchise, Mark Hamill certainly seemed like he had a lot more life left in him for these movies, but now he’s gone. And that hurts. The future of Star Wars is going to be removed from the original trilogy and I don’t really know what that looks like.”
Fellow movie fans Thompson and Jaycox echoed Pawlus’ trepidations. They all plan to see “Solo” soon, though.
“My sense of it is that it just takes a lot of courage for Kathleen Kennedy and her creative associates and the Disney executives to organize a new branch of the ‘Star Wars’ history,” USC’s Squire, who also edits “The Movie Business Book,” reckoned. “It’s a smart move – Marvel does that to some extent – but it takes courage to spend all this money to create, in effect, a new area of storytelling within the ‘Star Wars’ canon. And that’s what they’re doing. If certain fans are unhappy with certain choices, that goes with the territory. Part of putting a world class entertainment out there is that it’s vulnerable.”
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