Solo: A Star Wars Story – Trailer Re-Cut

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A great trailer should leave us all longing for more. It can be mysterious or fun, sexy or bad ass – it can be just about anything, as long as it’s engaging.

Earlier this week, I caught the first trailer for Solo: A Star Wars Story before a screening of Black Panther. I was more than a little underwhelmed. For a teaser trailer, it dishes out a whole lot of exposition without delivering much intrigue. This is a film shot by one of the greatest young DPs working today and starring some of the most charismatic actors of our generation. Just put that up on screen. Cut the backstory. We already know who Han Solo is. We don’t need to hear where he came from, and we certainly don’t need the trailer for his brand new stand-alone movie to introduce him to us.

The trailer hints at young Solo’s character arc in the film, and it feels alarmingly familiar. This whole “I grew up a young ruffian with a chip on my shoulder, and now I’m gonna be the greatest pilot there ever was. I’ll show you! I’ll show all of you!” attitude is painfully reminiscent of young James Tiberius Kirk in J.J. Abrams’s 2009 reboot of Star Trek.

I was complaining to my buddy Jason Yang (who happens to be an incredibly talented toy photographer who you should already be following) about my reservations with the trailer when I had a stupid and obvious idea – re-cut Solo with James T. Kirk’s favorite song.

I realize cutting anything to Sabotage by The Beastie Boys is about as uninspired as setting it In the Hall of the Mountain King or O Fortuna, but I just made it to share with a couple of friends, right?

Wrong.

 

I guess Wednesday was a slow news day because a friend of the show, Adam Chitwood, saw the edit and deemed it newsworthy.

 

And then this happened.

Wait, what?! The undisputed king of the Star Wars fan-edit saw this? Now I’m even more bummed Cereal Prize shut down.

 

Overall, the reaction to the cut has been suprisingly positive. Most of the fan criticism is surprisingly one-note – focusing on the fact that Sabotage is a boring and predictable choice – and I totally agree with this sentiment …but I also never intended to share it with a quarter million people. So, lesson learned, I guess.

If you still need a little more Solo-tage, I made a slightly sillier alternative cut for Wookie eyes only.

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