This. The story tried to pack in too much 'origins' stuff. I particularly didn't like they way they introduced Chewie. I think a good Solo movie would have started with Solo winning the Falcon from Lando, then freeing Chewie from slavery, and finishing up with their first adventure together. Leave the Kessel run and Han's origin story for a sequel. What we got was fairly decent in and of itself, though. It's just that once again, there was already so much good-quality material done on these topics that was completely shitcanned and ignored for an inferior take on it.
I've never had as much of a problem with the "origins stuff" that others seems to. For one thing if you go into the movie not knowing every last detail of Star Wars minutiae (i.e. the vast majority of the general movie going audience) then elements like the blaster, the dice, and even the Falcon just fits organically into the story.
Most people neither know nor care what a DL-44 is, much less be able to recognise it as Han's signature weapon, so when Beckett tosses him the blaster . . . he's just tossing him a blaster. Honestly I thought it was a rather brilliant touch to have it introduced in a rifle configuration, so even if you do know what it is, you don't necessarily clock it until Beckett starts to break it down.
The dice are a talisman that symbolises both the gutter Han was raised in, and quite literally his penchant for taking wild chances. That they're pulled from a bit of set dressing in the OT is just a neat detail. Contrary to what people claim, the movie isn't "explaining" the dice, just making use of them to tell part of Han's story. Yes, there's a difference!
As for Lando, Chewie, the Falcon and the Kessel Run . . . I don't care what anyone says; fans would have been *pissed* if any or all of those elements were omitted. I mean what's the point of doing a young Han movie, and not bothering to show the only two friends we know he has, and the only two things we've been told about his past? Now the Battle of Taanab on the other hand;
that you save for the sequel!
It's not like the movie didn't also introduce a lot of new elements--an old flame right out of Film Noir, and a mentor figure that's equal parts Ethan Edwards and Alonzo Harris being the two major ones--and managed to incorporate at least the spirit of Lucas's idea for Han's back story.
From everything I've read about the behind the scenes, it's pretty clear that Lord & Miller were in WAY over their heads and just weren't ready for the responsibility and pressure of such a high budget production. Being open to improvisation is all well and good, but you have to keep that kind of thing within reason or it can quickly snowball and end up eating way more of the budget than it's worth (overtime costs alone can tank a production fast!) What cinches it for me was that they had a full year's head start working on pre-viz, which is exactly when you're supposed to do the improvising on this kind of production.
That Ron Howard was able to pull what is a very enjoyable adventure movie out of what was half-way to being "'
McCabe & Mrs. Miller' with jokes"* is nothing short of miraculous, and a testament to his steady hand. I do not lament their version of the movie.
*Which by the way, was not what the Kasdans' script called for (even after doing a 4th draft with the Directors after they were hired) and very much not what was agreed on with Lucasfilm.
My only major criticism of the final movie is that they killed off Val waaay too quickly (for what it's worth, pretty sure that decision was made before the original directors were fired, so that's not on LF or Howard.) She should have at least made it to Kessel, if not the end credits!
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