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#114. The Substandard on the New Solo Trailer
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Micro-episode. All three react to the second Solo: A Star Wars Story trailer. JVL is more optimistic than expected — Alden Ehrenreich gives off a "young Christian Slater vibe" that he finds workable, and he declares he wants a Lando movie. Vic appreciates the comic timing on the Chewbacca-is-190-years-old joke. Sonny is cautiously positive but flags Emilia Clarke as the weak link. The trailer prompts a brief discussion about Star Wars franchise saturation, and the guys nerd out over the kerning on the Star Wars logo font.
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00I'm a driver, and I'm a flyer. I waited a long time for a shot like this. What do you think? Well, what do you know?
Vic00:00:18Hello, and welcome to another micro-episode of The Substandard, brought to you by The Black Tux. The Black Tux makes stepping up your style for a wedding or special event easier than ever before, so you can make sure you look as great as your date. To get $20 off your purchase, visit TheBlackTux.com slash substandard. That's TheBlackTux.com slash substandard for $20 off your purchase. The Black Tux, premium rental suits and tuxedos delivered. I'm Victor Matus, along with Sonny Bunch and Jonathan V. Last. Just a quick reminder that full episodes of The Substandard are available every Thursday around 11 a.m. Gentlemen, what is going on? I need to ask the two of you. Did you see that new, amazing second trailer for Solo, a Star Wars story? What did you think, JVL? I kind of liked it. I'm sorry.
JVL00:01:13That's okay. This is a safe space. I know I'm supposed to say it was either it rocked or it sucked. You're supposed to say it sucked. He didn't seem callow as much. I got more of a young Christian Slater vibe off of him. I thought you were going to say Christian Hayden. Hayden Christensen.
Sonny00:01:28Hayden Christensen.
Vic00:01:29Hayden Christensen.
JVL00:01:30No. What I kind of wanted was to have him be a little more cynical and a little more smooth, and I thought I got that vibe coming off of it. I like Heist. I would love a Star Wars Heist movie. You mentioned this. We mentioned this before. And this one really—is that Donald Glover? Yeah. Yes. Donald Glover as Landon Cowher. Give me that. Give me that movie. That's the movie I want to have. We should have had a Lando movie, not a Solo movie. That would have been really interesting, and we will. Eventually, we're going to get an RD-88 movie. I mean, we're going to have him for everybody.
Vic00:02:07Here's what I think, because I was prepared not to like it, and there are aspects of it that I don't, and I have concerns, but I know what you're talking about, because Alden Ehrenreich, and I have concerns with him, the young actor who's playing young Solo, but there's a clip in the trailer where Chewie reveals in Wookiee, the language that he's 190, and then his response, he goes, you're 190? You look great. I thought that was delivered quite well.
JVL00:02:34I liked it. Sonny, what did you think? Okay, Sonny. I liked it. Yeah, you've written about this. I didn't love it. You've written about it.
Sonny00:02:39Oh, you wrote about the trailer? The second trailer. Go ahead, Sonny. Where did you write about this? Freebeacon.com. It's a website.
JVL00:02:46I'm sorry. I literally, you may have noticed, I've been Twitter silent for a week, and I have not read.
Sonny00:02:52Is there something going on at The Weekly Standard? Hard to say. It's hard to, that's taking up your time right now. I liked it. I thought it was fine. Look, here's, the thing about this trailer is that it is like all Star Wars trailers. It is good in that it gets me excited for the new Star Wars product. They, you know, it was very funny. I was looking at, I was looking at box office figures on movies that have grossed more than a billion dollars. And if you look at movies that have grossed more than a billion dollars, only three have not made more. They have more than half their money overseas. But if you expand this out a little bit and look a little closer, you'll see that Star Wars movies, in particular, gross very close to 50%, either just over or just under. And I'm totally fascinated by this because it means that these movies play much better at home than they do overseas. And I don't know why that is. We've talked about this a little bit before. But all I can think when I watch this trailer is, oh, Star Wars. More Star Wars. Oh, that's the theme from Empire, isn't it? Yeah, it's good. I want to see this movie. And that's all it comes down to. I saw the trailer. There are things I didn't like about it. Emilia Clarke is a nothing. And I like her on Game of Thrones where she just can kind of stand there and look regal and occasionally light someone on fire. But when she's actually asked to deliver serious, heavy dialogue or when she's... She's not a good actress. No, she's not. She's very pretty, but she is just a nothing of an actress. She's okay pretty. She's pretty. I think she's wonderful. By the standards of Hollywood. By the standards of Hollywood, she is not very pretty.
Vic00:04:29I like her unusual sort of looks or her luscious lips. I think that she's...
Sonny00:04:33Well, okay.
Vic00:04:33Can I say that?
Sonny00:04:34I think she's beautiful.
Vic00:04:36Do you need a cigarette? And I love her accent. I think she's got a great accent.
Sonny00:04:39But the point is, I watched this trailer and all the things that you mentioned are interesting, like the heist aspect and Donald Glover and there's some comedy. Woody Harrelson looks like he's having a good time. Oh, there's a sassy robot. Yes, a droid sidekick. I swear to God, it's just the soundtrack and the sound. There's laser blasters and I'm like, okay, it's Star Wars. I'm in. I'm in. Because I'm an American male between the age of 15 and 100. Question. Yes. JVL.
JVL00:05:09This is really a Vic question.
Vic00:05:13Oh, uh-oh.
JVL00:05:14Towards the end, they flash the logo. Mm-hmm. Mm-mm.
Vic00:05:19Mm-mm. Mm-mm.
JVL00:05:20That. Right. With Solo, a Star Wars story. Have they done something subtly different with the font on Solo? Oh. Because when I looked at that, my eyes popped out of my head and I thought, huh, the font looks a little thicker than we're used to in Star Wars. The vertical lines on the L, this is a editorial font question. It looks to me like a subtle updating of the iconic Star Wars font.
Vic00:05:49Well, I was going to say the first thing that came to mind, well, it's thicker and I think that- But it's also at a slant, right? Yeah. It's at an angle. I feel like the color is really, really bright, but it's not like it's serif or anything.
Sonny00:06:02Are you saying that they have changed the Star Wars part of the logo?
JVL00:06:06Or just the Solo part of the logo?
Sonny00:06:10Well, you know why it looks weird? You know why it looks weird is because it starts with an S just like Star Wars, but
Vic00:06:14it doesn't run into the T. It doesn't connect. So the S looks shorter. Which we haven't seen. Because even Empire Strikes Back, S-T, right? I'm trying to pull up the Empire Strikes Back. You can see.
JVL00:06:26You can get an ad in the way. You can get an ad in the way. It just felt different to me. Maybe it's because there you have no enclosed on either side, where here in Solo it's totally wrapped.
Sonny00:06:38This is literally a bit on the Red Letter Media nerd podcast parody podcast. They talk about the logo for The Last Jedi. Like, oh, it's red.
JVL00:06:55Previously red was Revenge of the Sith. Except that my nerdery here is not about Star Wars canon.
Vic00:07:03It's strictly about edit fonts.
JVL00:07:06This is more a magazine nerd question than a Star Wars nerd question. Do you think the kerning between the letters is different than it has previously been?
Sonny00:07:14I'm telling you, look at the Solo and compare it to the Star Wars right beneath it. The reason it looks funny is because the S doesn't run into the O, because it can't. I used to be in- That's what the issue is.
Vic00:07:26Yes. When I worked at The Weekly Standard, I remember being able to distinguish- I hope everyone is enjoying this.
JVL00:07:31This is a hot- This hashtag content. Yes.
Vic00:07:33We'll be reviewing the book Helvetica shortly. I remember being able to tell the difference between Aldine 401BT and 721. You like that? Aldine. Okay. So anyway- That is a very specific hot Weekly Standard reference. Oh, I shouldn't reveal the secrets of the fonts. Okay, but do we have concerns? Because, I mean, we talked about this. From now on, there's going to be a Star Wars movie like every year, right? And are we okay with this? Some years to a year. Yeah, and is it too much? It's obviously just-
JVL00:08:06I mean, for all we know, we are heading to a world where there will be nothing but Blumhouse $10 million horror movies and- That make a lot of money.
Sonny00:08:15Star Wars slash Marvel superhero movies. Yeah. Right, I mean, we will get- Save it for the main show. Save that for the main show.
Vic00:08:21Oh, is that a main show? Save it for tomorrow. We're going to talk about box office. We're going to talk about A Quiet Place.
Sonny00:08:25I've got all sorts of questions. When we reconvene tomorrow.
JVL00:08:27I didn't realize, I thought we were talking about the doggy show, the doggy fetish movie.
Sonny00:08:30We're talking about the doggy fetish movie in addition to- Oh, that's the main- Yeah. Okay. Make sure you come back for dog porn and also A Quiet Place. Okay.
Vic00:08:38So we're looking forward to this. It's going to be the biggest movie of the summer, or will that be Infinity Wars?
JVL00:08:44Infinity Wars will outgrow it. Really? Do you think- They're going to muscle Infinity Wars to the biggest opening ever.
Sonny00:08:50Do you think Infinity Wars will outgross Black Panther, which is now the third highest grossing film? Domestic? 600 million so far. Over 650 million, 660, something like that. And it's still top five.
JVL00:09:01Domestic or worldwide? Domestic. Worldwide, I think it will. Worldwide, it will. Domestic, I would be surprised. I mean, you can never, no matter how big a movie is, you can never look at a movie and say, I think that'll do 600 million. Because to do 600 million, something special and unexpected has to happen. Correct? Do you agree with this? You can look at 400 million. You can say, okay, that movie is built to go to 400. Yeah, yeah. But the jump to 550 and 600 even suggests that something catches in the culture that gives it such amazing legs. Because that's what it's about. It's not about the open. It's about the difference between a 50% decline rate and a 35% decline rate.
Sonny00:09:43You need like a 30% drop in that third and fourth weekend. Right, right.
Vic00:09:46And you can't predict those things. Okay, I've got two important questions before we run out of time here. One is, where does... How does Solo, a Star Wars story, take place chronologically? Is it before Rogue One, but after Revenge of the Sith?
Sonny00:10:04Yes. Okay, so somewhere between Rogue One and Revenge of the Sith.
JVL00:10:08Do we think we'll see any more tie-ins? Well, here's the big question I have is, where will it end? Will it end with him walking into the Creature Cantina? That's too much. I can't handle that. Or will they leave room for more Han Solo adventures?
Sonny00:10:25On his own. How great would it be if he walks into the cantina and they bring back CGI Mark Hamill, and he smiles and he says, I'm sure it's fine.
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