I'm liking Solo more on the second watch, now that I'm not focused on comparing them to the older version of the characters and just paying attention to other aspects. I can see enough continuity between the young Solo and the older Solo now for the whole thing to work for me. And all the references to obscure corners of the universe don't stick out so much to me.
L3 still annoys me, though. I mean I liked the concept and the look of the character, but it didn't work for me that she was entirely played for laughs. It kind of come off like an attempt to make an activist version of 3PO, which I just found incredibly irritating. I haven't gotten to the part yet where the Falcon gets damaged, but that's probably my other issue with the movie, that they couldn't just have it get damaged up a bit and trust that the audience would get that eventually end up looking like it's in Episode IV. It's a little too cute that it goes from being shiny and new to being as damaged as we first saw it in one movie.
So, the rankings would go like this for me:
- TLJ
- Rogue One
- Solo
- The Force Awakens
Sorry, I'll take Canto Bight over Death Star III any day. TLJ's low points are better than TFA's low points for me. My general opinion of the movie is that they tried way too hard to prove they were nothing like the prequels. They blow up the New Republic just as we learn that it even exists, because people complained about "space politics" and "trade routes" ad nausem, which were far from the chief problems with those movies, but hey, it was on a Plinkett video, so it must be true.