* Including some nods to serious deep cuts from obscure, half-forgotten sources, like L3-37's core getting uploaded to half-fulfill the 3 arguing droid brains thing, which I did NOT expect to see validated and canonized...
** Who saw the Chewbacca meeting looking like that?
*** Okay, so here's my take on Maul: Anybody watching Clone Wars and Rebels knew he was alive. Furthermore, we know that there are limits to Maul's defeat in eventual sequels to Solo -- so I think he'll continue to remain a shadowy puppet-master rather than the on-screen villain. Qi-ra will more likely take that place, or perhaps a more senior Crimson Dawn underboss. Somebody that can actually die without breaking later stories.

I rather loved the double-fake with the Sabaac games. The build-up of the first made you expect the payoff there, but they wisely held it back to keep Lando involved and pay out for the anticipation later with the wonderfully played disarmament of Lando's ace in the hole. And it was a great call-back to "You lost her to me fair and square", both reinforcing the line and shading the meaning to include the new fact that it wasn't Lando's intent to be playing fair... a minor ret-con that underscores both characters by playing on Lando's underhanded self-serving roguishness and Han's clever street-smarts.

One thing that I felt strained the boundaries of good, respectful play between author and audience was the hinting that the Raiders were yet another seed of the early Rebellion, crossing paths with our friend Han. It's the kind of thing they toss in and bat their eyes innocently at me with, but I'm just not buying the innocent act. It's as shameless and unnecessary as the Revenge of the Sith revelation that Chewbacca was friends with Yoda. It wants to be hand-waved away as a sort of poetic license, where the heroic coincidences happen because all the stories where they don't happen just aren't about the heroes, so they don't get highlighted to be told, that the interconnectedness of all these threads is what MAKES them the heroes. But it's unearned, in my eyes; the sort of thing that would work if that was the original premise their heroicness were based upon, rather than tacked on in ret-conning prequels.

The beginning of the scene with Lady whosit has some good Ford-as-Solo dialogue delivery. I could imagine Harrison Ford delivering the lines in character in similar cadences and intonations. Then Alden blows it halfway through, and it's back to the strange character the movie insists is Han Solo.

Likewise, "There's a beast?" is smoothly done, and a couple of the responses to Chewie's untranslated lines.

I rather loved the double-fake with the Sabaac games. The build-up of the first made you expect the payoff there, but they wisely held it back to keep Lando involved and pay out for the anticipation later with the wonderfully played disarmament of Lando's ace in the hole. And it was a great call-back to "You lost her to me fair and square", both reinforcing the line and shading the meaning to include the new fact that it wasn't Lando's intent to be playing fair... a minor ret-con that underscores both characters by playing on Lando's underhanded self-serving roguishness and Han's clever street-smarts.

It also gives a new tone to Lando's leading the fighter attack on Death Start II. He wasn't self-serving there, and he didn't try to get the ship back. Instead, he was willing to risk it all in the ship with no reward above what anyone else would get. It adds a new tone of maturing and perspective to the story.

We also enjoyed Solo, a.k.a. Star Wars: The Easter Eggs. Donald Glover stole the movie. It wasn't deep, but it was worth the price of admission. I loved the gambling scenes. And yeah, some old canon was definitely there.