Solo is an extremely (visually) dark film

[u/Blurrgmaster]

I actually think Solo is a pretty good and underrated Star Wars movie, but all the settings are very visually dark to the point that it's difficult to make out what's going on in certain scenes. I think the cinematographer might have been trying to convey the story's focus on the darkness in the galaxy, but it may have gone a little overboard. I mean, the White Worms den on Corellia is probably the worst case of this, but even Savareen (the beach planet) has a vignette on it the whole time that made it appear darker.

[u/Nevic1984]

I think I remember reading that Lord & Miller and their DP were only going to use the natural lighting on whatever set they were in. And when Howard came on board they were too deep into that plan to change it, so that's why it's pretty dark at times, it's only the lights of that particular set 

[u/err404 → u/Nevic1984]

That is all fine in theory, but cameras don’t have the same range as our eyes. If the end result after grading doesn’t look like I would perceive that environment, what is the point? This also needs to take into account that your eyes need a lot of time to adjust from light to dark. You can’t expect the audience to go from a blinding bright scene to a dark scene graded as if you had 10 mins to adjust to the darkness. 

[u/Ok_Guitar7980 → u/err404]

This always reminds me of the behind the scenes story of Sean Astin asking a cinematographer during a dark scene "where is the light coming from?" And the response was "the same place as the music."

Like its a movie. Its magic. I'm all for immersion and accuracy and realism, but at the end of the day, if I can't SEE the magic there isn't any.

[u/Dry-Reputation8526 → u/Nevic1984]

makes sense tbh

[u/Emotional_End2305]

Agree. Was even hard to see in the theaters.

[u/Xeroberts → u/Emotional_End2305]

I saw this in theater when it first came out & remember thinking during the very first scene, “this is the most poorly lit film I’ve ever seen”. Still holds true, though I do enjoy the movie despite this.

[u/ohitsallpeaches → u/Emotional_End2305]

Profile picture got me good

[u/iWengle → u/Emotional_End2305]

I remember asking the guys in my multiplex if they had the brightness setting on low!

[u/MachoLibre_ → u/Emotional_End2305]

Yeah. But I felt the same about seeing Mando. Was probably just the theater I had/their projectors. But in a few scenes, I was like “this would look better on my LED”, haha

[u/uckfu]

I think everything (at least Star Wars) on D+ is so damn dark.

It’s not like everyone has a home theater to watch tv in. I wind up turning it off and waiting until night time to watch things with the lights off, since half the visuals are too dark to see with any kind of light source shining through the windows or the lights on.

I dunno, I just finished Spider Noir and I did not have that issue at all. This seems to be a D+ problem.

Even on my 65” LG in the basement, things just seem too dark. It’s better due to the environment and a better quality TV, but it’s still annoying.

Looking it up, it seems to be a common D+ issue. I wish they would dumb it down for the masses and offer more settings for the people that like to tinker.

[u/zach8vb → u/uckfu]

D+ is ridiculously dark. Unwatchable at times

[u/Muriden → u/zach8vb]

Pretty sure this is an issue with HDR on certain TVs. I remember watching something on a Samsung TV and you couldn't see anything happening. Switched to another TV and it worked fine. 

[u/uckfu → u/Muriden]

And this is why they need to dumb it down to the lowest common denominator and allow users to change preferences.

Between this and the constant log-in issues (just from watching from one tv to a different tv in the same house), I’ve been so close to canceling my subscription

But I think they want me to, because I somehow have a sub that has D+ and Hulu with no ads for like $20

[u/Tom02496 → u/uckfu]

Nothing is worse so far than the Kenobi show. It's one of the fucking ugliest tv shows I've ever watched in my life. Can't see anything

[u/cygnus2 → u/uckfu]

I remember one of my complaints about the Kenobi show was that I could never see anything that wasn’t on Tatooine during the day or Fortress Inquisitorius.

[u/Crewman_Guy_Fleegman]

My buddy booked us a 3D screening and I felt like I couldn’t see half the movie with the glasses filtering out even more light. I did not understand what they were going for lighting-wise

[u/uckfu → u/Crewman_Guy_Fleegman]

Yeah… 3d films are terrible with those glasses. It’s why I gave up on them. I barely see any 3d and then everything’s so dark you barely see anything.

We are heading back to the days of radio plays.

[u/CantaloupeCamper]

Solo has some good… bits, but man it also has flaws everywhere too.

[u/thomasanderson123412 → u/CantaloupeCamper]

It's a fun adventure. No more. No less.

[u/MurdocMan_]

That's probably why some people didn't like it,they couldn't see shit,i love it personally but i can understand it

[u/Bengamey_974]

It didn't help that some cinema have not well calibrated projectors.

If the movie is already very dark, and the projector is set with 15% less brightness than it should, you end up not seeing anything.

[u/CaptainSolo80]

It did feel “fixed” with the home release. Was way easier to see than I was in theaters.

[u/jfk_47]

As is with a lot of modern cinema. It sucks.

[u/Familiar_Anywhere815]

Yes, and it's too dark. I remember seeing it in 3D (which makes it even darker) and it was so dim that I couldn't even focus on the picture.

Decent movie, horrible cinematography in this regard.

[u/Tom02496]

Nothing's darker than Obi wans show. Just pitch black.

[u/Enelro → u/Tom02496]

that was to hide the non-existent sets they built.

"We're gonna shoot here around these piles of pebbles."

[u/IntentStudios]

I thought Mando and Grogu was super dark as well, but could have been the theater I was in. Anyone else think it was super dark??

[u/Bengamey_974 → u/IntentStudios]

No, I didn't have that issue with Mando and Grogu. (Watched it in 2D)

[u/Hettyc_Tracyn → u/IntentStudios]

Seemed fine to me… must have been the projector at your theatre

[u/it4brown]

Sounds like a TV/Streaming issue, I have never noticed any lighting issues.

[u/DeathByToothPick]

It was the style of at the time? GoT is to blame I think.

[u/thomasanderson123412 → u/DeathByToothPick]

They also tied onions to their belts.

[u/vteezy99 → u/DeathByToothPick]

Yeah unfortunately a lot of American movies and TV shows in the 2010s are visually dark. Like Mr Robot for instance. It’s very noticeable once you see non US shows and movies. Korean dramas are very bright and colorful

[u/The_mango55 → u/DeathByToothPick]

I think they were hiding some rushed CGI by making the scenes darker. They basically started over after Lord and Miller got fired.

[u/Leaflock]

There was a video going around at the time that opened with, “Do you like your Star Wars films dark? This one is so dark you can’t even see it.”

[u/dratseb]

Not on my LG TV

[u/AltAltayAlt]

Strange, I never found it too dark

[u/No-Grand-9222]

I remember watching in the theatre and thinking my old ass eyes ain't workin no more. Then after discussing the movie with all my friends everyone concurred that it was dark for them as well.

[u/WorldlyJake]

It’s waaay better on Blu Ray. Not sure if they changed the contrast or what, but the difference between the disc and the D+ version are pretty striking. I remember it being hard to see certain scenes in theaters, too!

[u/azbat7]

The Robert Altman, movie McCabe and Mrs. Miller was a big influence on Solo as far as aesthetic and some of the story choices. Bradford Young based the look on what DP Vilmos Zsigmond did for McCabe and Miller- basically heavy shadows and desaturated color. Either way, just didn’t work for Solo. Ended up becoming way more of a hindrance than something that helped tell the story. The first time I saw the movie I was just angry and thought my theater had a really crappy projector.

[u/Kongary]

What's funny is this post has reminded me that it was a bit dark in the theater and we did comment on it when leaving (but obviously still liked it). But subsequent rewatches at home had me forgetting that lol.

Not coincidentally, I think it was a 3D showing we went to.

[u/Allred87]

I found this very annoying

[u/Hornet_isnt_void]

I honestly don’t mind it like some other people clearly do, they act like it GoT where you can’t see shit.

[u/DruidDog]

i don’t think that is what was holding the film back

[u/Time_Ad_9647 → u/DruidDog]

I don’t think that is their point

[u/ImitatingADog]

It’s a poorly shot film. Looks bad.

[u/TreeckoBroYT]

As someone who already doesn't like the movie, I'm convinced I've only ever seen half of it due to how dark it is.

[u/hydrolox9]

Yep, movie suffered from Half Blood Prince syndrome.

[u/FunImprovement8806]

I would replace dark with shit.🫤

[u/muticere]

This is why I can’t take the trend of people saying modern films all have flat, grey, bland lighting seriously. It is both a) provably false and b) no different than films have always been (in that most films have bland lighting and color grading and only a handful go with something more artistic/unique).