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Solo: A Star Wars Story (Blu-ray Edition) Review
Alden Ehrenreich is Han Solo and Joonas Suotamo is Chewbacca in SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY.
Loading...The Star Wars saga continues with the latest installment of the franchise, Solo: A Star Wars Story. Lucasfilm explores the origin of one of cinema’s favorite scoundrels and pirates, Han Solo. However, this was also one of the most controversial major film releases in recent memory.
The Movie: As stated in my earlier review, Solo: A Star Wars Story is a movie that has plenty of flaws, but it’s far from a terrible movie. Is it a somewhat average movie? Yes, but even this is hardly an anomaly. Whether history has allowed fans to view the prequels through rose colored glasses or not, the Star Wars film prequels were polarizing films and highly derided by fans. Those films had their good points, but they were also highly flawed and problematic.
SOLO is not nearly as problematic as the worst the prequels had to offer, and it’s hardly the worst Star Wars film in history. The film’s biggest problem is problem, besides all the production issues, is probably that Alden Ehrenreich is an underwhelming presence as the world’s most lovable space pirate and smuggler.
To Ehrenreich’s credit, he was in an unenviable position here. Harrison Ford is one of the most iconic actors on the planet, and Han Solo is one of the most iconic characters. Most of fans’ love and connection to that character is due to Harrison Ford’s performance. So, accepting a new actor in the role in a live-action cinematic setting was pretty close to a lose-lose scenario.
The fact is that Ehrenreich is far from bad as Solo. He’s not nearly as bad or off-putting as Hayden Christensen’s awkward performance as Anakin Skywalker. However, he never really takes off and soars with the character quite like Harrison Ford did. He does an adequate job, but he never just runs away with Han Solo and steals the show.
The other major issue is that despite some decent visuals, the movie is badly lit. It looks dark, muddy and bland. It doesn’t look like what one would expect from a Star Wars movie, but there’s more on that later.
Solo: A Star Wars Story suffers from a very shaky and janky first half. The character introduces Beckett’s crew, who seem like they might be interesting, but then the narrative discards them very quickly. Additionally, Paul Bettany’s Dryden Vos is not all that compelling of a villain.
However, once the film reaches the Kessel heist and Kessel Run, it definitely picks up steam and feels more like iconic Star Wars. It’s intriguing to think about how the movie would’ve looked had Phil Lord and Chris Miller been allowed to finish the film and display their collective vision on screen. Would it really have looked that much worse? That aside, once the film gets moving in the second act, it becomes a much better paced and enjoyable of a viewing experience.
The film definitely picks up in its second half with the introduction of Donald Glover as a young Lando Calrissian, the Millennium Falcon and another controversial character in L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge). Much was made about L3-37 being pro-droids rights and bemoaned it as some sort of forced political message. If you look at Star Wars, the best droid characters are always quirky. What’s far more problematic is how L3-37 is used to shoehorn and explain a throwaway line from The Empire Strikes Back that didn’t really need explanation.
Much will be made and discussed about this movie and its failed run at the box office. It’s not a great Star Wars movie. It’s a decent and enjoyable one that doesn’t achieve greatness. But that was hardly an anomaly well before the sequel trilogy and Disney era of Star Wars started, no matter how much history is revised and rewritten.
Blu-Ray Info: The Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy multi-screen edition release for Solo: A Star Wars Story is a two-disc version: One disc is for the Blu-ray version of the feature film; and the other is completely dedicated to Blu-ray special features. It’s packaged in a standard Blu-ray clamshell case with translucent blue plastic. There’s a slip cover for the Blu-ray case. Besides two Blu-ray discs, there’s also an insert with a download code for the digital HD version of the film.
Video Info: The standard Blu-ray version for Solo: A Star Wars Story is presented in 1080p High Definition Widescreen with a 2.39:1 aspect ratio. This is probably where the movie suffers the most. Initially after seeing the film in theaters, it was startling just how ugly it looked. The lighting looked off, bland, muted and murky. It didn’t need to be a highly color-saturated film, but the movie’s lighting and color timing looks awkward and jarring. Unfortunately, the Blu-ray experience doesn’t strongly help with the film’s visual issues. Simply put, Solo: A Star Wars Story looks unnaturally dark. The special effects look to be rendered well, of what’s visible. This might be more chalked up to the cinematography. It’s not really a CG effects issue, but this is quite possibly one of the worst shot Star Wars films to date. It simply doesn’t look like a Star Wars film. It looks dark, muddy, and it’s not entirely clear what’s happening at times. When Chewbacca first appears onscreen, he’s barely even visible. Had the film not been rushed to its May 2018 release, this could’ve been an issue that was fixed in post-production.
Audio Info: The original English language track is presented in 7.1 DTS-HDMA. There are also optional Spanish and French 5.1 Dolby Digital language tracks with optional subtitles in English, Spanish, and French. There’s also a 2.0 descriptive audio track for the visually impaired. The film’s soundtrack and Blu-ray transfer is of a much higher quality than its visual presentation. The score and sound effects all come across well and in crisp, pristine fashion for the Blu-ray version.
Special Features: There’s a nice helping of extra features here that will likely be of interest to hardcore fans and those who did enjoy Solo: A Star Wars Story. Unfortunately, there is no audio commentary track like The Last Jedi release or the double-dip version of The Force Awakens. That can probably be chalked up to the film’s tumultuous production and the loss of the original directors. Director Ron Howard came into production midway through.
Unfortunately in this film’s case, the story surrounding the production is almost as compelling as the final product, if not more so, and none of it is documented on the special features. As a result, a lot of the extras come off as a bit fluffy and overly glossy because they are going out of their way to ignore the elephant in the room. Based on the extra features here, the production and shoot for Solo: A Star Wars Story was completely stress and drama free, when the truth has been well publicized otherwise. Regardless, there is a good, but not great, amount of extras here. Debates and arguments on The Last Jedi aside, the Blu-ray extras did seem to have material that at least showed that Mark Hamill had some difficulties accepting the new arc for Luke Skywalker.
What this Blu-ray extras disc really could’ve used was a “Play All” feature for the behind-the-scenes featurette to have them run as run singular feature instead of just a bunch of separate, little ones.
Deleted Scenes: In total, there’s about 15 minutes worth of deleted material for Solo: A Star Wars Story. Some is good and very interesting, and some of the footage makes it obvious why it was cut. There’s an extension to the Corellian chase with Han and Qi’Ra where they hide in a tank with eel-like creatures and have a little romantic moment, while Moloch and the other minions of Proxima are searching for them outside. It’s a cute scene, but it slows down what’s supposed to be a fast-paced and high-octane chase. Another example of this is a greatly extended version of the fight between Chewbacca and Han on Mimban. There’s a lot more to the fight, and it’s really too long. Just for example, at one point, Chewbacca gets tired and bored of trying to fake the fight and walks over and sits down in the mud; tired of the whole thing. As a result, Han has to get him riled up to get him back into it. So, it was definitely a moment that was wise to cut.
The more interesting cut scenes show Han’s time in the Imperial Academy and getting demoted to infantry grunt work on Mimban. The film also shows a whole deleted battle scene on Mimban that didn’t make it into the final cut. Basically, there’s a whole battle sequence that was cut right after Han joins up with Beckett and his crew on the battlefield. It shows Beckett’s competence in battle and as a field strategist, as well as his teammates. It gives the film a bit more action, and there’s a better sense of who the Imperial forces are facing on the planet. Otherwise, the soldiers and dissidents fighting the Imperials are not visible at all. Maybe there was some concern about showing the “good guys” fighting against a resistance force and being victorious, but it’s too bad this scene was cut. It’s a good battle scene, and it’s a much stronger way to establish Beckett and his crew rather than the abrupt way it happens in the movie.
The biggest offense to the deleted scenes is that the filmed Tag and Bink scene is nowhere to be found. This scene was written and filmed, but it’s not on the Blu-ray release. It’s quite unfortunate as this is the one deleted scene I really wanted to see come into the light as Tag and Bink are fan-favorite characters, and Lucasfilm unnecessarily got our hopes up by teasing their presence in the film before cutting them out of it.
Besides the Imperial Academy and Mimban scenes, nothing really sticks out as really unnecessary for being left on the cutting room floor of Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Solo: The Director & Cast Roundtable: This feature runs almost 22 minutes. Ron Howard moderates a discussion with cast members Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover, Joonas Suotamo, Emilia Clarke, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Thandie Newton, Woody Harrelson and Paul Bettany. The actors talk about getting cast in their roles and the excitement of working on a Star Wars picture. It’s a nice, little feature, but there’s nothing incredibly juicy, revealing or earth-shattering. Once again, it also avoids addressing the elephant in the room.
Becoming a Droid: L3-37: This is a five-minute behind-the-scenes featurette on the production elements that created L3-37, which was a combination of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s physical performance, practical and CG visual effects.
Remaking the Millennium Falcon: This five-minute featurette focuses on the significance of the legendary, iconic ship the Millennium Falcon and how it was reimagined for the film. This is the Falcon at a different point in the story, when it was still under the ownership of Lando Calrissian, who had recently refurbished it and basically outfitted it like a sports car.
Team Chewie: This is a six-minute featurette on Chewbacca in the film and Joonas Suotamo capturing the physical and emotional aspects of the character.
Kasdan on Kasdan: This nearly eight-minute featurette covers father-and-son writers Lawrence and Jon Kasdan on working together to script the film, what Star Wars and the Han Solo character mean to them, and how Star Wars has always been a big part of Jon Kasdan’s life.
Escape from Corellia: This is a 10-minute featurette on Solo’s home planet of Corellia and the creation of the chase through the city in the first act. There’s a good amount of information on how the film integrated live, practical effects and driving, CG animation and the various elements to get the final product.
The Train Heist: This is a 14-and-a-half minute breakdown of the train heist action sequence. It’s a nice overall view of the production that created this scene for the film. There’s also a good look at some live onset shooting for an actor who portrayed Rio Durant onset in a costume before the CG artists simply went over the live Rio stand-in with some CG animation.
Scoundrels, Droids, Creatures and Cards: Welcome to Fort Ypso This is an eight-minute featurette looking at the the Fort Ypso scene, the Sabacc scene and constructing the alien creatures and denizens the tavern.
Into the Maelstrom: The Kessel Run: This is an expanded behind-the-scenes look at the making of the Kessel Run sequence. The video runs about eight-and-a-half minutes.
