Solo: A Star Wars Story Review

Directed By: Ron Howard
Written By: Jonathan and Lawrence Kasdan
Runtime: 135 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13

Alden Ehrenreich – Han Solo
Woody Harrelson – Tobias Beckett
Emilia Clarke – Qi’ra
Donald Glover – Lando Calrissian
Paul Bettany – Dryden Vos
Joonas Suotamo – Chewbacca
Thandie Newton – Val
Jon Favreau – Rio Durant
Phoebe Waller-Bridge – L3-37
Lady Proxima – Linda Hunt
Ian Kenny – Rebolt
Warwick Davis – Weazel

Lucasfilm continues its new era of the Star Wars franchise with the latest standalone “anthology” movie, Solo: A Star Wars Story. The new installment comes shortly after the incredibly polarizing and divisive Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Solo rewinds events back further before Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The time period is the years in between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, and the movie explores a new aspect of the Star Wars Universe with the criminal underworld. With Emperor Palpatine’s Galactic Empire in control of the galaxy, crime syndicates have flourished and fight for resources, including on the industrial, ship-building world of Corellia. On the harsh and unforgiving streets of this world is the intrepid orphan, Han (Ehrenreich), who works in service to the lugubrious crime lord, Lady Proxima (Hunt). Despite his harsh situation, Han still dreams of something bigger and escaping his predicament.

After purloining an incredibly valuable resource, Han stages a daring escape from the Corellian slums to a space port. He’s barely able to get off-world through an Imperial checkpoint, but his only means of safety is through Imperial conscription. After becoming a grunt in service to the Empire, Han attempts to keep his dream alive in order to get a ship of own to return to Corellia for something he left behind.

Han’s days in the Imperial military ultimately bring him into contact with a smuggler, Tobias Beckett (Harrelson), and his ragtag crew, Val (Newton) and Rio Durant (Favreau). Through Beckett, Han believes he’s found his ticket to desert the Imperial Military and find financial means to secure his own ship. It will likely surprise no one that Han also forms an inexplicable friendship with a “big walking carpet,” who actually turns out to be Chewbacca the Wookie. Unfortunately, there are many roadblocks in the way, such as a deadly pirate, Enfys Nest, who leads a crew of marauders called the Cloud-Riders. Beckett also has to answer to a ruthless crime lord named Dryden Vos (Bettany). Also, Han and Beckett need the help of a pilot and his first mate to complete the heist: the cunning gambler Lando Calrissian (Glover) is the pilot; and his eccentric droid navigator L3-37 (Waller-Bridge). Of course, Lando’s ship is the Millennium Falcon. After the impeccable group of scoundrels is assembled, they hope to pull off one of the most dangerous heists yet and earn one of the biggest scores in the galaxy.

Ironically, Solo: A Star Wars Story is akin to Lucasfilm essentially making its own take on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. That’s ironic because Guardians of the Galaxy was Marvel Studios’ interpretation of the space opera of which Star Wars is often synonymous for pioneering onscreen. In that regard, Solo is entertaining and semi-successful.

Solo is an adequate and serviceable Star Wars installment. The movie suffers in its first half, but once the central plot takes flight, the film is able to find its footing after a slow start. While its incredibly shaky at the outset, Solo eventually becomes the ride that’s expected of a space-faring action-adventure.

The first half partially suffers due to an image that often looks unnaturally dark. It’s not clear if this was an intentional visual style choice or an auditorium issue. Watching the film at a 2D screening at the Arclight was strange. When Chewbacca came onscreen for the first time, he looked nearly obscured. It’s not that the film looked “dark” because it was reflecting a darker subject matter, but scenes that weren’t really meant to be dark appeared overly tinted, as if the scene was being viewed with sunglass lenses.

The issue lessens toward the middle and final acts, but it was a disconcerting way to view this type of feature. The cinematography gave off the impression that Solo was not properly filtered or color timed in the post-production process or was improperly done in the rush to meet its May 25 release date.

The other major issue in the first half is that characters are often promptly introduced and unceremoniously discarded. The characters seem interesting, and you want to get to know them more, but director Ron Howard and father-and-son writing team Lawrence and Jonathan Kasdan do not really allow it. However, once the film brings in the signature players, Solo becomes more digestible and entertaining.

Alden Ehrenreich is solid in the film. He’s a good actor and performer. Frankly, he’s not a great Han Solo, but he shouldn’t be condemned for that. He was in an unenviable position for this role. Had Ehrenreich spent two hours trying to imitate Harrison Ford and be more like Anthony Ingruber or River Phoenix in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, fans still would have complained. He does find a decent medium in Solo, but he never finds that one, clear, honest, true and brilliant moment of “Yeah, that’s Han Solo.” That might be a deal breaker for some moviegoers, but Ehrenheich does his best with what he’s given.

What can be said in favor of the main cast for Solo is that it lacks the awkward, stilted performances of the prequel trilogy. Ron Howard appears to be past his prime directing years, but he is able to garner some strong and honest performances out of his cast. The actors all look and sound genuine. Additionally, all of the actors generally have good chemistry with each other, especially Ehrenreich’s Han and Glover’s Lando. Han and Emilia Clarke as Qi’ra also share decent chemistry. Clarke is much stronger here than her awful take on Sarah Connor and poor attempt at imitating Linda Hamilton in Terminator: Genisys.

Many YouTubers will likely bemoan the character of L3-37 as pushing some sort of agenda, but she was easily one of the film’s most enjoyable characters. When are the best droids not quirky or a little weird in Star Wars? Her character arc is admittedly flawed, but the actual character of L3-37 is amusing and humorously charming.

Solo is not short on action and eye candy. There is quite a bit of fan-pandering by offering definitive cinematic takes of famous locations that have never been depicted before onscreen, such as Corellia and the spice mines of Kessel. These are famous locations that have been referenced in the lore going back to the 1970s. So, to see these famous locations or pieces of lore finally take shape onscreen is pretty special.

Basically, the fan-pandering in Solo is fine when it works. Without getting too specific, there are other instances where the fan pandering and references would’ve been better left offscreen. Instead, Solo comes off as Lucasfilm trying to make the film into a stepping stone for a larger, interconnected set of movies similar to the MCU rather than keeping Solo as a truly “standalone” anthology feature. That means that Lucasfilm borrows a few too many elements from Guardians of the Galaxy besides its basic plot and set of characters. Granted, how that exactly plays out remains to be seen. Solo would have been better served by delving into even greater depths for the criminal underworld of Star Wars lore rather than taking a smaller slice.

The action scenes are all fairly well-staged, except for one really jarring and awkward edit on Kessel. The trademark sequence featuring the Millennium Falcon, which has already been glimpsed in the trailers, is the real standout sequence of the film. Unfortunately, the third act is anti-climactic. The Millennium Falcon run was a little too strong for its own good, as nothing the film does after that works quite as well.

Solo: A Star Wars Story is not a cinematic masterpiece. Some fans might consider it a tragedy. But with a new film out every year, not every outing at bat will produce a home run. As a space adventure, Solo: A Star Wars Story was enjoyable enough to get the job done for two plus hours of solid entertainment.

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

Solo: A Star Wars Story is far from a cinematic masterpiece, but as the prequels have already proven, that won't always be the case with new franchise installments. The film features a rough and unnaturally dark-tinted and murky first act. However, as the story progresses, Solo becomes a much more satisfying and enjoyable space adventure than it has any right to be. Undoubtedly, Lucasfilm definitely needs to get things in order because there are definitely some rough dents that need to be smoothed out and grime that needs to be cleaned up. That could've made a more polished film.