SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY: A Solid If Underwhelming Star Wars Entry

The expectations for Solo: A Star Wars Story were not especially high for many. It was a prequel focused on perhaps the best-loved character from the much lauded original trilogy. A prequel that it seems not many people were itching to see. There has been the much-documented on-set troubles too, not least the replacement of directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller with Ron Howard.

Solo also arrives less than six months after the release of the divisive The Last Jedi. We’ve been treated to a new Star Wars movie every December for the last three years, with each feeling like an event movie. Disney have tried to build Solo as a summer blockbuster, but the lack of gap between movies seems to have backfired, with the box-office takings so far not exactly groundbreaking.

With all of these issues plagued it, in particular the switching of directors and subsequent extensive reshoots, Solo should realistically be a mess of a film. The fact that it is not is a great surprise, and the cast and crew must be applauded for dragging Solo up to a ranking of good, if not quite great. This is no Phantom Menace howler by any means, even if it is a few steps down from the best the franchise has to offer. In terms of the new Disney movies, it sits closest to Rogue One, although it has a number of aspects which arguably lift it above its prequel brethren.

Solo focuses on a young Han (Alden Ehrenreich) as he is separated from his first love Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke) and gets mixed up with a band of smugglers and consequently a very dangerous crime boss named Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany).

A Quality Cast

Alden Ehrenreich had the near-impossible task of playing the young Solo. In the lead-up to the release, everything about him was criticised. He doesn’t look enough like Harrison Ford, he doesn’t sound like Harrison Ford, he doesn’t have the charm, he doesn’t have the hair! In a sense he was in a no-win position, with many fans of the franchise already making up their minds before the movie was even released. A Ford impersonation would not have satisfied but neither would a completely new take on the character.

For all the negativity though Ehrenreich is in fact very good as Han. This is a younger Han and a more inexperienced Han. Lawrence Kasdan and his son and fellow screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan, do a great job in writing a version of the character who has the charisma and the charm but not quite the execution.

The rest of the cast is very solid, perhaps not surprising given the talent attached. The characters are certainly an improvement on the paper-thin rebels we saw in Rogue One and they are each given solid arcs by the Kasdans. Solo may not break much new ground, but it does a good job in hitting the bases and creating enjoyable if not brilliant journeys for each of the characters to go on.

Donald Glover is overflowing with charisma as Lando Calrissian. He doesn’t get a huge amount of screen time but with it he manages to forge a realistic bond with his droid co-pilot L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge). There have even been calls for Lando to be given his own movie. He works extremely well as a bit player here dropping in and out of the action, and it’d be great to see him show up for an extended period in a potential sequel, but a standalone may be yet another unnecessary prequel.

As for L3-37, she is a pleasant surprise. The trailers hinted at yet another in a long line of sarcastic Star Wars droids, but thankfully L3 is more than that. Again she has limited screen time but she is used well and has both an interesting personal story revolving around a droid revolution and a great relationship with Lando.

Woody Harrelson is as strong as expected as Han’s smuggler mentor Tobias Beckett, although it doesn’t seem like he has to stretch too far from his usual shtick for the role. Both Thandie Newton as Beckett’s wife and partner in crime Val, and Jon Favreau’s four armed pilot Rio Durant are woefully underutilised after promising starts.

The two actors who deserve the most credit in this film are certainly Emilia Clarke and Paul Bettany. Clarke has been less than impressive in her movie outings so far in her career, with her only really solid role being as Daenerys in TV’s Game of Thrones. She has been horribly miscast in the past, so it’s great to see her here as Qi’ra showing just how good she can be. Paul Bettany has a much smaller role as Dryden Vos but makes an impact every time he is on screen. He replaced Michael Kenneth Williams at the eleventh hour when Williams was unable to attend reshoots, in what proved to be a wonderful piece of last minute casting.

A Frustrating Script

This immensely talented cast is let down most of all by a mixed-bag of a script. The Kasdans create some brilliant moments but also some painful ones. One of the major issues is the need to create an origin for everything related to the legendary Han Solo. Some are not so cringeworthy, and in fact it’s pleasant seeing Han’s first encounters with Chewbacca (a truly great Joonas Suotamo) and Lando. It’s when the film creates origins for Han’s gun and worse, Han’s actual name, which generates a groan.

The latter definitely equals if not one-ups the atrocious “Rogue One” moment of Gareth Edwards’ movie. As if by mandate Solo also focuses in on Han’s lucky dice (which confused so many viewers in The Last Jedi), but for absolutely no purpose at all. Think these were the dice Han won the Millennium Falcon with? Guess again. What makes these moments so off-putting are the close-ups director Ron Howard chooses to really emphasise what famous object is on the screen.

The most frustrating aspect of these moments is that the film handles fan service like this so much better elsewhere. The Kasdans prove throughout the rest of the movie that they can drop mentions of events and characters from the outer universe without making it feel unnatural or distracting from the story at hand.

As for the rest of the script, there’s less outwardly comedic moments here than in say The Last Jedi, with the humour being more akin to the original trilogy’s amusing situations rather than gags. The script overall feels rather safe for the most part but it’s by no means terrible. In fact after a shaky start the film finds a comfortable stride and actually improves right until the very end. There are two truly great moments in the third act which help lift the film above the mediocrity it seemed for so long destined for.

Disappointing Visuals

What is surprising is that the visuals very rarely impress here. Solo is the most expensive Star Wars movie ever made and features the most costumes the franchise has ever seen. However you could hardly tell. The locations are nowhere near as impressive or memorable as they ought to have been, and we never get a sense of great scale. Kessel in particular is poorly rendered on screen.

Speaking of Kessel, the action set pieces too are little to get excited for. The Kessel Run we have heard so much about for so many years is arguably the least spectacular in a bunch of pretty forgettable set pieces. Strangest of all is that the opening chase sequence seems so slow and sluggish, considering Howard directed the stunning Formula 1 movie Rush only a few years ago.

Howard of course does deserve credit for coming on-board so late in the day and creating a coherent and intermittently fun movie. For one reason or another, whether the scale or the hype or something else, it never manages to achieve the event feel of a usual Star Wars film, but it should still be seen as a sort of achievement.

Solo: A Star Wars Story: Frustrating but by no means dreadful

In conclusion, Solo can be described as pretty solid but not much more than that. The film is way too heavy handed in its fan service at times, and although the acting is great across the board the film is not at quite the same level overall.

The two entries into the new trilogy have felt epic and heavy but also joyous and uplifting. Solo tries to grasp at both ends of this spectrum, with doomed romances alongside soaring Falcon chase sequences, but it never really reaches either. Instead it sits somewhere in the middle. Not a terrible entry, and with enough fun moments to please, but certainly not vital viewing.

Did you enjoy Solo? Or did you find it to be one of the weaker entries in the Star Wars franchise? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

Solo: A Star Wars Story was released in the UK and US on May 25, 2018. For all international release dates, see here.